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AJC > Sports > UGA > Blog > Archives > 2008 > September > 11
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Smack time again
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We’re still in that silly season when the delusional fans of the Gamecocks talk smack. This happens every year until one of two things ends it: Either Georgia makes South Carolina look pathetic (remember the shut-out?), or in years when the Gamecocks eke out a win (as last year), the Cocks then proceed to fall apart in the latter half of the season (again, as happened last year).
The 2007 UGA-SC game wasn’t exactly a peak performance from either team. South Carolina’s defense was pretty good, but their offense stunk. Georgia’s defense was pretty good but was let down by its offense, which easily could have won the game but kept shooting itself in the foot with things like dropped touchdown passes. After stumbling around another couple of games, the Dawgs got better. WAY better, becoming the hottest team in the country. After making a brief climb up the polls, Steve Spurrier’s team collapsed.
Which made many a fan of other schools smile, because let’s face it, no one outside of the fandom of his current employer can stand Steve Spurrier. Yes, he’s a great offensive coach, or at least he was in his heyday at Florida. But he’s also smug, arrogant and petty.
Witness last year’s post-game belittling of the Dawgs (whom he’s never forgiven for humiliating him in his senior year at UF) on Spurrier’s TV show. “It wasn’t like they were some big, powerful team,” Spurrier said.
Yeah, no one’s ever accused Spurrier of being classy.
But the fact is, South Carolina is the program found wanting these days, the occasional big win notwithstanding. Of the Dawgs’ two losses last year, the one that rankled the most wasn’t the whipping in Knoxville. We just got flat-out beat that day, no excuses. What didn’t go down well was the fact that we gave away the game to a mediocre South Carolina with sloppy play.
Even though the Steve Spurrier of today is more like Spurrier Lite, he still engenders a lot of hatred in the Bulldog Nation. So on top of all the other reasons Georgia needs to win convincingly Saturday, pouring a little salt in the wounds on the no longer invincible Ole Ball Coach would make it that much more satisfying.
Speaking of jerks who’ve coached South Carolina, you’ve got to wonder how long ESPN can continue to damage its credibility by providing a venue for the pedestrian analysis, amateurish delivery and transparent biases of Lou Holtz. It’s ridiculous enough that Holtz always picks his former teams to win, no matter who they’re playing or how badly they’re doing, and that he sprays the desk with spittle as he slurs through another mushmouth meandering. But, like Spurrier, he seems to have a particular hatred for UGA that shows up in almost every comment he makes about the Dawgs.
Last week, as ESPN showed a replay of defensive end Demarcus Dobbs rambling for an unlikely touchdown after his interception, Holtz couldn’t resist getting in another petty dig: “I thought they had a lot of speed at Georgia.”
It’s way past time for ESPN to shove the old has-been into retirement.
And while on the subject of ESPN: They erred in claiming that the reason they didn’t show Knowshon Moreno’s leap over a Central Michigan defender last Saturday was because FSN hadn’t given them that clip. ESPN had the clip and in fact included a brief portion of it, without mention, in one of those montages of plays they show in the outtro to a commercial.
Bottom line: ESPN blew it. Just like the day they hired Lou Holtz.
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