Five Lessons Learned From The USC-UGA Game
posted by Scott Hood, Monday, September 10, 2007
1. First Impressions Don’t Mean Anything
One week ago, talk among USC fans was dominated by one topic – how awful the Gamecock defense looked against Louisiana-Lafayette. Today, most people are singing the praises of the same unit.
Except for a couple of lineup changes, the personnel was essentially the same. What happened? Easy. The defense went all-out in terms of schemes and aggressive play against Georgia.
Rest assured, that didn’t happen last week in the win over the Ragin’ Cajuns. The defense used a few basic vanilla schemes in that game and rarely, if ever, blitzed. They sat back and let ULL come to them. They simply didn’t want to show Georgia anything. As a result, they may have caught the Bulldogs by surprise.
In other words, the USC defense was radically different from the first to the second week. But that was by design.
Conversely, we learned Georgia can be pushed around. The Bulldog offense was razor-sharp against Oklahoma State in a season opening performance that drew raves nationally. But against a defense that applied pressure all night long, Matthew Stafford was ordinary at best.
But the UGA defense, although it gave up just 16 points, weakened in a key fourth-quarter situation. Right after a field goal had cut USC’s lead to 16-12, the Gamecock offense ran the ball right at the UGA defense for three consecutive plays of 11 yards or more. It was the killing blow. By the time UGA got the ball back, it had 80 yards to go and just 1:20 to do it.
2. Tyrone Nix Pays Attention When Steve Spurrier Speaks
When Spurrier called his team a “bunch of average stiffs” following the win over Louisiana-Lafayette, the mainstream media went berserk. Those comments were primarily directed at the USC defense, which allowed 252 yards rushing to Louisiana-Lafayette and looked disorganized and sloppy trying to stop the option.
If Nix was listening, and I’m that he was, he received the message loud and clear. He also took them to heart.
Obviously, Nix had his troops ready for the Bulldogs. Unleashed, they went after Stafford and, except for one 49-yard run, disabled the Georgia running game. Thomas Brown, who set his career high of 144 yards against USC two years ago, had just 49 yards on 12 rushing attempts.
Considering the circumstances, and the fact they were able to keep Georgia out of the end zone, it may have been the best performance by the USC defense in years.
3. Mark Smith Could Be USC’s MVP
Player after player I’ve interviewed over the last year or so has raved about strength and conditioning coach Mark Smith and the way he good about his business.
Saturday, we saw the benefits of a vigorous summer conditioning program.
In the latter stages of the game, it looked like USC was in better physical shape than the Bulldogs. The first three plays on USC’s final true possession when they bulldozed through Georgia proved that.
In the past, it always seemed to be USC that was the team being bullied in the fourth quarter. Well, the shoe was on the other foot Saturday night. I have to admit it was very impressive.
Steve Spurrier understands having Mark Smith on his staff is like having a pot of gold. That’s why Smith was awarded a game ball after Saturday’s huge win.
4. USC’s Secondary Should Be Pretty Good
Largely untested against ULL, the secondary came through with a Herculean effort against the Bulldogs, allowing Matthew Stafford to complete less than 50 percent of his passes. Yes, there was plenty of pressure and Georgia’s receivers dropped a few balls, but overall the USC secondary played physical and didn’t allow the Georgia receivers to break open very often.
Darian Stewart surprised me a bit with his solid showing. Leading the team in tackles in your first career start is impressive. But I shouldn’t have been, considering secondary coach Ron Cooper has been talking up Stewart, a native of Huntsville, Ala., since last season.
The best part is that most of the players in the secondary will be back next year, except for seniors Brandon Isaac and Chris Hampton. So, we’ll get at least one more season to enjoy the exploits of Captain Munnerlyn, Carlos Thomas, Stewart, Emanuel Cook and Stoney Woodson.
Add young players like Addison Williams, Jamire Williams and Chris Hail into the mix and next season’s secondary should have even more depth.
5. Steve Spurrier Could Sell Ice To An Eskimo
Most of us were fooled. I spoke with Tony Barnhart, the respected college football writer from Atlanta, before and after Saturday’s game. He told me that, in his opinion, Spurrier was “sandbagging.” He watched the tape of the ULL contest and reached about the same conclusion I did, that USC kept a lot of stuff in the closest for the Bulldogs.
It turned out Barnhart was right.
Spurrier certainly convinced a lot of people the Gamecocks weren’t any good after the ULL game. Maybe it was his “average stiffs” comment. Actually, it could have been his entire post-game press conference, which some people interpreted as the coming of the Apocalypse.
But Spurrier's true feelings emerged after the win over UGA. He said he thought the two teams were fairly equal entering the game.
Whatever it was, Spurrier’s objective of ambushing the Bulldogs worked. I’m sure by the time Saturday's game got underway, many of the people around the UGA program were convinced USC wasn’t any good.
The joke, as they say, was on them.
