Vanderbilt played a good, solid football game tonight and capitalized on an error-plagued South Carolina performance to upset the Ole Ball Coach 24-17.
Thoughts on South Carolina, since LSU plays them later in the year.
1. South Carolina has a stout defense with some real team speed and hard hitting athletes. I was impressed with them in general, although they seemed to sputter in the second half. Basically, Vandy could not sustain long drives but were able to take advantage of short field situations to punch the ball in.
2. South Carolina's offensive line is not going to be able to handle LSU's defense. Period. And they cost South Carolina a lot of yardage in penalties tonight.
3. Chris Smelley is a decent QB but inconsistent. He was lucky to not have more passes picked off. If Vandy had a slightly more talented secondary, Smelley may have given up four picks tonight instead of two. He did make some nice reads and throws and had a very nice run as well.
4. Spurrier has a reputation as a great coach. But I have to say I was surprised at the huge number of mental errors his team made tonight. Some of that is just execution. But for so many errors to happen against Vandy, there has to be blame placed on coaching as well.
Overall - South Carolina has not looked great in their two outings so far. Combine that with Tennessee's incompetence against UCLA, and the SEC East is looking a bit thinner than expected so far this season. But it's early. I guess.
i don't think spurrier has ever been known as having penalty free teams. most of those badass florida teams in the 90's were in the top few in the conference in penalties.
ReplyDeletespurrier has to go to bed in a straight jacket each night having a tough D and a lousy O. Smelley isn't decent - he sucks. it must be reallllly hard to recruit skill positions at S. Caro. cuz if anyone should be able to, its OBC.
ReplyDelete