2000 replies ITT

9/6/2009 5:28:42 PM

9/6/2009 5:34:38 PM

simonn since you asked me originally i'll answer.

I didn't say we'd go and wipe the floor with Florida and Alabama if we played them. The prevailing attitude though has been that we can't compete against SEC speed and that's what i was trying to call out. There were times we moved the ball. In the 4th qtr it appeard we were better conditioned than SC as our OLine was actually moving people off the ball. R-A-S-H-A-R-D S-M-I-T-H looked every bit the part of SEC speed on that punt return. Mark Thomas had a great writeup on WRAL about how most of the OL problems were just totally blown assignments. This is also not to imply that the SEC has grandma speed, but the media harping on it was nonsense.

[Edited on September 6, 2009 at 5:36 PM. Reason : a]

9/6/2009 5:35:42 PM

Quote :

"first and foremost, usc spotted us 6 points, so you must include that in any fantasy reconstructions that you're going to make."

toney baker spotted them 7

9/6/2009 5:57:38 PM

^^ yeah, we had some guys that were fast enough, but as a whole their defense was a lot faster than our offense, and that is reflected in us only scoring 3 points.

^ okay fine, if everything they did wrong stayed wrong, and everything that could've been good for us went our way, we would've rolled them. that means nothing, though.

9/6/2009 7:33:09 PM

Quote :

"Also to running a guy who hasn't played for two years on our first play of the game."

Yeah, but if he picked up 8 yards no one would have even come close to making that observation... but he didn't so observe away I guess.

[Edited on September 6, 2009 at 8:50 PM. Reason : \/ edit]

9/6/2009 8:48:11 PM

everyone no one

9/6/2009 8:49:22 PM

I didn't read this whole thread but I just wanted to say a few things. We really fucked up by not winning that game the other night. I get it. However, I wish people would stop acting like got blown the fuck out by a horrible team. SC may not be the cream of the SEC crop, but they're a legit team with a damn good defense. I swear to god if Jay Smith makes that catch and we go on to win, you're not hearing shit about "SEC SPEED" or any of that garbage.


Whats encouraging is that we were in the game despite some bad receiver play, 2 freshman offensive linemen (one of them with 3 fucking penalties), a 7 point gift on our first play from scrimmage, and a facemask that saved a TD for SC. I will say though that our D was not as good as people are saying. We let them run on us at will, although we only gave up what should have been 13 points, which should have been good enough for us to win. I also think willie young got held on every play, and there were holding no-calls that resulted directly in big gains for SC. I think we can improve on that.

I'm banking on the O-line getting their shit together these next 2 weeks in time for pittsburgh so we're at least not blowing assignments all night, and I'm banking on Russell getting his legs under him. I think we'll be ready to go by Pittsburgh and I'll be happy to start the ACC season 3-1 as long as we look solid these next 3 weeks.


On another note, Rashard Smith is a fucking monster. He looked much bigger, faster, and more powerful than I expected, and I thought he did great catching the punts. Our last 2 returners in Blackman and Graham have scared the shit out of me standing back for punts but Smith looked confident and he cought 2 tough punts. I just hope his neck isn't broken.

9/6/2009 8:50:08 PM

I agree with all of that post.

9/6/2009 9:16:47 PM

^

9/6/2009 9:16:48 PM

^^

9/6/2009 10:16:50 PM

Don't forget Rashard Smith, a TRUE freshman, recorded a SACK in his first collegiate game. I think we can all agree that this kid will be a special player in the future. This is a 2 star recruit according to rivals and scout. I feel good knowing that TOB can recruit.

9/7/2009 12:20:38 AM

Quote :

" ^ okay fine, if everything they did wrong stayed wrong, and everything that could've been good for us went our way, we would've rolled them. that means nothing, though."

thats not what i was saying at all. The final score was SoCar 7 NCSU 3. We didnt get absolutely shit on like some are implying and we weren't screwed out of a win by the refs or our WRs or whatever the fuck excuses others are using. We lost by 4 in an ugly as shit game. This was probably due to happen at some point in the year, since more than half the schedule is against mediocre teams around our talent level

9/7/2009 4:29:30 AM

^^Smith was the Georgia 2-A defensive player of the year his junior and senior year. He actually recorded 10 INTs in both years. He's one heck of an athlete -- I'm thinking he was an all-state PG too? I'm not sure why he wasn't rated higher (victim of a small school maybe?) but he's going to be a great one.

[Edited on September 7, 2009 at 10:05 AM. Reason : ]

9/7/2009 10:03:01 AM

My understanding is a 2* rated player for the most part means that they've committed to a D-1 school but they haven't been looked at by the rating sites.

9/7/2009 10:24:46 AM

Although Rivals and Scout only rated Rashard a ** prospect, everyone in Georgia knew he was better than that. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution rated him as an A+ prospect in their Top 150 recruits in the state of Georgia. Only 11 other players received a grade of A+.

http://projects.ajc.com/playertracker/list/georgia-150/

9/7/2009 10:29:39 AM

seems so weird that he is obviously a stand-out player in the state, yet gets so little respect nationally. Seems like the national rating services would catch on to the high state ratings and give him a little more respect. I mean, this is an ALL-STATE performer we're talking about here. Oh well. It just comes to show me that TOB knows what he's doing and that the national recruiting services aren't as credible as some people make them out to be. The recruits that TOB pulls in clearly don't get the national exposure that they deserve.

