FIELD TRIP: The Cocks went down to Georgia

...on an afternoon train to Georgia.

What better place to kickoff the 2007 season (no offense to Louisiana-Lafayette last week) than in what might be the epitome of "Southern Football"...Athens, Georgia. It was a beautiful, hot, sticky SEC Saturday, and the University of Georgia did not disappoint. All of the stereotypes were out in full force...the rabid rednecks, the sloppy drunks, and the uniformly-attired ladies.

Yep, it's a Georgia game.

Fun with onomatopoeia.

Scattered amongst all the tailgating were signs that we were still traipsing around a school of higher learning. Or at least a place that masqueraded as one the other six days of the week. This is, after all, the place that made a science out of meat.

Is there a Doctorate of Meatology?

Is this where they keep their large animals or their large animal trailers? Either way, it's tenaciously guarded.

After surviving the long walk to Sanford Stadium (and a gracious Bulldog tailgate that wickedly tried to subdue their enemies with free beer), we finally made it into what has been immortalized in song as...

...the Cesspool of the South.

Questions of culture aside, there is nothing quite like a game down Between the Hedges. It doesn't have the free spirit of LSU or the ear-splitting roar of The Swamp, but Georgia just oozes Southernness...for good or bad. It's just a fun place to watch a football game. Especially when your offense wastes little time in marching towards the end zone.

Penetrate, penetrate, Cocks stick it in.

A quick Cory Boyd scamper later, we were up 7-0. Little did we know, that would be the game's only touchdown. And ultimately, the deciding one.

But scoring touchdowns isn't the only problem that plagues the Bulldog nation. A quick glance at the ad boards led to a shocking discovery.

Wait a second, does that say...?

Wow...I'm impressed by Georgia's openness and willingness to address the needs and concerns of the transgendered members of the Bulldog nation.

What? Oh...I get it...SEATEXchange. Sorry, after a steady diet of alcohol it looked a little like something else.

Speaking of genitals, the Bulldogs had theirs surgically removed by the Cocks all game long. And by the end of the game, we had rolled up an ugly win...but a win nonetheless.

I caught this in the two or three seconds before they took it down.

Cocks storm the field.

We left the stadium victorious, leaving behind a UGA team that has lost five straight SEC East games. The neutered Bulldogs were left to themselves, pondering the emasculating defeat at the hands of the Cocks, and perhaps contemplating a visit to seatexchange.com.

"Mommy, the big, mean Spurrier man did it to us again."

Hollywood + NFL = Football never looked so good

I'm sure you've all seen this by now...but it's still worth a post. I love me some football and love me some movies, and this Michael Mann directed commerical is the perfect marriage of both. Last year's David Fincher commercial with Vick and T.O. was slick, but too video gamey. Mann doesn't hold back on the CG, but it all still looks real. Until the very end, that is. I can believe all that other stuff, but there ain't no way Steven Jackson is going to score on the Steelers at the goal line.

Is it too late for ABC to back out?

(Click it. It gets bigger.)

It's a trainwreck. A public execution. You don't want to watch. You can't look away. While the college football world laughs, the sad folks in South Bend and Ann Arbor will be glued to their TVs, both knowing that if their team loses...it's over. Hell, even the winner has got nothing to win. No one is coming out of this one looking good.

SC State Week...

The Record
2-0 (1-0 SEC East, 1-0 SEC), #17 AP Poll/#23 USAToday Coaches' Poll
Two wins. Zero losses. You can't ask for a better start to the 2007 season. This also marks our first appearance in the polls this season.

The Previous Week
Beat Georgia 16-12 in Athens
You know the facts...if we beat UGA, we have a good year. If we lose to UGA, we struggle to make a bowl. So go ahead and check this one off our to-do list. That's one down on our slaughterhouse road schedule for this season, with LSU, Tennessee, and Arkansas still to come. I didn't know many USC fans who were counting on a win down Between the Hedges, so I'm considering this one a steal. Either way, we won, it's in the books, and we're moving on.

The Upcoming Week
Saturday versus SC State in Columbia
SC State comes to town, bringing with them the mysterious force known as the Black College Football Experience. You and I know there is no way we should lose this game, no matter what coachspeak you hear this week. But let's not rule anything out here, lest we become Michigan. We are South Carolina, after all. Our disappointment knows no bounds.

The Team
We're in a good place right now. To say we came out of Athens with a win against #11 Georgia is an accomplishment...and we didn't even play that well. It was really only Mitchell's first game and he already seemed on track. Our running backs were tough and picked up yards when we needed them. We're still looking for some receivers to help out McKinley, but it's only a matter of time before our young WR corps gets up to game speed.

Our defense? La-La game notwithstanding, they looked pretty tough. If we keep up that same intensity we saw down in Athens, we might just have a chance in Baton Rouge in two weeks.

The Gamecock Nation
Saturday's win was probably far more monumental than just a road upset against a highly-ranked rival. It wasn't just a harbinger of a good season, it was a milestone for the entire Gamecock Football program that can be traced back to the day the Furman Paladins kicked our asses 44-0 on December 24, 1892. On that day, our program started off 0-1, and we've seemingly been playing catch-up ever since.

We are not a bad program, we a mediocre program. And a stunningly consistent one at that. For going into this season, the University of South Carolina Gamecock football program had compiled a record of 515-517-44. If you haven't done the math by now, I'll just go ahead and tell you...we are now a .500 program. It's taken years to scratch and claw back from the disastrous records of the 60s and 90s, but now we're here...back at even.

