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Happy football season everyone! Hope that everyone has had a great summer and is looking forward to the best time of year. Sorry I did not have a chance to post anything prior to the Carolina/A&M game last night, been a busy week and just didn't have a chance to prior to a Thursday game.
If any of you remember me from last year, I sometimes play what some may call a large volume of games. I also try to provide my thoughts on South Carolina games. I just turned 40 this summer, and have been attending games in Columbia since I was 3. I will never bet on South Carolina to cover, but will sometimes place a small wager against us if we are favored. That way I can be happy if we win, and take a little solace in a defeat. Plus, there is always the possibility that we win but don't cover. I will also sometimes bet on the total in our game.
I was not surprised that we lost to Texas A&M last night. In fact, I picked us to lose 35-30. I am of the belief that a lot of Johnny Manziel's success in college was due to the system that he was in, and that the Aggie offense would not have much of a fall off now that he is gone. A&M brings a completely different offense to the SEC. Kevin Sumlin is a helluva offensive football mind. In fact, what he is doing at A&M is not that different than what our own Steve Spurrier brought to the league in the early 1990s at Florida. It is an offense that is going to take SEC defenses a few years to figure out how to defend. If the Aggies had a Top 5 (in the SEC) defense to go along with their offense, they would be a National Championship contender year in and year out.
While I am of the belief that the Aggie system made Manziel what he was, I am equally of the belief that the talent that South Carolina had on defense the last few years has made our system what it has been. Much of the talent on the defensive side of the ball is gone, and that spelled disaster last night. I expected our secondary to be out of position a good bit during the game, and they were. I expected our D-Line to have a difficult time with the "quick" game that A&M plays, and they did. What I did NOT expect was for our D-Line to be simply out-talented they way that they were. Being out of position in the secondary can be fixed over the course of the year with good coaching. Not having the horses up front on defense can't be fixed. We had more than 2 talented D-Line recruits that were expected to contribute this year that did not qualify academically. Unfortunately, that can't be fixed. I'm not going to name anyone and throw a young man that has chosen to give his all for my university under the bus on a public message board, but I will say that there was more than one of our starters on the defensive line that I consider to be 1-AA talent. It's going to be a long, long season defensively in Columbia. I'll even go as far right now as saying that when we play Georgia in 2 weeks, the Dawgs should beat us by 3-4 TD's. We have zero chance of stopping their power run game.
Our offense did not look great last night, but we had to abandon our game plan when we fell behind by a couple of scores. Our offense in my opinion should actually be better this year than what it has been the last couple of years. We are not lacking playmakers at the skill positions, and our O-line will be the best that he have had since Spurrier arrived in 2005. My preseason prediction for this team was for us to go 9-3 with losses to A&M, Georgia, and Clemson. That means that I had us beating both Auburn and Florida on the road. After realizing last night that our defensive line is not fixable this year (in my opinion), I would adjust my prediction to 7-5 with losses in both of those games. It could even be 6-6 with a loss to Missouri.
Anyway, sorry I wasn't able to offer my analysis prior to last night's game, as unfortunately I was spot on that we would lose as a 10 point favorite. I'll have my thoughts on USC games posted prior to the game each week from here on out.
Here are my plays for tomorrow.
LSU -4.5 3 units
Florida -36 3 units
Fla Atlantic +22.5 1 unit
Alabama -25.5 2 units
Southern Miss +30.5 5 units
UTEP/New Mexico under 64.5 2 units
Southern Miss/Miss. St over 56.5 1 unit
Fla Atlantic/Nebraska over 51 5 units
Arkansas/Auburn under 59 1 unit
Ohio St/Navy under 54 2 units
Idaho/Florida under 51 1 unit
Oklahoma St/Florida St under 64.5 1 unit
LSU/Wisconsin over 49.5 5 units
Good luck to all of you!
If any of you remember me from last year, I sometimes play what some may call a large volume of games. I also try to provide my thoughts on South Carolina games. I just turned 40 this summer, and have been attending games in Columbia since I was 3. I will never bet on South Carolina to cover, but will sometimes place a small wager against us if we are favored. That way I can be happy if we win, and take a little solace in a defeat. Plus, there is always the possibility that we win but don't cover. I will also sometimes bet on the total in our game.
I was not surprised that we lost to Texas A&M last night. In fact, I picked us to lose 35-30. I am of the belief that a lot of Johnny Manziel's success in college was due to the system that he was in, and that the Aggie offense would not have much of a fall off now that he is gone. A&M brings a completely different offense to the SEC. Kevin Sumlin is a helluva offensive football mind. In fact, what he is doing at A&M is not that different than what our own Steve Spurrier brought to the league in the early 1990s at Florida. It is an offense that is going to take SEC defenses a few years to figure out how to defend. If the Aggies had a Top 5 (in the SEC) defense to go along with their offense, they would be a National Championship contender year in and year out.
While I am of the belief that the Aggie system made Manziel what he was, I am equally of the belief that the talent that South Carolina had on defense the last few years has made our system what it has been. Much of the talent on the defensive side of the ball is gone, and that spelled disaster last night. I expected our secondary to be out of position a good bit during the game, and they were. I expected our D-Line to have a difficult time with the "quick" game that A&M plays, and they did. What I did NOT expect was for our D-Line to be simply out-talented they way that they were. Being out of position in the secondary can be fixed over the course of the year with good coaching. Not having the horses up front on defense can't be fixed. We had more than 2 talented D-Line recruits that were expected to contribute this year that did not qualify academically. Unfortunately, that can't be fixed. I'm not going to name anyone and throw a young man that has chosen to give his all for my university under the bus on a public message board, but I will say that there was more than one of our starters on the defensive line that I consider to be 1-AA talent. It's going to be a long, long season defensively in Columbia. I'll even go as far right now as saying that when we play Georgia in 2 weeks, the Dawgs should beat us by 3-4 TD's. We have zero chance of stopping their power run game.
Our offense did not look great last night, but we had to abandon our game plan when we fell behind by a couple of scores. Our offense in my opinion should actually be better this year than what it has been the last couple of years. We are not lacking playmakers at the skill positions, and our O-line will be the best that he have had since Spurrier arrived in 2005. My preseason prediction for this team was for us to go 9-3 with losses to A&M, Georgia, and Clemson. That means that I had us beating both Auburn and Florida on the road. After realizing last night that our defensive line is not fixable this year (in my opinion), I would adjust my prediction to 7-5 with losses in both of those games. It could even be 6-6 with a loss to Missouri.
Anyway, sorry I wasn't able to offer my analysis prior to last night's game, as unfortunately I was spot on that we would lose as a 10 point favorite. I'll have my thoughts on USC games posted prior to the game each week from here on out.
Here are my plays for tomorrow.
LSU -4.5 3 units
Florida -36 3 units
Fla Atlantic +22.5 1 unit
Alabama -25.5 2 units
Southern Miss +30.5 5 units
UTEP/New Mexico under 64.5 2 units
Southern Miss/Miss. St over 56.5 1 unit
Fla Atlantic/Nebraska over 51 5 units
Arkansas/Auburn under 59 1 unit
Ohio St/Navy under 54 2 units
Idaho/Florida under 51 1 unit
Oklahoma St/Florida St under 64.5 1 unit
LSU/Wisconsin over 49.5 5 units
Good luck to all of you!
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