Nine Days That Could Shake Gamecock Nation

posted by Scott Hood, Thursday, January 28, 2010

Beginning with Tuesday’s news that Assistant Head Coach For Defense Ellis Johnson will nearly double his pay under the terms of a new four-year contract and continuing later that night with the historic basketball upset over Kentucky, we’re now three days into a nine-day stretch that could impact Gamecock Nation for years.

If you think that’s just hyperbole, consider the following:

-- USC has tied up one of the most respected defensive minds in the country through the 2013 season;

-- USC toppled the No. 1 team in the country in front of a national TV audience, a win that could resonate with fans, recruits and the media for a while;

-- Friday, the USC baseball team begins full team practice for a season that could – some say should - produce the school’s first College World Series appearance since 2004.

-- Saturday, USC hosts Georgia at Colonial Life Arena in possibly the biggest game of the Darrin Horn Era;

-- Tuesday, the Palmetto State’s top high school football recruit will announce where he plans to spend the next four years;

-- Wednesday, USC is expected to sign a class highlighted by the addition of six or more offensive linemen, a group many people hope will help lift one of the most vital units on the field out of the doldrums.

Let’s take each of these one-by-one:

Retaining Johnson was absolutely critical for USC’s success over the next few years. So, while signing Johnson became an expensive game of Keeping Up With The Joneses considering the recent climate in the SEC, it was something that had to be done. Like it or not, $700,000 per year has become the new standard for defensive coordinators at the top programs in the SEC. Johnson could have been paid more than that at Tennessee, but decided to remain loyal to USC. If Eric Hyman hadn’t locked Johnson up, he would have certainly bolted for greener pastures at some point.

The victory over Kentucky has brought USC a considerable amount of media attention in the last 24 hours, but the benefits of that win will be compromised with a loss to Georgia on Saturday night. USC has done an excellent job of protecting its home court since Horn took over in April of 2008, the first step towards becoming an elite SEC program.

This is no time for a letdown. Georgia is better than you think under new coach Mark Fox and certainly capable of knocking off USC if the Gamecocks get sloppy and start believing they’re better than they really are.

In my opinion, ESPN’s Pat Forde wrote the best line about Tuesday’s game: “Devan Downey might have played the best 20-missed-field-goal game in college basketball history.” Downey made only 9-of-29 shots, but still scored 30 points as he fearlessly drove to the basket and got to the free throw line 11 times.

Downey didn’t singlehandedly beat the top-ranked Wildcats, of course, but it came close.

Must Downey score 30 points every night to give USC a chance to win against SEC opponents? Yes. So don’t look for him to slow down anytime soon, or for Horn to ask him to take fewer shots.

I believe Ray Tanner has his deepest, most experienced team in a few years at USC. If the Justin Smoak-Reese Havens-James Darnell teams had enjoyed the depth of the 2010 pitching staff, USC would have reached the CWS at least once when that trio was here.

But there are questions. First baseman Nick Ebert and pitcher Sam Dyson are question marks for different reasons. USC needs both players to get on the field and stay healthy. It all starts Friday with the first full team scrimmage.

Will Marcus Lattimore sign with USC or Auburn? By all indications, it’s too close to call. Offensive lineman Eric Mack bolted recently for the Plains, contending he silently committed to Auburn in September even though he remained publicly pledged to USC for four months afterwards. Is Lattimore, who was also part of that same September weekend, silently committed to Auburn as well? It depends on who you ask. Auburn folks are confident. But so is USC.

Trying to predict what an 18-year old boy will do is a dangerous game, so I won’t try. But I believe USC needs Lattimore badly. While the stable of running backs they have now is adequate, he will allow USC to take the ground game to another level, one they must get to in order to move up the SEC food chain.

Finally, the 2010 class has always been about the offensive linemen. USC urgently needs to restock the shelves at that position. As a result, USC’s class probably won’t be as highly ranked as previous classes since there won’t be as many offensive skill position players. But it might be the class that has the biggest long-term impact.

I have a feeling that one week from today we'll know a great deal more about which direction the USC football and basketball teams are headed than we did the day before, and a general sense of how the baseball team will perform.

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