All indications point to nothing but progress from here on out. And hopefully, by about 10:00pm Saturday night, the University of South Carolina will officially be a winning football program.

That went well

South Carolina 16, Georgia 12

Just some quick thoughts here. So we got out of Athens with a win. The Gamecocks were uninspiringly solid throughout, taking the lead early in the first quarter and never looking back. The offense wasn't pretty, but they made more than enough plays to keep a small scoring cushion over the Bulldogs. This was one of those games that the old Carolina would have slowly let bleed away. So it was especially refreshing to see our running backs take over late in the 4th quarter, gaining a couple of first downs and chewing up the clock.

But the story of the game had to be our defense. In a complete 180 from last week, we had playmakers flying to the ball from all angles. They weren't LSU-nasty, but they were surprisingly aggressive. Stafford was under duress for much of the game, throwing off target and missing receivers right and left. The luster from last week's Oklahoma State win has worn off quickly and Stafford will need to hit a couple reps of keglifts to get his arm back on track. It was a performance that was dictated entirely by our stifling defense. Kudos to Tyrone Nix for turning things around so drastically in only one week.

And it wouldn't be a Georgia game without mention of their legendarily short-tempered redneck fans. As our Head Ball Coach walked off the field at halftime with a 10-3 lead, he was met with a chorus of boos from the Bulldog faithful. So, being ever so polite, he responded with a wave. "Weren't they giving me an ovation? I didn't realize I was that important to them," Spurrier said.

Georgia Pre-Game...

Much like fellow South Carolinian Stephen Colbert, I like to think with my gut. It requires little-to-no effort, it doesn’t need to be defended by facts, and it’s not as hard on the noggin. So in that spirit, I will be presenting a pre-game Gut Check every week. You can read great breakdowns and analyses at any number of places on these Internets. But I won’t tell you who I think is going to win…I will tell you who I feel is going to win the game.

The Game
Saturday, September 8, 2007
Sanford Stadium
Athens, GA
5:45 (ESPN)

The Set-Up
This is a game we Gamecocks like to feel is a rivalry. Ask a Georgia fan, you’ll probably get a much different answer. But to us…this is as close as we’ve gotten to beating one of the big boys on a regular basis.

Most of the recent games have been competitive affairs, with memorable plays that swung the outcomes in one way or the other. Quincy Carter’s liberal distribution of the football…Brian Scott’s clutch goal line catch…Pollack’s whatever-that-was…Pinnock’s fumble…the missed PAT and field goal in 2005…it’s a litany of gamechanging moments, so who knows what awaits in 2007?

Much has also been made of the importance of this game. In what is essentially an early-season elimination game, the winner has an early step-up in the East, while the loser is already behind the 8-ball. It’s not coincidence that the two greatest seasons in recent USC history have all started with an early-season win against Georgia.

For this season’s game, there are still a lot of question marks left up on South Carolina’s board. How will our drinkin’ fightin’ dancin’ QB do in his 2007 debut? How much did we hold back against La-La? Will our much ballyhooed defense assert themselves this week? Can we get pressure on the keg-lifting sophomore Stafford?

All technically good questions, but regardless of the inevitable answers, this one is going to come down to the intangibles. For the first season in recent memory, the Gamecocks are coming into this game with some momentum carried over from the previous season. Also, we have a talented but young group of players who could click (and clack) at any moment. So why not now?

The Deciding Factor
We have a coach who is walking into a snake pit of hatred possibly unparalleled in college football...an environment in which he thrives. Just take a look at how SOS has gotten our team to perform in the road games against our four most hated rivals since he’s been here:
• Georgia (05): L, 15-17
• Tennessee (05): W, 16-15
• Florida (06): L, 16-17
• Clemson (06): W, 31-28

Sure they’re not all wins, but this is a road competitive streak against our four biggest rivals that is unmatched in recent Carolina history. And it is no coincidence. It will be close…but we will emerge from Between the Hedges victorious. And probably covered in projectile piss, beer, and chewin' tobbacy.

The Final
South Carolina, 24
Georgia, 21

Have you ever been Xperienced?

Black College Football: The Xperience...the video game you've been looking for if that plain old "White College Football Experience" just isn't fulfilling enough.

Seriously, this is a new video game coming out this November. Aside from the obvious racial head-scratchingness, I have a few other questions. Does my attendance at the USC/SC State game count as a "Black College Football Xperience"? When does Latino College Football: Las Xperiencia come out?

Hopefully, all questions will be answered once we get some hands-on gametime with non-honkey features like (per the game website):

• Nerjyzed - There's that time when your senses are heightened. You block out everything, but what matters. You forget your insecurities, your fears and the limits of nature. Run faster. Feel stronger. Smile with fierce determination as you realize the machine you have become. You are Nerjyzed and the crowd is going wild.

Finally...a video game that has enough street cred to overcome the insecurities of its players! NCAA 2008 is just way too emo.

• Interactive Halftime Battle of the Bands - You need a break from that first half, but there's no time to rest. A game is on the line and its up to you to lead the band. You step into the boots of the drum major as the crowd anxiously awaits your high stepping entrance. The routine plays through your mind -the cues, the notes. It's a complexity you feel at home with and you wouldn't trade it for a thing. You take the stage, knowing the momentum of the game is in your hands now. Out perform. Out awe. And you just might give your team the boost it needs to walk away with the win.

Now this is a feature every Carolina fan can appreciate, as we all know that the band's performance on the field and in the stands has a direct impact on the outcome of the game. The press release does not indicate whether an "Earth, Wind, & Fire" or "Chicago" medley is available for rocking out to.

Clearly, I am far too white for this game.