9/7/2009 1:44:28 PM

james washington averaged like 10ypc in a florida 6A high school league and the scout guys said they were "happy" with having him as a low end 3*

there are just too many guys playing high school football to get them all right, especially since there's no aau to judge them all playing against each other. as long as obrien can find 4-5* talent in the 2-3*s he pulls in I can't complain

9/7/2009 2:26:30 PM

anybody wanna buy into the theory that the lack of andre brown is the reason for our struggls?

9/7/2009 3:21:15 PM

that's not even close to the problem.

9/7/2009 3:55:36 PM

Yeah I don't think it has anything to do with it at all

All I can guess is someone was like "hey you know what? what if we had Brown and he hadn't fumbled like Baker! We would've won!"

which is dumb

9/7/2009 4:38:01 PM

man i cant wait for the next game so we quit talking about this one

9/7/2009 4:51:35 PM

well he was a bruising back that we relied on. we were running on 1st and 2nd down all game and not getting much at all. I think part of our sucess last year was from teams keying on the running game opening things up for wilson.

9/7/2009 7:34:21 PM

Andre did have a hell of a game against them last year. Our line sucked a lot of cock though on thursday.

9/7/2009 9:58:00 PM

Quote :

"man i cant wait for the next game so we quit talking about this one"

.

9/7/2009 10:12:50 PM

Quote :

" Another team that should be very concerned is North Carolina State. The ACC Atlantic contender was supposed to be powered by quarterback Russell Wilson, but the sophomore signal caller who flourished as a freshman looked strangely passive against a South Carolina defense that, for all its excellence, was truly loaded last season. All it took for N.C. State to win was a collection of three field goals, and the Wolfpack couldn't manage that much in a home game against an opposing offense that hardly dominated in its own right. Tom O'Brien's team lacked good field position in the first half of Thursday's throwdown, but not in the second half. Putting up three points at the beginning of a high-expectation campaign is a distressing sign in Raleigh. "

9/8/2009 1:24:16 AM

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"man i cant wait for the next year"

9/8/2009 1:25:39 AM

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"a South Carolina defense that, for all its excellence, was truly loaded last season."

???

9/8/2009 2:10:56 AM

Quote :

"anybody wanna buy into the theory that the lack of andre brown is the reason for our struggls?"

Andre could not have prevented those 6 sacks or made the receivers catch the 5 balls they dropped.

9/8/2009 3:45:07 AM

^^^ Jaybee where did that quote come from?

9/8/2009 6:41:41 AM

I just need one piece of information from the masses ->

So is Russell Wilson really that slow this year (the fact that he took so many sacks)

or-

Was USCocks's pass rush that fast.

from my seating, it looked like USC's linemen had a full sprint going on before Wilson even began turning the wheels to try to get away.

[Edited on September 8, 2009 at 10:06 AM. Reason : .]

9/8/2009 10:03:59 AM

Yeah, South Carolina had some speed off the edge – especially Norwood, their All-SEC LB. It seemed like his lone mission was to come after Wilson. Thanks to a lot of blown blocking assignments, USC’s defense usually had a full head of steam by the time they got near Wilson. RW was basically a sitting duck trying to look downfield for a pass. While Wilson can run, he can’t accelerate away from a full-charging LB … or even athletic DE.

That said, a lot of people seem to think Wilson is a burner (at least they did before this game). He’s not. Go back and watch him last year, and you'll see that he's more of a glider than a speed-demon. Coming out of high-school, his 40 time was 4.69. That's good speed for a QB, but certainly not elite speed (he does have a 4.28 shuttle time, which translates to great acceleration).

So while he’s got a good takeoff and great agility in the pocket, he’s not Woody Dantzler (a great athlete but decent QB). He’s more like Joe Hamilton – a great QB with some decent athleticism.

[Edited on September 8, 2009 at 10:42 AM. Reason : ]

9/8/2009 10:40:20 AM

He may not be a burner, but he did look noticably slower in this game than last year.

9/8/2009 10:46:29 AM

you guys are just seeing what you want to see

9/8/2009 11:11:57 AM

Quote :

"tower Veteran 155 Posts user info edit post Quote : "a South Carolina defense that, for all its excellence, was truly loaded last season." ???"

I think they meant that they were loaded LAST season and aren't so much anymore but still played lights out

Quote :

"^^^ Jaybee where did that quote come from?"

cant remember, someone's review of the first week, I think Sporting News or CFN

9/8/2009 11:28:10 AM

no, i got that. it's just that I have a hard time taking an article seriously when they fail to proofread to the extent that they have sentences that make no sense. see: people who hate wph

9/8/2009 2:26:38 PM

Quote :

"you guys are just seeing what you want to see"

9/8/2009 4:12:21 PM

If we play the same against Pittsburgh I'll be concerned. Until then, people need to get real. I understand why people think the sky is falling but we're not and never were fucking national title contenders and we have 3 games to fix our shit before it counts.

9/8/2009 9:48:32 PM

9/10/2009 7:35:22 PM

gotta admit. haven't seen a huge drop lately out of these guys.

10/6/2009 7:51:31 PM