Is The State newspaper shifting its slant?

Don't look now, but The State newspaper seems to be shifting its editorial slant, or at least Joe Person is.
These stories by Person point out the deficiencies, but they also include the positive, and don't focus on the negative.

Congrats Joe for getting with the program and realizing you could end up look bad with the negative only stuff.

Here are the articles I'm talking about:

Four games into the season and USC stands right where they need to be to challenge for the SEC title

http://www.thestate.com/gamecocks/story/186878.html

USC secondary basks in rare air

http://www.thestate.com/gamecocks/story/185927.html

System thrives on change -- Head Ball Coach not afraid to go with the hot handhttp://www.thestate.com/gamecocks/story/183757.html

USC ranked 104th in rushing defense, but 10th in scoring and second in passing

http://www.thestate.com/gamecocks/story/182003.html

PS: Ron (MoRon) Morris still has a ways to go. He gave us a diatribe about the greatness of 4 Clemson players earlier this week, but Clemson has yet to beat a quality opponent (they play so few). They'll have to beat a couple average to good teams before they deserve all the fawning MoRon trumpets.

Seth Emerson is still in the dark himself. He called himself an idiot a few weeks ago for picking Georgia big over S.C. He may have been right about himself, but it was not because of a bad pick. Emerson's comment about Jasper Brinkley's draft status being harmed by his injury, in a totally unrelated story, was "Hall of Shame" material.

Clemson's (lack in) strength of schedule is disgusting

On a college football Web site (http://forum.palmettostaterivals.com/showthread.php?p=265031#post265031) a Clemson fan talks about the ACC and Strength of Schedule in the same sentence.
I guess you could give credit to VT, Miami, Wake and GT for scheduling LSU, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Notre Dame, respectively, but other than LSU and Oklahoma (routs) none of those opponents come even close to being SEC level.
Also: on that Web site, a Clemson fan contends that Clemson's strength of schedule is decreased because the Tiger splay Duke. THAT IS LAUGHABLE.
Clemson's opponents are WEAK. With the exception of SC and BC, there is not a quality D-1 team that Clemson has to play. You would expect SC to go undefeated with Clemson's schedule. and the Gamecocks would be harshly criticized if they failed.
And I know if SC played that schedule, every pundit that mentioned the Gamecocks, all year long, would add the caveat that the Gamecocks play a bunch of NOBODIES.
Not only would we be constantly reminded that we played nobody, Steve Spurrier would be slammed at every point if he scheduled UL-Monroe, Central Michigan and Furman if his conference featured NC. St., Duke and UNC. It would be the topic of talk shows day after day (remember Dave Odom a few years back.)
So when Clemson football is mentioned, the immediate response should be to ridicule the cowardice of Tommy Bowden's scheduling.
THERE IS NO EXCUSE for it, expect he has no guts and confidence in his coaching or his team.
If I were a Clemson fan, I'd be infuriated if I was expected to lug myself and my family up to that desolate and out-of-the-way wasteland for a contest with the poorest programs of the sport.
And why does it matter?
As a Gamecock fan, I see in SC a team that has to earn everything it gets. SC is a program that plays on the very top stage of college football. But there is no sympathy when we stumble, and that is good.
Yet we have to compete (for recruits, for funding) on an even level with a half-stepping program that should have its major conference status questioned at every juncture.
Not to mention, we are constantly jabbed at by the likes of Ron (MoRon) Morris, while he and idiots like him run interference for Clemson.
Say it should not matter, but it truly disgusts me and I will not let Clemson fans get away with it.
I know there is no way to punish Clemson for its lack of courage, but to rank that pathetic program in the top 15 will just spur more teams to use the same pattern to get ahead.
And that is TERRIBLE for college football.

