Five Things We Learned From USC-Florida
posted by Scott Hood on Sunday, November 11, 2007
1. THE USC DEFENSE MISSES JASPER BRINKLEY, PART II: When Arkansas ran for 542 yards on Nov. 4, I convinced myself it was an aberration. But I was wrong. After watching Florida rip apart the USC defense for 537 yards, it’s evident the Gamecock defense sorely misses Jasper Brinkley. He brought to the table the one ingredient the current middle linebacker corp is missing right now, - size. Marvin Sapp and Melvin Ingram play with great effort but they can’t match Brinkley’s physical prowess. Brinkley weighs 262 pounds. Sapp weighs 228. In fact, the three starters at LB in Saturday night’s game weighed 228 pounds (Sapp), 220 (Rodney Paulk) and 239 (Cliff Matthews). That’s simply not big enough to compete on a weekly basis in the SEC. Ingram (255 pounds) is closer to Brinkley’s size but lacks his experience. Ingram will be a great player someday, but he’s not right now. As a true freshman, he’s still learning the ropes. When Brinkley returns next year, possibly in the spring, you’ll notice a huge difference.
2. TIM TEBOW IS A PRETTY GOOD QUARTERBACK: You’ll notice I didn’t say running quarterback. That’s because Tebow is more of a complete quarterback than most fans and the media are willing to believe. Steve Spurrier called him the “quarterback of the future” a few days before the game. But he sure looked like a pretty good quarterback of the present, too. Tebow accounted for seven touchdowns against the Gamecocks with five rushing TD’s and two throwing the ball. Overall, he finished with 120 yards rushing and completed 22 of 32 passes for 304 yards. Add it up and he was responsible for 424 yards. Tebow has now accounted for a school record 42 touchdowns this season, and he still has three games left to play, including the bowl game. Tebow may not win the Heisman this year but you can bet he’ll enter the 2008 season as the overwhelming favorite.
3. THE TALENT GAP STILL EXISTS: Over the years, a talent gap between South Carolina and the so-called “Big Three” of the SEC East has been evident. While the gap is slowly shrinking, it was on display again Saturday night in full view of 81,000 fans. The difference in speed and depth between the two teams was startling, to say the least. Right now, USC is too slow defensively to consistently stop a team like Florida, which features a plethora of skill position players who can run like the wind. No Percy Harvin? No sweat. We’ll just throw the ball the Andre Caldwell. We’ll let quarterback Tim Twbow punish defenders by running the ball. We’ll give the ball to Brandon James and Kestahn Moore and let them run outside and outrace USC defenders to the corner all night. Urban Meyer proclaimed two years ago that his main goal for Florida was to build the ‘fastest team in America.’ It appears he’s well on his way to accomplishing that. Amazingly, Harvin, Florida’s fastest player, didn’t even play due to a severe sinus infection. Imagine what would happen to the USC offense if WR Kenny McKinley missed a big game. It could be catastrophic. The Gators just plug another guy in and they don’t miss a beat. If you pinned me down, I would say that's the biggest difference between USC and the top teams in the SEC.
4. MOE BROWN IS ALIVE AND WELL: Between Kenny McKinley enjoying one of the best seasons ever by a USC wide receiver and the somewhat unexpected emergence of freshman Dion Lecorn as the second receiver, I’m sure some USC fans had forgotten all about the sophomore from Anderson, S.C. Anderson came into Saturday’s game with seven catches on the season. But he matched his career high with four receptions for 34 yards against the Gators. All four catches came in the second half when he replaced the injured Freddie Brown in the rotation. Two came on consecutive plays during a TD drive in the third quarter. Brown has the ability to become a decent receiver in the SEC. His problem has been getting open and hanging onto the ball when it’s thrown his way. Hopefully, Brown will use Saturday’s game as a stepping stone and continue to improve. I’m hopeful that by this time next year four receptions in a single game will be commonplace for Brown.
5. THE WEIGHT ROOM WILL BE A BUSY PLACE THIS OFF-SEASON: Steve Spurrier was unambiguous in his post-game comments to the media following the UF loss – the Gamecocks had to get bigger, faster and stronger in the off-season if it expected to compete with top-shelf programs like Florida. He used the expression “shoved around” on three or four occasions when talking about USC’s offensive and defensive lines. Sadly, that’s exactly what happened. But it wasn’t the first time. The same thing happened two weeks ago in Fayetteville. A team doesn’t compile 542 rushing yards without physically dominating the opponent. Heck, it even happened against Vanderbilt, a team you normally don’t think of as having a dominating defensive line. But somehow the Commodores were able to generate enough of a push to amass seven sacks. Strength and conditioning coach Mark Smith, one of the best in the business, will be a very busy man this off-season.
