gamecocknfire Posted July 18, 2008 Share Posted July 18, 2008 Spurrier seeking a few good playmakersWritten by PATRICK OBLEYSo, now that Tommy Beecher is the man and Steve Spurrier will be calling the plays, who will step up as their go-to guys?Kenny McKinley, Dion Lecorn and the two-headed tight end monster of Weslye Saunders and Jared Cook are the obvious answers.However, Spurrier would like to see someone from the group of Joe Hills, Matt Clements, Jason Barnes and Moe Brown establish themselves as a receiving threat. Those are players we need to come around, he said. Moe s the fastest. Hopefully he can catch a deep one early and get his confidence up. Mike Davis is a clear choice as the starter at tailback, Spurrier said. Brian Maddux is making strides, but Eric Baker has some work to do.As for Bobby Wallace: He s still here, Spurrier said.One development during the offseason is the growth (literally) of Patrick DiMarco, who has gained 15 pounds in anticipation of locking down a spot in the running back/fullback rotation.One name missing from the list of potential playmakers: Larry Freeman. Once touted as a potential star at receiver, Freeman could find himself on the other side of the ball in August. He might play a little defense, said Spurrier, who added the position in question is that of outside linebacker. Meanwhile, Melvin Ingram could move from linebacker to fullback.CAPTAIN S CHOICESpurrier and his staff were tied in knots this past season trying to figure out why Captain Munnerlyn seemed to cramp up late in games. Unable to put a finger on it, they decided to ship him to Chicago this summer for a full workup.The verdict: Grease. Embarrassing to say, we as coaches have not taught him how to eat properly, Spurrier said. They checked him out and said, You need to stop eating fried food all the time. Hopefully Captain will eat the way we ask him to eat. LEADER OF THE PACKSo far, quarterback Aramis Hillary appears to be taking on the leadership roles among the incoming freshmen. Aramis ... he loves everything about football, everything about the University of South Carolina, Spurrier said. He s the kind of guy you wish you had 50 of them. Hillary, who starred at Strom Thurmond and is related to former USC player Ira Hillary, is on Spurrier s long-term agenda. I d prefer him to redshirt. I plan to be here five years from now and I think Aramis can really be an outstanding player, I really do, he said. He can make all the throws and dodge some guys, so we re looking forward to seeing him. He s got a wonderful attitude. I know fans are tired of all these players having all these issues. You don t have to worry about Aramis. DUSTY S TRAILSpurrier raved about the progress made by Dustin Lindsey, the one time starter who had fallen on hard times since his strong 2005 performance. Dusty hasn t been a Model A student-athlete since he has been here, but according to Raymond Harrison, our academic advisor, Dusty has done an excellent job getting himself eligible and ready to graduate, Spurrier said. He has worked hard to get his knee back into good health, so Dusty Lindsey, shoot, he could be one of our starting linebackers inside. JUNIOR DAYSpurrier will play host to about four dozen juniors today as a part of the school s annual Junior Day. We are going to show them our campus and so forth and bring back a few NFL guys from South Carolina, Spurrier said. We re looking forward (to) showing a whole lot of top recruits the University of South Carolina and our facilities. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
judas yeast Posted July 18, 2008 Share Posted July 18, 2008 Good stuff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdu00743 Posted July 18, 2008 Share Posted July 18, 2008 What is the general consensus from SC fans about what yalls record will be this year? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SacFalcFan Posted July 18, 2008 Share Posted July 18, 2008 jdu00743 (7/18/2008)What is the general consensus from SC fans about what yalls record will be this year?depends on where you go.. i have been to their rivals and scout boards and it's either 11-1 or undefeated. A few said 8-4, but a very small few. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdu00743 Posted July 18, 2008 Share Posted July 18, 2008 SacFalcFan (7/18/2008)jdu00743 (7/18/2008)What is the general consensus from SC fans about what yalls record will be this year?depends on where you go.. i have been to their rivals and scout boards and it's either 11-1 or undefeated. A few said 8-4, but a very small few.You've got to be joking?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SacFalcFan Posted July 18, 2008 Share Posted July 18, 2008 jdu00743 (7/18/2008)SacFalcFan (7/18/2008)jdu00743 (7/18/2008)What is the general consensus from SC fans about what yalls record will be this year?depends on where you go.. i have been to their rivals and scout boards and it's either 11-1 or undefeated. A few said 8-4, but a very small few.You've got to be joking??No I am not joking at all. They did you know the usual with posting their schedule and wins and losses and the only losses were toss up games (i believe florida was the toss up game on the 11-1 predictions). We had one on the national rivals board where they were arguing with clemson fans that sc could go undefeated and obviously clemson fans were not falling in line with that. You had a few reasonable ones who said 8-4 to 7-5. When they had a thread asking everyone what they thought most picked sc at 6-6 to 7-5. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
judas yeast Posted July 18, 2008 Share Posted July 18, 2008 I'm guessing 8-4... we'll seejd - did you see that vegas has USC as 4 pt favorites over UT right now? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdu00743 Posted July 18, 2008 Share Posted July 18, 2008 judas yeast (7/18/2008)I'm guessing 8-4... we'll seejd - did you see that vegas has USC as 4 pt favorites over UT right now? There is already a line out on that game? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gamecocknfire Posted July 19, 2008 Author Share Posted July 19, 2008 I havent yet decided on what the outcome of our season will be. If we get to 8-4 like some predicted that would be great. As much as I want to think this is the year we will breakout, i know its still another year or so away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xnex Posted July 19, 2008 Share Posted July 19, 2008 Spurrier has to make sure the recruiting can reach and maintain a high level each year. Right now USC is kind of in the position of getting the offense set to go and the defense has no spine. This year the defense looks to be very, very strong (on paper, of course) but we have very limited experience at qb. RB could be a trouble spot if things fall the wrong way as well.On top of the need to maintain a high quality recruiting standard; or possibly amplifying that need is the fact that whenever we seem to be headed in the right direction a couple of our top players will leave for the pros and we cannot back fill the slots. For a borderline contender we've had some decent players leave early that left us in a bad spot. Ko Simpson, and Jonathan Joeseph, Sydney Rice for example. If a couple of those guys would have hung around for another year the Gamecocks might have been pretty good in all seriousness. We could go 3-9 or 12-0 for all I know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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