Shaking up the SC line-up is a refreshing change

Remember when no matter what Anthony Wright did (INT, fumble, mis-read) Brad Scott left him in as the Gamecocks got routed.
Even when ol' Brad had run the team into the ground, Anthony would be on the sideline laughing it up while his team was getting blown out, ...Scott left the Wright in there.
I remember the Vandy game in '98 when Phil Petty came in and moved the team down the field, only to have Wright be re-inserted to blow the game.
And as much I like Lou, he trotted Dondrail out there, to go 3-and-out over and over, 'til our D just quit playing, because they knew the O could not score w/ DP at QB.
It was the same w/ players like Riccardo Hurley, who was written into the starting line-up on High School reputation and stayed there for years.
But it ain't like that any more. Hurley got benched when Spurrier sat his sorry self on the bench when Hurley was a senior.
SS runs the team with common sense, not emotion. If a player thinks he can mail it in, he gets a RUDE awakening
I'm glad coaches we oppose, coach the LAZY (Brad Scott) way.
They'll put a kid in and leave him, no matter what the kid does. We all know who does that.... and I'm so glad that Upstate coach does.

The State newspaper says the "Sky is falling"....

I noticed The State newspaper http://www.thestate.com/sports/story/182806.html was in full "Sky is falling" mode in its report on Jasper Brinkley's season-ending injury. But the coaches and players were in a mode full of optimism.

“The kids will rise to the challenge,” (DC Tyrone) Nix added. “The next guy will step up and, hopefully, he’ll compete enough at a high enough level for us to continue to compete to be the best defense we can be.”

And Marvin Sapp, who will replace JB took the same stance and pointed out that the D has already begun to adjust:

“Of course, we were hit when he wasn’t in there. But especially in the second half, we bounced back and stalemated them,” said Sapp, who started three games in 2006. “We just realized that we’ve got to step up. We are a team and the team is more than one person.”

But The State's Joe Person was not going to let these rascals get away with any optimism or hope that the loss of JB could be absorbed.

After transferring with his brother from Georgia Military College, Jasper Brinkley led USC with 107 tackles in ’06, more than twice as many as Sapp, the second-leading tackler. Brinkley’s 85 solo hits were the most among returning SEC players.

Brinkley is tied for second among USC defenders this year with 21 tackles. He leads the team with two interceptions and preserved a 16-12 win at Georgia by picking off a Matthew Stafford pass in the final minute.

Funny, in the usual pattern of The State, JB didn't seem to get this much love before he was lost.

And I love that Coach Spurrier only TRIED to remain upbeat. Denying that the loss of JB is DEVASTATING!!!!!...this is priceless, and so typical of The State.

Spurrier also tried to remain upbeat despite the potentially devastating news.

And Spurrier's refusal to get down likely just ticked Person off, to no end.

“Next year at this time we might be saying, ‘We’re glad he got hurt,’” Spurrier said. “We all plan to be here next year and we should definitely have a stronger team next year. So in a way having Jasper here next year is a positive.”

Bottom line: Never has SC been able to lose a player like JB and still do well. This year this team will take it in stride and improve each week. That is the pattern with SS. When we lost Marque Hall last year, others like Eric Norwood stepped up.

As Nix said: We have a team. and never has that been more the case than it is now.

SC in much better shape than some think

Saturday's SC at LSU game turned out as so many expected.
LSU was at home, 16-point favorites, ranked 10 spots higher than SC and they are 3 years removed from a National Championship.
Take out the trick play and LSU was beatable, even though they got about every bounce and we got a lot of bad breaks (tipped INTs, fumbles, Brinkley dinged early, 4th downs...etc.)
I've seen assessments by SC fans that are way more negative than what actually happened.
One says we're years away from LSU in recruiting. I'd say we're one committed QB away from beating them.
And if there is a problem with Blake Mitchell, it is that he let everyone down by not going to class this summer.
At LSU, Matt Damon sat and waited for a chance to serve his team. The more players like that (like Cory Boyd and Jasper Brinkley) we get, the more LSU will be looking at us in awe.
Still, if we play LSU again this year I think we'll beat them.
It would be hard for us to get that many bad bounces again, and their mistakes go unpunished.
The good news: we can correct our slip-ups and play better. LSU could not have played a much better game.
But the only way can play them again this year is to forget about all the bad things that happened and quit talking about how 'far behind' we are. That is talk for losers and if the players act like some fans, we could lose Saturday versus Miss. St.
And: if we don't play LSU again this year, we'll still return the favor at our place next year, because a lot of their professed advantage (years of recruiting) will have graduated.

