Press Conference Notes

TOB:

Did you see this coming from your offense?
We knew coming in that South Carolina last year was the #1 defense in the SEC. All through preseason coach Spurrier was raving about the defense, it was the fastest defense he's had since he's been there, so we knew they would be a formidable challenge for us.

As I said, we couldn't get anything going in the first half, but as the game went on we were able to move the ball. We just couldn't get the ball in the endzone.

Formidable challenges from "a salty club" aside, a simple "no" would have been fine there, coach.  Considering all the preseason talk about how this team was ahead of where it was a year ago, he had to be at least mildly surprised that the offense's performance on Thursday was a repeat of its performance in the 2008 opener.

I'm still struggling with how I should take last week's offfensive struggles.  Just a fluke poor showing on the way back to getting in last year's groove?  A sign that there are deeper issues than we thought?

Might be a fluke...

1.) Aberrant number of drops by the recievers. (DON'T CLICK HERE AAAAAH.)  First game of the season, there's rust, shit happens, etc.  I'm not worried about this at all.

2.) Russell's fine.  While attempting to put out Thursday's fire with beer, my dad mentioned that he thought the coaching staff might've screwed Wilson up by stressing the need to stay patient in the pocket on pass plays.  Thought he looked tentative.  Judging by the various reactions from around the internet, he's not alone.  I'm chalking it up to SEC Speed until further notice.

3.) The low-scoring game as self-fulfilling prophecy.  Seems like these apparent defensive affairs snowball as coaches look at the respective performances of their offenses and defenses and go into field position let's-just-not-screw-this-up mode.  Frustration piled atop more frustration.  Inexcusable with a quarterback who has the third-longest INT-less streak in NCAA history.  I'm willing to give Bible the benefit of the doubt this time.

Might be uh oh...

1.) Maybe the biggest surprise to me was the swiss cheese nature of the offensive line.  While I didn't expect them to have complete control of the line of scrimmage against South Carolina, I thought we'd see the more cohesive unit we saw during last year's turnaround.  No question Jake Vermiglio's injury was problematic, since it forced the staff to insert a reserve and shuffle other guys around early, not things you want to do as you attempt to re-establish a comfort zone.  But it's hard to figure Vermiglio is that important, or that the South Carolina defensive front is that good.