South Carolina Gamecocks 2012 Season (11-2) (6-2 SEC) Won the Capital One Bowl against Nebraska
South Carolina has arguably had their best two seasons in history come in the last two years, with an SEC east title in 2010 and the most wins in school history in 2011 under Coach Steve Spurrier.
The 2012 season hinges on one thing. Marcus Lattimore and his repaired ACL. IF Lattimore is healthy and continues to be the impressive beast that he is, South Carolina will look very good indeed. Even though studs Melvin Ingram and Stephon Gilmore were both lost to top 20 picks in the NFL draft, South Carolina is bringing in some good recruits, highlighted by Connor Mitch (4 star QB), Jordan Diggs (4 star DB), Mike Davis (4 star RB), and Shaq Roland (4 star WR). Also, DE's Jadeveon Clowney(soph) and Devin Taylor(senior) will be a force on the d line.
ESPN has the cocks ranked at preseason number 10, which is pretty good. Obviously, the Gamecocks think they will do better then that.
Connor Shaw
Booed out of his first game against ECU, Shaw had a terrific rest of the season, finishing the year throwing for 1448 yds on 65.4% completion with 14 tds and 6 INTs. He also rushed for 525 yds with 8 touchdowns on the year. Now a junior, Shaw looks to continue the hot streak he had going in the last 4 games.(70% completion 8 TD's, 2 picks, all wins). With his gym-rat mentality and skill set, combined with South Carolina's running game, he looks like he will be more then competant.
Losing Keith Ellis hurts the Gamecocks D, but he also did not coach in the bowl game against Nebraska when they were held to 13 points and 253 total yards.
The big thing for South Carolina is their schedule. Nevermind that playing in the SEC is tough enough, they will go through the gauntlet in 5 straight games in the heart of their schedule. They play, in order: Georgia, @LSU, @Florida, Tennessee, and Arkansas. At least 3 of those teams will be ranked, and it would not suprise me if Florida was ranked this year as well. Also, having beat Clemson 3 years in a row, the Gamecocks travel to Death valley two weekends after the Arkansas game to face a Clemson team that will undoubtedly want revenge for getting embarrassed in Columbia last year.
Forever to Thee
GO COCKS
Another scheduling issue that hurts the Cocks is that UGA plays Ole Miss instead of Alabama this year (thanks Mike Slive) in addition to having one of the easiest schedules for an SEC team in a while.
ReplyDelete