My Trial By Erosion Of Words

Jadeveon Clowney is pretty much my hero.

(Courtesy of Gamecock Central)

10 September 2011 • South Carolina Gamecocks Jadeveon Clowney

The New York Post has picked The University of South Carolina to win the BCS National Championship

While I do believe it is nice that Carolina is getting some recognition, I’d feel better about this prediction if it weren’t coming from a paper that actually used this picture:

While this is funny, I just can’t take a print publication that used this seriously.

If these predictions were coming from a publication like Sports Illustrated or the NY Times, I’d feel better…. Well, about as good as one can feel about a meaningless prediction.

Go Cocks!

(Link to said article)

29 August 2011 • South Carolina Gamecocks New York Post

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Maybe my favorite moment of the night during the Carolina-Clemson baseball game.

Carolina Pitcher Michael Roth more or less shoved Clemson’s Jeff Schaus to the ground while making the tag and then got in his face.

I love beating our redneck rivals from the upstate.

(Photo Courtesy of GamecockCentral.com)

4 March 2011 • South Carolina Gamecocks SEC Baseball Clemson Tigers

This is actually written on a tombstone.

It will probably be written on mine as well. Except mine will also have “or Detroit”.

26 November 2010 • South Carolina Gamecocks Clemson Tigers

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Worrying About The Gamecocks

I would be lying if I said that I was not worried about the South Carolina Gamecocks this week. Coming off of a huge upset over the top ranked team Alabama Crimson Tide should make me feel confident about the rest of the season going forward.

But this Kentucky game scares me. It’s in Kentucky, it’s against a team that is much better than their 3-3 record shows, and more importantly the Gamecocks could be coming into this game over-confident.

I think back to last seasons PapaJohns.com Bowl against Connecticut. The Gamecocks were coming off of a huge win against arch-rival Clemson and were set to play a team that they should beat easily, like this week. They lost 20-7.

I like to think that the Gamecocks learned from that game where they came in unprepared and uninspired, but I won’t know that until Saturday. Steve Spurrier is saying all of the right things by referring to this as one of the biggest games in Gamecock history, but will the players believe him. Before that game against Connecticut, all we heard was how the Gamecocks wouldn’t come out flat like they did in the previous years Outback Bowl against Iowa. But they did.

I’ve been a Gamecock fan for far too long to know that this game won’t be easy. I know better than that. I just want to see this team capitalize on the opportunity that is in front of them: a chance to play for the SEC Championship. I want last weeks game to be more than just a memorable game. I want it to be the start of something big.

That starts this weekend by taking care of Kentucky.

Go Cocks!

(Photo Courtesy of Yahoo! Sports)

14 October 2010 • College Football South Carolina Gamecocks

A cat gets loose on the field during the South Carolina-Ole Miss baseball game.

Saw this during intermission of the Penguins game last night. Damn cat.

But hey, USC won after this happened so I think someone needs to bring a cat to every game from now on.

Just don’t let the first trainer try to catch him. He clearly didn’t know that you just grab a cat that gets out of line like that by the back of the neck.

Also, it looks like the bald guy in the red (trainer Billy Anderson) wanted to slam the cat against the dugout wall at first but remembered that he was on tv.

17 April 2010 • South Carolina Gamecocks Cats

Jumping around to Sandstorm on the court after beating Kentucky was definitely my favorite moment of that whole night.

Glad someone got it on video.

28 January 2010 • South Carolina gamecocks Sandstorm

27 January 2010 • South Carolina Gamecocks Kentucky Wildcats

Somewhere amidst this chaos, I am there.

Storming the court after South Carolina beat Kentucky goes down as my all time favorite sporting memory as a USC Student.

On a related note, this past Saturday I was at Firestone in Charleston, SC getting a new tire. A Kentucky fan was also there and she was talking on the phone about how she was going to drive up to the game and how her father was going to come down from Kentucky and how they were going to beat us.

I doubt that lady reads this blog, but if she does I just want to say that I hope she and her family enjoyed their visit to Colonial Life Arena. Something tells me that she didn’t.

Go Gamecocks

27 January 2010 • South Carolina Gamecocks Kentucky Wildcats UPSET!!!

Hack/One-Sided Journalism At Its Finest

Reading this article makes me want to vomit.

Eric Mack, a very highly recruited offensive linemen from Calhoun County in South Carolina, recently switched his commitment from The University of South Carolina to Auburn University. This came a day after he said that he was firmly committed to South Carolina and two days after his official on-campus visit.

Needless to say, some people on internet message boards such as GamecockCentral.com are upset. Yes, I realize that it is sad that people on an internet message board are upset over the life decisions of an 18 year old that they wouldn’t even know if he walked into their living room, but that is neither here nor there. As far as I’m concerned, if he doesn’t want to be a Gamecock then so what? I’ve learned not to get too excited about offensive line recruits, especially after the disaster that was the highly rated 2006 signing class for the University of South Carolina.

But this article written by Brian Linder of The Times and Democrat newspaper in Orangeburg, SC is so one-sided and off base that I couldn’t help but respond.

First of all, Mr. Linder, tries to make Eric Mack seem like a victim, despite reports that he was less than professional during his on-campus visit this past weekend. This article fails to mention that of course because Mr. Linder doesn’t want a little thing like objectivity to get in the way of a good story.

The thing that bothered me the most though is that he accuses South Carolina fans of racism. Walt Wilson, Mack’s coach had this to say, “The worst thing … I’ve heard about it … I haven’t read it because I don’t read that trash, but (a Calhoun County assistant coach) read it, and the worst thing I’ve heard thus far is how are you going to say that (Mack) is going off and is leaving his baby and that is what is wrong with African-Americans now?”. As a frequent reader of these message boards, I can say that the worst thing I saw was someone call Mack a “low life”, which the last time I checked could be applied to someone from any ethnicity. Wilson didn’t even see the quote either. No proof of this quote can be found. Again, wouldn’t want objectivity to get in the way of a good story.

I’m not going to criticize Mack for what he did. Yeah he handled his recruitment somewhat poorly because by all accounts he was constantly flirting (yeah I couldn’t find a better word) with other teams while committed to South Carolina, but that happens. I’m just going to say that if he didn’t want to come to the University of South Carolina, he shouldn’t have made a verbal commitment to come here and lead the Gamecocks on for as long as he has.

The next part of the article that I found a bit absurd is the fact that both Wilson and Linder accuse South Carolina fans of not caring about Mack and that they were just interested in what he could do for them. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that if Mack decommits from Auburn and goes elsewhere, Auburn fans wouldn’t think so kindly of him. Auburn cares about Mack as a person and not because he’s a good football player? Pardon my language, but gag me with a f**king spoon.

All Linder is trying to do is create controversy and give the University of South Carolina and its fans a bad image. Accusing fans of racism with no evidence what so ever is about as low as it gets.

I wish Eric Mack the best of luck at Auburn, but please spare me the crap about him being a victim of racism.

22 January 2010 • South Carolina Gamecocks Eric Mack Auburn Tigers