Live Blog From Williams-Brice Stadium
posted by Scott Hood, Saturday, September 01, 2007
10:06 P.M. - Brian Maddox is in the game.
9:59 P.M. - Pat DiMarco is on the punt coverage team for this punt. His first time in the game.
9:50 P.M. - Jason Barnes just came in for one play.
9:32 P.M. - The new 'song' between the 3rd and 4th quarters is 2001. The crowd seems to love it.
9:21 P.M. - Marvin Sapp is playing tonight, but only on kickoff coverage.
9:10 P.M. - The tight ends have five receptions -- Boyd 3, Saunders 1, Cook 1. Yvan Banag is out with a sprained knee. Eric Norwood is having a nice night.
8:51 P.M. - True freshmen that played in the first half: Melvin Ingram, Matt Clements (special teams only), Chris Culliver, Travian Robertson (started), Cliff Matthews, Weslye Saunders, Ladi Ajiboye, Clifton Geathers. Also of note: Joe Hills dressed out and went through pregame drills. The freshmen that didn't dress out: Quintin Richardson, Kyle Nunn, Byron McKnight, Donte'e Nicholls.
8:50 P.M. - The turning point in the game may have come late in the first half when the USC defense finally stopped ULL after surrendering a apir of long scoring drives and the offense took the ball and drove 65 yards for a TD. Until that point, the ULL offense was controlling the tempo of the game. Toomy Beecher led the scoring drove. Overall, he may be slightly better than Smelely so far in this game. It's 21-14 USC at halftime.
8:10 P.M. - USC is still have problems stopping the ULL run. The Cajuns have driven all the eay to the USC 6 seeking to knot the score. The USC defense is struggling right now. ULL has 165 yds rushing right now.
FIRST HALF STATS:
PASSING: Smelley, 9-13, 91 yards; Beecher 5-6, 80 yards; Desormeaux, 3-7, 21 yards.
RUSHING: C. Boyd, 8-27; M. Davis, 2-19; Fenroy, 9-72, Desormeaux, 13-68.
RECEIVING: McKinley, 4-33, C. Boyd, 3-23, A. Boyd, 2-35, M. Davis, 2-24.
TOTAL YARDS: USC, 258 yards; ULL, 189 yards (168 rushing). USC has 17 first downs in 1H.
7:55 P.M. - End of the 1Q. The USC offense looked good early, scoring on its first two possessions. But the ULL offense cam back with a long drive, making the USC defense look silly at times during the drive. The ULL QB is very quick. He's got great feet and does a good job dodging tacklers. It's 14-7. Smelley was 4-for-7 for 61 yards in 1Q. C. Boyd had 24 yards rushing. USC had 162 yards of total offense. ULL had 98 yards.
6:55 P.M. - The "Game On Video" has been shown to the crowd and '2001' has been played. USC wins the toss and will take the football. The buzz inside the stadium has started. Munnerlyn back to receive the kickoff.
6:25 P.M. - The entire USC team is on the field right now going through the stretching exercises. With James Thompson suspended, the first-team OL is LT Meredith, LG Jeanpierre, C Brown, RG Anderson, RT Sorensen. The first-team WR's are McKinley, M. Brown and F. Brown. The first-team DL is Norwood, Hall, Pepper and Robertson. The LB's are the Brinkley twins and Paulk. With Cook out, there are no surprises in the secondary with Munnerlyn and Thomas as the CB's and Woodson and Isaac as the safeties. The second team LB's are Shackleford, Wells, and Sinclair. Marvin Sapp is running with the third team LB's with John Guerry and Alonzo Winfield. It appears he's still struggling with his ankle injury. The team is now going through its positional groups.
6:10 P.M - USC's special teams have just finished their warmups. The QB's are on the field throwing the ball around. There are no players from Lafayette on the field yet. Wait, here they come. I see Captain Munnerlyn practicing punt returns. The wide receivers and tight ends have just taken the field. The DB's are out there too. The QB's are now practicing their steps. The crowd continues to fil in. I see a logjam at the entrance to cross George Rogers Boulevard directly across from the Floyd Building.
5:55 P.M. - We've previewed the video that USC will show the fans tonight at 6:45 p.m. The video kickoffs a marketing campaign centered around the slogan "The Game is ON." Essentially, USC has taken the comments of Lee Corso in 2005 that Spurrier would never win the SEC or national championship while he was the head coach at USC and used it as way to fire up the fans. Eric Hyman said the video is the first part of a marketing campaign leading up to the the public portion of the capital campaign.
"We're trying to build a winning program and you've got to build the foundation," Hyman said. "We want to battle for championships and build a nationally prominent program. We think this initative, going forward, will be the catalyst. Steve Spurrier has totally embraced this."
In the video, Spurrier makes reference to the comments by Corso and, as he has often said, contends USC and its fans is capable of proving him wrong. The video showed clips from the 2005 victories over Tennessee and Florida, and the 2006 win at Clemson. "Let's show my pal Lee Corso that we can win the SEC Chmpionship," Spurrier said in the video.
