Hot Seat Update

From: Benjamin

Well the Randy Shannon firing caught us a bit of guard, but a loss to South Florida is a death sentence at Miami. Indiana just tanked in the later part of the season.

1) Paul Wulff-Washington State: 2-9 on the year. Bring back Ryan Leaf!
2) Rich Rodriguez-Michigan: Does anyone play D at Michigan anymore?
3) Mike Locksley-New Mexico: 1-11 on the year
4) Neil Callaway-UAB: 4-8 in his 4th year.
5) Mark Richt-Beat his rival to eke out a bowl bid
6) Dennis Erickson: Arizona State-5-6 is not good enough
7) Butch Davis: UNC-Would only be on off the field issues
8) Houston Nutt: Ole Miss-The Rebs usually are extremely impatient
9) Dave Wannstedt-Pitt: Rumblings are stirring
10) Dabo Swinney-clemmons: Can't fire him since they are still paying Tommy
11) Ron Zook-Illinois: His 2nd bowl game saves the day

Off the list:
Les Miles: The Bayou Bengal fans still don't like him, but he wins.
Ralph Friedgen: Maryland rose from the ash heap to have a fine year

Open Jobs:
Colorado
Minnesota
Miami-Greg Schiano may take a closer look this time.
Indiana
Vanderbilt-Hot after Gus Malzahn

Finally, the Cocks have come back to clempson!

From: Cole
If there is any question as to what The People's Champs are gonna do to the tigers this Saturday in Memorial Stadium, then here ya go...

The People's Elbow

Matchups

From: Austin
Here are some key matchups that will decide the victor this weekend.
1) USC's interior linemen of Garrett Chisolm, T.J. Johnson, and Rokevious Watkins against the clemmon's defensive tackles, Jarvis Jenkins and Brandon Thompson. All of the hype is on stud DE Daquan Bowers, but the real matchup will be on the interior. clempson's tackles are solid. The South Carolina offensive staff will not let the success of the rushing attack hinge on whether their average tackles can block the nation's best DE. Coach Spurrier loves the draw and will likely run up the middle to avoid Bowers and utilize his 3 best linemen. If Chisolm and Watkins can handle the DTs, then Johnson will be freed to block the middle linebacker. This will lead to a big day for Lattimore.

2) clemsen's All-Everything Safety, DeAndre McDaniel, versus South Carolina QB Steven Garcia and Biletnikoff finalist WR, Alshon Jeffery. McDaniel is an interception machine. Expect the tigers to roll McDaniel over the top of Jeffery for the double team. Should Garcia still choose to throw Jeffery's way, he must put the ball where Alshon can make a play on it. Spurrier may counter by going to 4 wide and forcing single coverage or linebacker coverage on the 4th WR. If that is Ace Sanders, look out. Tori Gurley, D.L. Moore, or Sanders needs to have a big day to free up Alshon. clempson does not have a DB who can match up one on one with Jeffery. He abused one of the top CBs in the country in the Florida game before we went primarily to the rush.

3) Marcus Lattimore against the tiger linebackers. If Jeffery is double covered, expect a heavy dose of #21, with Jeffery running the safety off deep. This would force clemmons DC Kevin Steele to remove the double team to aid in run support. However, the focus here should be on the pass. Against Kentucky, the wheel route to Lattimore was working to perfection. Expect Spurrier to have Jeffery run the safeties to the middle and Lattimore to attack the slower tiger LBs down the sidelines. Garcia must hit this pass.

4) Kyle Parker versus the Gamecock secondary on the deep ball. clempson will be able to move the ball with short and intermediate passes. They have all year. Their problem is scoring in the red zone. The formula to score on South Carolina is play action and go deep. For clemmons to win, Billy Napier should dial up a large number of play action deep routes. The problem for the tigers is that they cannot seem to catch these.

5) Dwayne Allen against the SC pass coverage. TE Allen is arguably the tigers best receiver, and the Gamecocks have a bad habit of forgetting to cover the TE. They simply cannot expect to win if they let Allen run free down the field.

Go Cocks!

Attn: clemmons

From: Everyone
7 pm ESPN2. The tidal wave is rolling through.

Prospect Update: Akia Booker

From: Leon
Booker is a sophomore WR from Byrnes and has become their primary receiving threat thanks to multiple injuries at his position and his high talent level. He has very good speed and is an above average route runner for a sophomore. Against Dutch Fork, Booker was able to get open frequently on sharp out routes. He also had a long TD on a double move. He has good hands and is reasonably elusive. Booker will be highly recruited in a few years. Unlike many Byrnes receivers who may have gaudy stats thanks to their system, Booker has the speed to play Division 1.

Thursday thoughts

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.

Impact

From: Benjamin
A thorough drubbing of a national power like Florida could become a program shaping victory. No longer will coaches who recruit against us be able to sell prospects that the Gamecocks will never win the east or that we are a second tier school. You can win here and they just proved it! The tide has turned. Add to this the disarray that our rival from the northwest is currently experiencing and we have the opportunity to become the dominant in-state school and a SEC power. Note that I said opportunity. We have to seize the day. Do not underestimate clempson's troubles in this. This is the prime time to cement ourselves among the in-state prospects of tomorrow and make them grow up Fighting Gamecock fans. We all grew tired over the years of hearing that this prospect was not considering USC because they grew up a clemmons fan. You can see how beautifully this can work by looking at the lastest class in Ray Tanner's baseball program. Longtime clemmons fan, Tanner English, signs with Yardcocks despite a clempsen offer. We are dominating in-state recruiting, and it can only get better. Use this victory and those to come to bring in a long line of future gamecocks.

The Braves picked up the club option on Alex Gonzalez and Omar Infante for 2011. Nice move. Kenshin Kawakami was optioned to Double A ball this week. $6.67 million is a lot to pay a minor leaguer, but there is no room for him on the Atlanta club and no major league takers. 3 Japanese teams are interested. Keep up the hope that he can return there to open up some salary.