Survival in Chapel Hill
I love it when I'm right.It doesn't happen very often.
In my previous blog, I stressed the need for South Carolina to come out and put North Carolina away after building a 21-3 halftime lead.
It didn't happen, and sure enough, Butch Davis' team fought hard and admirably and was a fortunate bounce away from pulling off the upset.
Gamecock fans are no doubt happy with the win, but many of them had to leave Kenan Stadium or their television sets with at least a little bit of trepidation about the remainder of the season.
USC showed no killer instinct whatsoever in the second half.
The Gamecock offense, in Spurrier's own words, was "putrid" in the final two quarters. He took some responsibility, and rightfully so. It was very un-Spurrier-like to see him go conservative and try to sit on USC's lead in the third quarter.
"We’re ahead 21-3 and I’m calling that conservative run-run crap," he said.
But again, the Gamecocks somehow held on for the victory, despite a less-than-stellar performance.
It's not the first time that's happened this season -- Mississippi State comes to mind, as do a couple of other non-conference games earlier in the year.
But that type of performance probably won't cut it next month, when the Gamecocks play Tennessee, Arkansas and Florida in consecutive weeks after this week's tilt against Vanderbilt (which took Georgia to the wire Saturday night).
If the Gamecocks truly want to be among the nation's elite programs, they can't let North Carolina come back and evan have a chance to win that game Saturday.
The Gamecocks are good enough to get off to great starts against the likes of Tennessee, Florida and others.
The question is, are they good enough to play well the entire game against such teams? If not, the second half of the year won't be so rosy as the first.
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on 10/13 at 08:12 PM
