You have to hand it to the ol’ ball coach. He managed to do what nobody could in 2008 – stopped Russell Wilson cold. When asked by the media afterwards how he managed to bottle up Wilson like that, Spurrier exclaimed “We’ve got athletes!” That they do. But what almost nobody is able to to pull off is to have their athletes play with near perfect discipline and consistently execute the gameplan. That’s one hell of a coaching job.
South Carolina was bigger than NC State. South Carolina was faster than NC State. South Carolina was better coached than NC State. South Carolina had three trips to the red zone. NC State had ZERO. It was amazing that this game was even close.
Fortunately, we have no games remaining against SEC opponents. I doubt many other teams will bring the same athleticism and defensive speed to the table in 2009. So, all is not lost. As I’ve said all offseason, THIS is NOT “the year.” But 7-5 or 8-4 is possible, and it starts with beating Pitt on September 26. Do that, and we are still on track. Fail and it’s back to needing another Herculean effort to get back to respectability.
We’ll see what happens.