Added Hyman: "We're in the process of refuring Corso's comments. This is just the first chaper. We know the desired outcome. I can't tell you the exact road we're going to take."
A local marketing firm in Columbia helped produce the video. A web site, www.LetsShowCorso.com, has been created for fans to visit where they can throw a football at Corso's head.
5:25 P.M - The Louisiana-Lafayette Players are on the field going through the preliminary warmups. I see a few USC players but not many. The Ragin' Cajuns are wearing red pants. So, there will be lots of garnet and red tonight. USC ie wearing its new Under Armour garnet jerseys tonight. By the way, large USC logos have been placed in each corner of the stadium at the top level of each ramp. The gates have been opened. Some fans are filing in. There are not many students in the student section yet.
4:40 P.M. - It's still fairly quiet inside the stadium about 2 hours, 20 minutes to kickoff. The State Fairgrounds parking lot is starting to fill up It's about 75 percent full now. It looks like some people from Louisiana-Lafayette have arrived. The USC cheerleaders have just finished rehearsing the halftime show. I have not seen any Gamecock players yet. At 5 p.m., we'll be heading to a press conference previewing the "Game ON" marketing campaign. As you may know, they will be playing a video at 6:45 p.m. to the crowd where Spurrier is exected to pitch the new "We are Carolina" cheer. That slogan will be the centerpiece of a new marketing campaign by USC. There are t-shirts already on sale with the "We are Carolina" slogan splashed across the front.
4:20 P.M. - The shocking 34-32 upset of Michigan by Div. I-AA Appalachian State this afternoon at The Big House is further evidence of three things: 1) pre-season polls are way overrated, and border on being bogus; 2) the Big 10 is overrated, as usual; and 3) every BCS team that faces a lower-echelon team in the opening weekend of the season must be on upset alert. You only play 12 games. Every opponent must be taken seriously, no matter what conference they play. Driving to the game today, I heard some of the national media already making excuses for the Wolverines. Such as, they were looking ahead to Oregon next week. Hogwash. That's just an excuse. Remember, USC beat Lafayette by only a touchdown (14-7) four years ago. Granted, Steve Spurrier wasn't the head coach of the Gamecocks then, so I fully expect USC to score a lot more points tonight. There are probably a few USC fans fretting right now about the Gamecocks looking ahead to next week's showdown at Georgia. But, in my opinion, there's no reason to be concerned. I'm sure Spurrier will have the troops ready.
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We're live at Williams-Stadium Stadium for tonight's USC v. Louisiana-Lafayette game.
10:06 P.M. - Brian Maddox is in the game.
9:59 P.M. - Pat DiMarco is on the punt coverage team for this punt. His first time in the game.
9:50 P.M. - Jason Barnes just came in for one play.
9:32 P.M. - The new 'song' between the 3rd and 4th quarters is 2001. The crowd seems to love it.
9:21 P.M. - Marvin Sapp is playing tonight, but only on kickoff coverage.
9:10 P.M. - The tight ends have five receptions -- Boyd 3, Saunders 1, Cook 1. Yvan Banag is out with a sprained knee. Eric Norwood is having a nice night.
8:51 P.M. - True freshmen that played in the first half: Melvin Ingram, Matt Clements (special teams only), Chris Culliver, Travian Robertson (started), Cliff Matthews, Weslye Saunders, Ladi Ajiboye, Clifton Geathers. Also of note: Joe Hills dressed out and went through pregame drills. The freshmen that didn't dress out: Quintin Richardson, Kyle Nunn, Byron McKnight, Donte'e Nicholls.
8:50 P.M. - The turning point in the game may have come late in the first half when the USC defense finally stopped ULL after surrendering a apir of long scoring drives and the offense took the ball and drove 65 yards for a TD. Until that point, the ULL offense was controlling the tempo of the game. Toomy Beecher led the scoring drove. Overall, he may be slightly better than Smelely so far in this game. It's 21-14 USC at halftime.
8:10 P.M. - USC is still have problems stopping the ULL run. The Cajuns have driven all the eay to the USC 6 seeking to knot the score. The USC defense is struggling right now. ULL has 165 yds rushing right now.
FIRST HALF STATS:
PASSING: Smelley, 9-13, 91 yards; Beecher 5-6, 80 yards; Desormeaux, 3-7, 21 yards.
RUSHING: C. Boyd, 8-27; M. Davis, 2-19; Fenroy, 9-72, Desormeaux, 13-68.
RECEIVING: McKinley, 4-33, C. Boyd, 3-23, A. Boyd, 2-35, M. Davis, 2-24.
TOTAL YARDS: USC, 258 yards; ULL, 189 yards (168 rushing). USC has 17 first downs in 1H.
