The State newspaper having trouble admitting reality

Last week it seemed that The State newspaper was coming around and being a little more accurate in the reporting about SC football. Upon further review (after, and before) the big KY. win, it seems The State just cannot break its penchant to downplay SC's accomplishments. The State, after the Clemson loss to GT, also seems to be having a hard time believing that Clemson fans are grumbling about all of the Tigers' problems. The same problems The State has overlooked for months, in hopes that they would go away.
This does not even mention the color, full-page spread that was offered by The State on Andre Woodson (the opponents' QB) on the day of the big game with the Wildcats.


This is just a spot check of The State's Web site and as usual found some samples of their tactics.

UK fumbles, Norwood rumbles
http://www.thestate.com/gamecocks/story/192400.html

Notice that Kentucky fumbled the game away. Even though the Gamecock scores came on overwhelming team defense or TAKEAWAYS, it was Norwood, a single player's name in the headline. When USC wins, you'll see The State do this a good bit. The newspaper's sports editors seem to go out of their way not to promote USC as a team. Unless you were looking for the article, you would not know it was about SC beating 8th ranked Kentucky.

USC preps for UK’s air raid
http://www.thestate.com/gamecocks/story/189198.html

In this one, when USC is highlighted, it more or less says, the Gamecocks are the ones on the defensive for the aggressive UK passing attack or RAID that rain down on the SC secondary. Of course, SC is No. 1 in the country in Pass D, which is not mentioned in the headline.

But when it's Clemson

Harper aims to pick pockets of ‘robbers’
http://www.thestate.com/tigers/story/192177.html

This is saying (we hate to admit) VT has some good DBs, Then, they go on to imply that surgeon Cullen Harper (based on NOTHING) has something for that stout defense of the Hokies. He plans to pick their pockets. This is a positive spin on what could be the Tigers' undoing. It is a defensive and positive spin for Harper, who was helpless versus GT. The VT D would get a full-page spread if the Hokies were coming to play SC.

Loss opens line of inquiry
http://www.thestate.com/tigers/story/192178.html

This column is a defense of Clemson's fat and weak OL. This headline (that should intimate Clemson's OL sucks) is worthless. And in the piece, the writer apologetically beats around the bush and finally, with his trademark sophomoric language, tells you that the Clemson line got its BEEP kicked at GT. Then he rains down the excuses. But because of his apologist stance, it takes him 3 graphs to spit out the unpleasant subject he obviously hates to broach.
This is a pathetic attempt to cover up a weakness that the State would have harped on for weeks if it were SC. (it did.)
The columnist, is dinosaur Bob Spear, who dusts off the mold on his jacket and opines every August, using that tired cliché about SC fans being nothing but eternal hopefuls of football grandeur. You know the obligatory "Hope Springs Eternal column is razor-edged mind has written since Paul Dietzel paced the sidelines at WB.