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South Carolina’s 51-31 loss to Florida on Saturday night at Williams-Brice Stadium dropped the Gamecocks to 6-5 on the season and made the annual clash with Clemson on Nov. 24 a virtual must-win situation for the Gamecocks if they want to play in a bowl game. Here are the five most important things we learned from the USC-Florida game.
1. THE USC DEFENSE MISSES JASPER BRINKLEY, PART II: When Arkansas ran for 542 yards on Nov. 4, I convinced myself it was an aberration. But I was wrong. After watching Florida rip apart the USC defense for 537 yards, it’s evident the Gamecock defense sorely misses Jasper Brinkley. He brought to the table the one ingredient the current middle linebacker corp is missing right now, - size. Marvin Sapp and Melvin Ingram play with great effort but they can’t match Brinkley’s physical prowess. Brinkley weighs 262 pounds. Sapp weighs 228. In fact, the three starters at LB in Saturday night’s game weighed 228 pounds (Sapp), 220 (Rodney Paulk) and 239 (Cliff Matthews). That’s simply not big enough to compete on a weekly basis in the SEC. Ingram (255 pounds) is closer to Brinkley’s size but lacks his experience. Ingram will be a great player someday, but he’s not right now. As a true freshman, he’s still learning the ropes. When Brinkley returns next year, possibly in the spring, you’ll notice a huge difference.
2. TIM TEBOW IS A PRETTY GOOD QUARTERBACK: You’ll notice I didn’t say running quarterback. That’s because Tebow is more of a complete quarterback than most fans and the media are willing to believe. Steve Spurrier called him the “quarterback of the future” a few days before the game. But he sure looked like a pretty good quarterback of the present, too. Tebow accounted for seven touchdowns against the Gamecocks with five rushing TD’s and two throwing the ball. Overall, he finished with 120 yards rushing and completed 22 of 32 passes for 304 yards. Add it up and he was responsible for 424 yards. Tebow has now accounted for a school record 42 touchdowns this season, and he still has three games left to play, including the bowl game. Tebow may not win the Heisman this year but you can bet he’ll enter the 2008 season as the overwhelming favorite.
3. THE TALENT GAP STILL EXISTS: Over the years, a talent gap between South Carolina and the so-called “Big Three” of the SEC East has been evident. While the gap is slowly shrinking, it was on display again Saturday night in full view of 81,000 fans. The difference in speed and depth between the two teams was startling, to say the least. Right now, USC is too slow defensively to consistently stop a team like Florida, which features a plethora of skill position players who can run like the wind. No Percy Harvin? No sweat. We’ll just throw the ball the Andre Caldwell. We’ll let quarterback Tim Twbow punish defenders by running the ball. We’ll give the ball to Brandon James and Kestahn Moore and let them run outside and outrace USC defenders to the corner all night. Urban Meyer proclaimed two years ago that his main goal for Florida was to build the ‘fastest team in America.’ It appears he’s well on his way to accomplishing that. Amazingly, Harvin, Florida’s fastest player, didn’t even play due to a severe sinus infection. Imagine what would happen to the USC offense if WR Kenny McKinley missed a big game. It could be catastrophic. The Gators just plug another guy in and they don’t miss a beat. If you pinned me down, I would say that's the biggest difference between USC and the top teams in the SEC.
4. MOE BROWN IS ALIVE AND WELL: Between Kenny McKinley enjoying one of the best seasons ever by a USC wide receiver and the somewhat unexpected emergence of freshman Dion Lecorn as the second receiver, I’m sure some USC fans had forgotten all about the sophomore from Anderson, S.C. Anderson came into Saturday’s game with seven catches on the season. But he matched his career high with four receptions for 34 yards against the Gators. All four catches came in the second half when he replaced the injured Freddie Brown in the rotation. Two came on consecutive plays during a TD drive in the third quarter. Brown has the ability to become a decent receiver in the SEC. His problem has been getting open and hanging onto the ball when it’s thrown his way. Hopefully, Brown will use Saturday’s game as a stepping stone and continue to improve. I’m hopeful that by this time next year four receptions in a single game will be commonplace for Brown.
5. THE WEIGHT ROOM WILL BE A BUSY PLACE THIS OFF-SEASON: Steve Spurrier was unambiguous in his post-game comments to the media following the UF loss – the Gamecocks had to get bigger, faster and stronger in the off-season if it expected to compete with top-shelf programs like Florida. He used the expression “shoved around” on three or four occasions when talking about USC’s offensive and defensive lines. Sadly, that’s exactly what happened. But it wasn’t the first time. The same thing happened two weeks ago in Fayetteville. A team doesn’t compile 542 rushing yards without physically dominating the opponent. Heck, it even happened against Vanderbilt, a team you normally don’t think of as having a dominating defensive line. But somehow the Commodores were able to generate enough of a push to amass seven sacks. Strength and conditioning coach Mark Smith, one of the best in the business, will be a very busy man this off-season.
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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 @.