A beautiful college football weekend

A month ago, Gamecock and Tiger fans were in high anticipation of a weekend like this one.
While the odds are stacked heavily against the Gamecocks, not many of us are conceding anything to an LSU squad high on arrogance, talent and media love.
I'd bet Steve Spurrier relishes the game as a rare opportunity.
While I was very concerned that the Gamecocks would lose to Georgia in a game they could not afford to lose, I am relaxed and ready to accept whatever happens in Baton Rouge Saturday afternoon. I believe the game will be fun to watch and I hope for the best.
I'm just glad it's an afternoon game and it's on free TV.
I am also pleased that the Clemson at N.C. State game is on TV and it's on at a different time slot than the SC game.
I love a midday game that I'm interested in seeing. I have a tradition in mid-September of turning off the air conditioner, raising the windows and watching Saturday football. The ACC game of the week will be a good time to aid in continuing that tradition.
Just as LSU will provide some measure of the progress for the Gamecocks, although the opponents are wolds apart on the scale of quality, NC State will be a measuring stick of sorts for Clemson.
If C.J Spiller can shake off a bad game and the Tiger defense can stop the run, Tiger fans may be comforted. Regardless that it is versus another trademark Bowden-type opponent.
The bottom line is that this weekend is what so many of us dream about in the cold, dark days of February or in the oppressive heat of July.
And aside from the teams us South Carolineans love, there are so many other games to see.
These are the days of milk and honey, so let's enjoy them with zeal. There are but so many of them in a lifetime.

NC St. is not very good

I listened to the Furman-Clemson game last Saturday and dreamed about the possibilities as I lamented the fact that the Paladins had already had two scores called back in the first half, and were only down 17-3.
I have found over the years, Clemson opponents may hold the record for having TDs called back in games the Tigers barely win. Of course Furman was not one of those games.
But just going back to the push-off game versus SC in 2000, the Gamecocks may have blown that one open, but an early TD was called back on a rare (and unnoticeable) "offensive" pass interference call. Imagine the irony of that.
Since then, I can recall Wake, NC St. (twice on consecutive plays in 2005) Texas A&M...etc. all getting game-winning TDs called back in games in which Clemson won by a TD or less.
Clemson also gets the benefit, at a high rate, of the phantom pass interference call on the opponents' defenses to save games. Wake has suffered this fate in a loss to Clemson more than once.
I have a strong theory as to why this happens for Clemson, and that will be the theme of another entry.
At any rate, the fact that the Tigers are going to Raleigh may be a reason to hope a fair game is called, though that is no guarantee. But if the Pack gets a fair shake, I expect it to be a close game.
The Pack could take the week off mentally, but it looks like they are a team that tries, so I don't think they'll lay down.
Also, factor in the events of the last NC. St.-Clemson game, and the two teams seem to be evenly matched. Strangely enough, if a pass interference, that seemed warranted, would have been called on the Tigers in 06 versus State, the Pack likely wins that game.
This year, if the Pack can put pressure on Cullen Harper, there is a shot.
Still, I have to keep in mind that I've put faith in many ACC teams versus Clemson, only to find that the competition there is even weaker than I could have imagined.
That being said, it will be a lot of fun to watch, in hopes of a debilitating blow to Tommy Bowden and the Tigers.
There is so much for Clemson to lose, and just knowing the pressure they are under, makes the game worth watching.....for a while, anyway.