All games are now big

SC is 6-1 and has played itself into position to have a BIG year. The Gamecocks need to win today as a lead-up to one of the biggest games in the SEC versus Tennessee next Saturday.
Being ranked sixth in the BCS poll makes any SC game BIG. And if the Gamecocks keep winning each game gets bigger.
The reason the Vandy game takes on more significance this year has more to do with the fear of a bad day than the competitiveness of the game.
SC also needs to work on getting better. The feeling is that SC has yet to play a complete and good game. Each week there seems to be lapses in the quality of play, so everybody is waiting for the Gamecocks to put it all together for four quarters. Until that happens there will be a heavy supply of doubters.
But if the Gamecocks don't slip up today, you have to believe that the advantage goes to Steve Spurrier next week when matched in a one-game situation against Phillip Fulmer.
Versus Tennessee, if Fulmer did not have David Cutcliffe back to bail him out, it would be somewhat easier for SC. But Cutcliffe is good and a difference-maker at Tennessee.
SC fans will be watching the Tennessee at Alabama game too.
Lou Holtz once said if a team is used to winning, you want them to win a week before you play them. Holtz also said it's better to play a team if they lost the week before, if they are used to losing. I'm not sure that applies to Tennessee. I'm hoping Alabama takes care of Tennessee. The Vols seem to have a little momentum with them. 'Bama could stop that, though it's more likely Tennessee will win.
While it is imperative that SC keeps winning, Clemson is in a very dangerous situation.
Coming off an embarrassing loss to at home, after another high-hopes start, TigerNation is in the "Here-we-go-again" mode for yet another year.
But usually the Tigers' schedule provides so many opportunities to get out of the losing rut, by playing the dregs of college football, Tommy Bowden extricates himself to the relieved shrieks of their fans.
That being said, Central Michigan has averaged around 50 points a game in winning its last three. So you have a team on a positive streak versus a team in Clemson, that could be hanging its head and has a hard time getting up for yet another of its many patsy games.
A Tiger loss to the Chippewas would end much of the speculation that Bowden will produce yet another rabbit from his hat.
And a slip-up by the Tigers today spells the onslaught of an era some have expected is long overdue at Clemson. There are those of us who have never believed Tommy Bowden was top-shelf, or anywhere near it, in the first place.
It's not likely, but today could provide evidence of a slope so precipitous, that Bowden's personal safety may be threatened by those who have bought into his line for years, and now feel like dupes.