7:55 P.M. - End of the 1Q. The USC offense looked good early, scoring on its first two possessions. But the ULL offense cam back with a long drive, making the USC defense look silly at times during the drive. The ULL QB is very quick. He's got great feet and does a good job dodging tacklers. It's 14-7. Smelley was 4-for-7 for 61 yards in 1Q. C. Boyd had 24 yards rushing. USC had 162 yards of total offense. ULL had 98 yards.
6:55 P.M. - The "Game On Video" has been shown to the crowd and '2001' has been played. USC wins the toss and will take the football. The buzz inside the stadium has started. Munnerlyn back to receive the kickoff.
6:25 P.M. - The entire USC team is on the field right now going through the stretching exercises. With James Thompson suspended, the first-team OL is LT Meredith, LG Jeanpierre, C Brown, RG Anderson, RT Sorensen. The first-team WR's are McKinley, M. Brown and F. Brown. The first-team DL is Norwood, Hall, Pepper and Robertson. The LB's are the Brinkley twins and Paulk. With Cook out, there are no surprises in the secondary with Munnerlyn and Thomas as the CB's and Woodson and Isaac as the safeties. The second team LB's are Shackleford, Wells, and Sinclair. Marvin Sapp is running with the third team LB's with John Guerry and Alonzo Winfield. It appears he's still struggling with his ankle injury. The team is now going through its positional groups.
6:10 P.M - USC's special teams have just finished their warmups. The QB's are on the field throwing the ball around. There are no players from Lafayette on the field yet. Wait, here they come. I see Captain Munnerlyn practicing punt returns. The wide receivers and tight ends have just taken the field. The DB's are out there too. The QB's are now practicing their steps. The crowd continues to fil in. I see a logjam at the entrance to cross George Rogers Boulevard directly across from the Floyd Building.
5:55 P.M. - We've previewed the video that USC will show the fans tonight at 6:45 p.m. The video kickoffs a marketing campaign centered around the slogan "The Game is ON." Essentially, USC has taken the comments of Lee Corso in 2005 that Spurrier would never win the SEC or national championship while he was the head coach at USC and used it as way to fire up the fans. Eric Hyman said the video is the first part of a marketing campaign leading up to the the public portion of the capital campaign.
"We're trying to build a winning program and you've got to build the foundation," Hyman said. "We want to battle for championships and build a nationally prominent program. We think this initative, going forward, will be the catalyst. Steve Spurrier has totally embraced this."
In the video, Spurrier makes reference to the comments by Corso and, as he has often said, contends USC and its fans is capable of proving him wrong. The video showed clips from the 2005 victories over Tennessee and Florida, and the 2006 win at Clemson. "Let's show my pal Lee Corso that we can win the SEC Chmpionship," Spurrier said in the video.
Added Hyman: "We're in the process of refuring Corso's comments. This is just the first chaper. We know the desired outcome. I can't tell you the exact road we're going to take."
A local marketing firm in Columbia helped produce the video. A web site, www.LetsShowCorso.com, has been created for fans to visit where they can throw a football at Corso's head.
5:25 P.M - The Louisiana-Lafayette Players are on the field going through the preliminary warmups. I see a few USC players but not many. The Ragin' Cajuns are wearing red pants. So, there will be lots of garnet and red tonight. USC ie wearing its new Under Armour garnet jerseys tonight. By the way, large USC logos have been placed in each corner of the stadium at the top level of each ramp. The gates have been opened. Some fans are filing in. There are not many students in the student section yet.
4:40 P.M. - It's still fairly quiet inside the stadium about 2 hours, 20 minutes to kickoff. The State Fairgrounds parking lot is starting to fill up It's about 75 percent full now. It looks like some people from Louisiana-Lafayette have arrived. The USC cheerleaders have just finished rehearsing the halftime show. I have not seen any Gamecock players yet. At 5 p.m., we'll be heading to a press conference previewing the "Game ON" marketing campaign. As you may know, they will be playing a video at 6:45 p.m. to the crowd where Spurrier is exected to pitch the new "We are Carolina" cheer. That slogan will be the centerpiece of a new marketing campaign by USC. There are t-shirts already on sale with the "We are Carolina" slogan splashed across the front.
4:20 P.M. - The shocking 34-32 upset of Michigan by Div. I-AA Appalachian State this afternoon at The Big House is further evidence of three things: 1) pre-season polls are way overrated, and border on being bogus; 2) the Big 10 is overrated, as usual; and 3) every BCS team that faces a lower-echelon team in the opening weekend of the season must be on upset alert. You only play 12 games. Every opponent must be taken seriously, no matter what conference they play. Driving to the game today, I heard some of the national media already making excuses for the Wolverines. Such as, they were looking ahead to Oregon next week. Hogwash. That's just an excuse. Remember, USC beat Lafayette by only a touchdown (14-7) four years ago. Granted, Steve Spurrier wasn't the head coach of the Gamecocks then, so I fully expect USC to score a lot more points tonight. There are probably a few USC fans fretting right now about the Gamecocks looking ahead to next week's showdown at Georgia. But, in my opinion, there's no reason to be concerned. I'm sure Spurrier will have the troops ready.
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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 @.