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There are lessons always to be learned from every football game a college team plays. South Carolina is no different, and it doesn’t matter whether the vanquished opponent is a Sun Belt Conference team like Louisiana-Lafayette or a bitter SEC Rival like Georgia. Here are the five lessons we learned from USC’s 16-12 victory Saturday night over the Bulldogs:
1. First Impressions Don’t Mean Anything
One week ago, talk among USC fans was dominated by one topic – how awful the Gamecock defense looked against Louisiana-Lafayette. Today, most people are singing the praises of the same unit.
Except for a couple of lineup changes, the personnel was essentially the same. What happened? Easy. The defense went all-out in terms of schemes and aggressive play against Georgia.
Rest assured, that didn’t happen last week in the win over the Ragin’ Cajuns. The defense used a few basic vanilla schemes in that game and rarely, if ever, blitzed. They sat back and let ULL come to them. They simply didn’t want to show Georgia anything. As a result, they may have caught the Bulldogs by surprise.
In other words, the USC defense was radically different from the first to the second week. But that was by design.
Conversely, we learned Georgia can be pushed around. The Bulldog offense was razor-sharp against Oklahoma State in a season opening performance that drew raves nationally. But against a defense that applied pressure all night long, Matthew Stafford was ordinary at best.
But the UGA defense, although it gave up just 16 points, weakened in a key fourth-quarter situation. Right after a field goal had cut USC’s lead to 16-12, the Gamecock offense ran the ball right at the UGA defense for three consecutive plays of 11 yards or more. It was the killing blow. By the time UGA got the ball back, it had 80 yards to go and just 1:20 to do it.
2. Tyrone Nix Pays Attention When Steve Spurrier Speaks
When Spurrier called his team a “bunch of average stiffs” following the win over Louisiana-Lafayette, the mainstream media went berserk. Those comments were primarily directed at the USC defense, which allowed 252 yards rushing to Louisiana-Lafayette and looked disorganized and sloppy trying to stop the option.
If Nix was listening, and I’m that he was, he received the message loud and clear. He also took them to heart.
Obviously, Nix had his troops ready for the Bulldogs. Unleashed, they went after Stafford and, except for one 49-yard run, disabled the Georgia running game. Thomas Brown, who set his career high of 144 yards against USC two years ago, had just 49 yards on 12 rushing attempts.
Considering the circumstances, and the fact they were able to keep Georgia out of the end zone, it may have been the best performance by the USC defense in years.
3. Mark Smith Could Be USC’s MVP
Player after player I’ve interviewed over the last year or so has raved about strength and conditioning coach Mark Smith and the way he good about his business.
Saturday, we saw the benefits of a vigorous summer conditioning program.
In the latter stages of the game, it looked like USC was in better physical shape than the Bulldogs. The first three plays on USC’s final true possession when they bulldozed through Georgia proved that.
In the past, it always seemed to be USC that was the team being bullied in the fourth quarter. Well, the shoe was on the other foot Saturday night. I have to admit it was very impressive.
Steve Spurrier understands having Mark Smith on his staff is like having a pot of gold. That’s why Smith was awarded a game ball after Saturday’s huge win.
4. USC’s Secondary Should Be Pretty Good
Largely untested against ULL, the secondary came through with a Herculean effort against the Bulldogs, allowing Matthew Stafford to complete less than 50 percent of his passes. Yes, there was plenty of pressure and Georgia’s receivers dropped a few balls, but overall the USC secondary played physical and didn’t allow the Georgia receivers to break open very often.
Darian Stewart surprised me a bit with his solid showing. Leading the team in tackles in your first career start is impressive. But I shouldn’t have been, considering secondary coach Ron Cooper has been talking up Stewart, a native of Huntsville, Ala., since last season.
The best part is that most of the players in the secondary will be back next year, except for seniors Brandon Isaac and Chris Hampton. So, we’ll get at least one more season to enjoy the exploits of Captain Munnerlyn, Carlos Thomas, Stewart, Emanuel Cook and Stoney Woodson.
Add young players like Addison Williams, Jamire Williams and Chris Hail into the mix and next season’s secondary should have even more depth.
5. Steve Spurrier Could Sell Ice To An Eskimo
Most of us were fooled. I spoke with Tony Barnhart, the respected college football writer from Atlanta, before and after Saturday’s game. He told me that, in his opinion, Spurrier was “sandbagging.” He watched the tape of the ULL contest and reached about the same conclusion I did, that USC kept a lot of stuff in the closest for the Bulldogs.
It turned out Barnhart was right.
Spurrier certainly convinced a lot of people the Gamecocks weren’t any good after the ULL game. Maybe it was his “average stiffs” comment. Actually, it could have been his entire post-game press conference, which some people interpreted as the coming of the Apocalypse.
But Spurrier's true feelings emerged after the win over UGA. He said he thought the two teams were fairly equal entering the game.
Whatever it was, Spurrier’s objective of ambushing the Bulldogs worked. I’m sure by the time Saturday's game got underway, many of the people around the UGA program were convinced USC wasn’t any good.
The joke, as they say, was on them.
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Scott Hood. Since February of 2005, Scott has covered the South Carolina football, men's basketball and baseball programs for GamecockCentral. He may be reached by email at scottblog(at)gamecockcentral.com. Replace (at) with @.