From: Elliott
I got to watch my first Dabo Swinney press conference this week. No one here is cheering for him to do poorly as a person, we just all agree that the tiger team is headed in the downward direction with Swinney at the helm. What goes through your mind when watching the coach speak to the media is "Stop talking!" The intentions are good and his motives are genuine, but he just keeps going and going like the energizer bunny. The more he tries to make a point, the more incompetent he sounds. Dabo would be much better served by providing very short and to the point answers.
The Troy game is about momentum. The Gamecocks should be riding a wave of it after the drubbing they gave the Gators last week in The Swamp. Now, they need to translate this into 4 quarters of quality football. It is senior day. Get up early so Maddox can get a lot of carries and Lattimore can rest. Past teams would play it half-heartedly and pull away in the fourth quarter. This is not the team of the past. A resounding victory at Williams Brice will only add to the wave of momentum and may be too much for clemmons to overcome the following week. Two more complete victories will allow the team to enter Atlanta on an emotional high.
Dan Uggla goes to Atlanta for Omar Infante and Mike Dunn. While losing a young lefty who can throw 95 is tough, a 30 HR bat from the right side is a huge addition to the lineup. The Braves had no right handed power last season, so this is a big upgrade. Uggla is in the last year of his contract, so he may be a one year lease since he turned down 4 years at 48 million last month. We are concerned about the high strikeout numbers, but Uggla decreased the total by 20 over the last two seasons. 140 strikeouts is still a lot. New hitting coach Larry Parrish will hopefully decrease it further without sacrificing any power. The move also reunites Uggla with former Marlins skipper Fredi Gonalez.
Lots of good playoff high school football tomorrow. Gaffney at Irmo should be a war.
