Palmetto Proving Grounds

BEAT FLORIDA!!!!

Granted, if you criticize the coaching staff you'll likely be attacked personally but criticism of the coaching staff is absolutely allowed.

Some of the players have told a friend of mine that opponents defenses are sitting on the routes. They know what Spurrier is going to run from every motion, unbalanced line etc. They know the hot routes before we run them and Spurrier still thinks that he can run them with success. Of course if you can't keep the rush off your qb, it's a moot point.

This is true if not than what is the reason we recruit better but we don't play better.

I'm kidding. This was based on the thread about Spurrier having a lot to answer for.

BEAT FLORIDA!!!!

BEAT FLORIDA!!!!!!

I think it has a lot to do with consistent OL recruiting. Whatever Houston Nutt's other deficiencies, the guy always had good OL. When Petrino came in, he continued that trend. OL are not flashy and don't affect the recruiting rankings one way or another. A lot of times, the kids we passed on were not highly rated, but wound up being good. Kids like Logan Stewart or Kyle Fisher, who were not 4-star's, but I believe are both high quality starters for their team.

Our lack of consistency at the OL coach position has killed us.

That, and I do think that Petrino is better at using what he has on offense than we do. Maybe SOS and Petrino are basically the same given the same batch of high end prospects, but I feel like SOS' system doesn't work as well when everything isn't perfect. Whereas, with his quick passing game Petrino can mask a lot of things, including inability to protect the QB and lack of a running attack.

Put it this way: Spurrier's offense is like a Ferrari Enzo. Brand new from the factory, it will outrun most everything on the road. Petrino's offense is like a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 10. It isn't as fancy, isn't as flashy, but will basically match an Enzo on the track. And, my bet is that after 3 years of mediocre maintenance the Enzo will probably barely make it around the track, whereas the Lancer might not be as fast as it was brand new, but it'll still blow away the local riffraff.

I'm stating the obvious because that is what it is. We have a head coach trying to force a square peg into a round hole. He doesn't game plan to fit his teams skill set. Yes I know who he is but let's face it people it's not working. Our D wins us balls games and the O tries to stay out of the way. HBC biggest downfall is he kept John Hunt around way to long. Killing us right now as we just don't have lineman. Also, you are recruiting players to run a spread, not the pro-set, our lineman and qb are being recruiting to run that type of O not the old school fun and gun. I just wish HBC would let Elliot and Mangus and he just throw his visor.

John Hunt was fired in December of 2008. GW Bush was still in office. Let it go. What do you want, a pound of flesh?

With adequate protection, we still move the ball and score points and have done so numerous times over the past 3 seasons, including multiple times against good teams and at times against very good teams. This same offense, with the same OC, and same play caller scored 5 TD's against arguably the best defensive mind in the game last year. Guess how many sacks we gave up that day? ONE. See a correlation?

The square peg is Spurrier's offense, and the large round hole is a lack of talent and experience in the o-line. The round hole isn't something that can be changed overnight. You have to recruit your way out of it.

So you can do one of two things: scrap your entire offensive system, or wait for better talent and experience on the o-line.

Considering we are winning and playing to our strengths (defense, and ball control offense) I see no reason to completely scrap the offense which would be an obvious indication of panic. We are winning 85% of our games, so whats with the woe is gamecock nation?

We have a hard time admitting that sometimes we simply get beat by a better team or by a bad matchup.