Fun Night

From: Elliott
Attention fans of clemmons university! In case you forgot, we won the national championship and beat you twice to do so! Now to other things.

Ryan had an entertaining evening MCing the SOAR fundraiser. This is a special needs school, and he was able to spend the majority of the time with Radio and Coach Jones. Radio notes that they are going to beat Westside and that he likes Bojangles.




















The State newspaper got the message from Coach Spurrier apparently and moved Joe Person off of the USC beat and up to a paper in Charlotte. To say that Person's relationship with the USC staff was strained would be an understatement.

Bobby Bowden claims he was forced out at FSU. In other breaking news, Bojangles makes good chicken.

In the often overlooked but incredibly important special teams battles, Seth Strickland has won the holder job that was vacated when Stephen Flint gave up football. Strickland is a QB so maybe we add a new fake FG this season?

Positive statement of the week from the coaching staff came from Coach Beamer. Anyone who underestimated the impact Ryan Succop had on our defense through field position was reminded of that all year, especially when Spiller took the opening kick back for clemmons. Coach Beamer mentioned that both Jay Wooten and Dutch Fork's Joey Scribner-Howard placed several kicks two to three yards deep into the endzone. This could be huge. Succop was able to get good hang time as well, so we will have to wait and see on this. Watch out for kick placement. Adam Yates's biggest deficit last season was not lack of leg strength, it was putting the ball in the center of the field when his coverage was slanted to one side-see Spiller kick. Better kickoffs will only make our defense that much tougher this year.

The Boot

From: Leon
Official announcement! I am tired of hearing all of Weslye Saunders' nonsense. Skipping team meetings and lying about the reasons is just the last in a long string of transgressions. I will forever be indebted to Saunders for his two tds in the clempson game last year, but enough is enough. Coach Spurrier should give strong consideration to giving him the boot. Here's to hoping that Justice Cunningham turns into the second coming of Jay Novacek in the Southern Miss game. When I have met Justice, I found him to be a well spoken, polite, and considerate young man. This is the kind of player who we should pull hard for.

Anyone else like me who threw up in their mouth when it was announced that Navy was added to the 2011 schedule can at least get some relief in knowing that stud QB Ricky Dobbs will graduate this year. Why am I concerned about this game? Have you seen us play Wofford recently?

Senior Mike Hartline wins the UK QB job. Hartline, who sustained a season ending knee injury at Williams Brice last year, always seems to have an off game against the Cocks. Freshman Morgan Newton looked very sharp when pressed into duty last year against the Norwood led defense. Perhaps, this is good news, or maybe Hartline will circle this as a revenge game.

The 4 Clary Boys

From: Matthew
Sure was nice on my drive in to work yesterday to hear Tommy Moody on the radio talking about the 4 Clary boys who played football for South Carolina. Not too often do you hear about guys who played in the 1930s. Of course the most important being our grandfather, Buford. Also mentioned were Ed, Wilburn, and Earl, "the Galloping Ghost of Gaffney High." It is a big honor to have a kin in the Hall of Captains. Hey, I drink my cherry coke zero every game out of my Earl Clary captain cup.

Couldn't Wait

From: Austin, Cole & Benjamin
OK, we couldn't wait any longer so we attended the Dutch Fork/Irmo game at W.C. Hawkins field last Friday night. While not big fans of week zero of the high school season, we just needed to see some football. Good game all around with Irmo edging out a 28-26 win, thanks to a blocked PAT. New Irmo RB, Dejuan James, has some good speed and will be a nice replacement for Mustafa Greene, who is now with N.C. State. Let's just hope that it is not nearly that humid at Williams Brice for Southern Miss because the game might as well been played in a rain forest. 

South Pointe destroyed the AFC Rangers of North Carolina 51-6. Cannot wait to see them on ESPN this Saturday against Roderick Byers and Northwestern, just hope Pam Ward is not doing the play by play. Thankfully, she has been demoted to the ESPNU game this season, because the SEC gets some 12 pm kickoffs on ESPN2 and listening to her call a game is painful. There is a new lady calling the games this year as Beth Mowins will be on Tuesday or Wednesday nights. Those of us who love to stay up and watch Ohio battle Akron will get to hear her talents. The best thing going for her is that she is not Pam Ward.

Anyone else not buying into the Christian Ponder for Heisman campaign? He has been an average QB in a league with terrible defenses. Yes, he is smart and graduated in 2 1/2 years, but he looked inept against clempson last year. FSU's biggest weakness that last 5 seasons has been their poor offensive line play. They have two of Rivals' top 30 linemen for 2010 in senior guard Rodney Hudson and senior center Ryan McMahon. Maybe a running game and some time to throw the ball may make a difference for Ponder. Hey, it may help Steven Garcia too, for that matter. Good thing we have so many new linemen this year.

Friday thoughts

From: Benjamin
Congrats to Brandon Wilds on becoming the 14th commitment to the 2011 class for USC. Wilds is a bruising RB who will play fullback for the Fighting Gamecocks. This may allow Coach Spurrier to move current freshman FB, Matt Coffee, to linebacker next season in a effort to sure up the depth there. You can see Wilds at home tonight as they welcome South Florence to town at 7:30.

Former USC target, Alfy Hill, was declared academically ineligible after initially gaining aproval from the NCAA Clearinghouse to enroll at Alabama and going through preseason workouts. He has left the team. Hill was a top 100 recruit and was a backup linebacker for the Crimson Tide. The issue was a lack of core courses.Wonder if USC will get involved again if it clears up for next season?

Week Zero of the High School season starts tonight. This means football is here!  You can check out Shamir Jeffery and Calhoun County on Saturday as they travel to Malboro County to face Lateek Townsend and the Bulldogs. Spring Valley kicks off the first game of former USC DC Miles Aldridge's tenure as they travel to Camden. The game of the week would have to be the improved Dutch Fork squad on the road against the always tough Irmo Yellow Jackets.

Big day for the Braves

From: Cole
Jason Heyward lining a rbi single up the middle last night to give the Braves a bottom of the ninth win capped off a huge day for the Bravos. This was the 21st last at bat win for the Braves this year, leading the majors. The big news, however, is that Derrek Lee will be joining the team. Troy Glaus has been wearing down the last 2 months with his sore knees resulting in a low .240s average, and the loss of Chipper left a gaping hole in the middle of the order. Yes, Lee is only hitting .251 with 16 bombs in 109 games. Yes, he has a bulging disc in his back that has hampered him some, but this is a major improvement. There was talk in the last few weeks about waving Glaus and bringing up prize first base prospect Freddie Freeman. Freeman was hitting .312 with 16 home runs when I last checked. The Braves were rightly hesitant to pin so much of the hopes of their stretch run on two guys 21 and under. Lee is an upgrade over Glaus and provides a power right handed bat that was sorely lacking. 2 1/2 up with a month and half left. Go Braves!

Don't let Carl Parker negotiate your next contract

From: Elliott
So ESPN reports yesterday that the 1.4 million dollars that it was reported that Kyle Parker signed for was a bit misleading. It turns out that he will only get $200,000 now, $700,000 in 2012, and the final $500,000 over the next two seasons. You see, the object here was to make more money, not less. At least that it what we thought. Maybe they didn't want to fork out the $20 bucks for a new wallet or didn't want over 2 million dollars? $200,000 minus 42% income tax is $116,000. It is said he is a man of faith, so subtract the 10% tithe and you get $96,000. Gotta pay that high priced agent, but luckily Carl will probably work for cheap.

So, how long till Kyle thinks, " I gave up a guaranteed chance at financial security for the rest of my life for this." At least he can still afford a new boat.