It didn't seem like there could be a more painful loss than Tennessee Tech last year. There is. While it was not this team's ultimate goal or its fans' expectation, there is still a reasonable chance that that Gamecocks could share in the conference title. Obviously, the Gamecocks would have to win its remaining road games against Tennessee State and SEMO. Aside from that, all that needs to happen is for EKU to lose to either Tech or Martin. If there is a Santa Clause, that will happen and then Tech will lose its final game to Peay. Haven't done all of the math, but we believe that would make JSU conference champion.
A few observations about the game:
*JSU has to learn to close teams out. Even in games the Gamecocks win, the killer instinct seems to be missing. If you go back to last season, the Gamecocks let leads collapse against Martin, EIU and Tennessee Tech. In contrast, JSU is a great comeback team.
*Watched the game from down near the sideline. AJ was hurt and getting worked on by the trainers. We will never know if he could have made the play on the final TD or not if he would have been 100%.
*Inability to defend the deep ball has been the achilles heel of this team. When they moved Keginald Harris to linebacker, it seemed like a great move to combat all of the spread teams in the OVC; however, his picks at the safety spot have been missed.
*The line between glory and failure in sports is unbelievably thin. Give the Gamecocks one first down against Tech last year or against EKU this year and we are in all likelihood celebrating consecutive conference titles. Unfortunately, almost does not count.
*A young player that really stands out is Caleb Lawrence, a defensive tackle from the Opelika. He made a great 4th down stop in the red zone against EKU. He will be an all conference player before its done.
*On the other side of the ball, Blake Burks is really making progress as a true freshman offensive guard. Everybody is tired of talking about "next year" including this website, but the future looks bright for the Gamecocks offensive line. They started three freshman or redshirt freshman (Max Holcombe, Burks and Milner). They really need to get Thomas Williams eligible.
*Washaun Ealey is 100% as good as advertised. GI hopes he hangs around one more year. If he does, he should be a Payton award candidate.
*He may be banged up, but its otherwise hard to understand how you keep Gabriel Chambers off of the field.
*Earlier in the year the Gamecocks were pinning teams deep with kickoffs. It would be good if we could start doing that again. Also, it sure does seem like it would be nice if JSU could bring in a full time punter to take some of the pressure off Coty. He is incredible, but even Superman needs a break every now and then. One positive- we don't kick many field goals, but it doesn't seem like we have missed a field goal or an extra point this year (haven't checked the stats). Good job James Esco.
*Alan Bonner had a huge game at receiver.
*There's a lot of venom in the Gamecock nation right now. If you want to make a comment about an observation from the game, we will print it. We are not printing comments about fire this person or fire that person or personal attacks on anyone. There are other forums available for that.
*We are going to miss Calvin Middleton next year. 100% every play, not a complainer and does everything he is asked. Calvin is destined for success.
*There is an old saying that adversity build character. If that's the case, the Gamecock football team should have all the character it can stand. Beat SEMO.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
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Thanks for the good work you guys do. I, like others on the gojaxstate.com forum would like to see some change. However, that has nothing to do with what your blog. I will leave it at this: I appreciate how far we have come from the Mike Williams days. I hope, under whomever's watch it may fall under, we take the next step. We have seemed destined to become a national power on the FCS level for four years (since RP arrived), but have never moved foward. Two conference titles in a poor FCS conference is not enough. I, along with many others, expect more. I'm like you guys, I look at this roster and am amazed at how good this team could be in the next three years. We'll see. I hope this experience puts some hair on the chest of the young guys, and makes them tougher and wiser. Again, thanks for the blog.
ReplyDeleteI spoke with former cherokee county DB Desmond Brown who was a 4 star DB that just got dismissed from Clemsons football team at game Sat....our troubles in the secondary may be soon over,if this kid transfers here it would be huge...kid can play,fingers crossed....get em jack
ReplyDeleteI dont see how moving a safety to linebacker hurt the defensive backfield. The safeties have been in on only two deep passes that were thrown this year. That would be the one against EIU and the one againxt EKU. Most of the deep touchdown passes are thrown against one on one coverage. You have to put the players in position to make those plays and most of the time the safeties are line up against the Tight end or playimg middle zone coverage. Remember this is a different defense than last year.
ReplyDeleteAs a team last year JSU only had 10 interceptions and this year as a team with two games left they have 12...
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