Gamecock Man is a passionate, knowledgeable, and level-headed South Carolina fan who is warmly received as a commenter here at O&B Hue. He’s also a contributor to the most excellent Garnet and Black Attack, which as usual, is so much better than our humble blog that it’s depressing to think about. His opinion of Yours Truly can be found in the right sidebar under “What Dey Say”. Despite his misgivings about Gator Nation’s mental state — okay, my mental state — he has agreed to share some thoughts on the upcoming game between Florida and USCe. (In prototypical blog spit-swap style, we agreed to do the same. Our thoughts appear here.) Here we go…

Greetings, and welcome. Let’s get started. Explain how South Carolina can lose early to Vandy and Georgia (both losses by a single TD) and then go on to win six of seven games, including a road victory over the same Ole Miss team that beat Florida in the Swamp.

Why do you have to bring that up? Man, would I love to have that one back. 8-2 would be really sweet right now!

First of all, we committed a number of uncharacteristic errors in that game. We’ve been pretty solid on special teams this year, but we allowed the Dores to recover a punt that bounced off one of our return blockers leg as well as block a field goal. Those mistakes led to points for Vandy and missed opportunities for us and pretty much cost us the game. It wasn’t like Vandy blew us off the field; we outgained them by around 100 yards and generally looked like the better team for most of the game. In the end, though, Vandy came up with some huge plays when they needed them and we didn’t. Not having Kenny McKinley to help us move the ball late in the game may have hurt.

Second of all, we’re just playing better now. The offense especially has come a long way over the course of the season, although it’s still far from perfect. If we played Vandy today, I think we’d still win even if we made a couple of stupid mistakes. We made a lot of mistakes against Kentucky, but Stephen Garcia was able to come in late in the game and lead us down the field a few times to help us win. Against Vandy, though, we were unable to bounce back.

By most indications, 2008 has been a kinder year for Gamecock fans. At this point the worst-case scenario is 7-5, a winning regular season with a bowl berth all but guaranteed, and best-case is 9-3 with Spurrier getting a chance to play spoiler to the Gators’ title hopes. What were your expectations coming into this season, and how has this team measured up?

I’d say that the team has measured up to my expectations pretty well. I was hoping for eight regular season wins and a bid in the Peach Bowl or better, and we’re on track to hit those goals if we can beat either the Gators or Clemson. If we make it, I think we’ll look back over the season and wish that we could play Vandy again, but we’ll have achieved our goals nonetheless. The difference will be that instead of getting the usual win over Vandy, we’ll have a victory over the Vols.

After having said that, I think it’s worth saying saying that I won’t be too heartbroken if we don’t win this weekend. Yes, I want us to win. Yes, if we lose a close game I’ll probably take back what I just said about not being heartbroken as I scream into my beer Saturday night. However, I think it’s safe to say that beating Clemson is more likely than beating Florida, and if we can bounce back from a possible loss this weekend and beat the Tigers, we’ll get our eight wins. Plus, beating Clemson is more fun than beating Florida because they’re Clemson and we hate them.

Stephen Garcia scares me. Explain why Spurrier wouldn’t dedicate this year to fully developing this talented freshman quarterback, rather than alternate his snaps with Smelley.

If the question were only about developing Garcia, I think there’s no question that Garcia would have started the entire year. If he lives up to his potential, Garcia is definitely our quarterback of the future because he’s our best in terms of raw talent.

However, Spurrier thinks that Smelley’s edge on Garcia in terms of experience and knowledge of the playbook makes Smelley a better or at least equal quarterback. If that’s true, then Spurrier is making the right decision. We need to win now and enjoy the recruiting advantages that winning brings, so Spurrier should go with Smelley if Smelley gives us a better chance to win. Spurrier shouldn’t sacrifice winning to Garcia’s development. Garcia can develop his game and knowledge during the offseason, as he would have already if he had stayed out of trouble.

Now, whether Smelley really gives us a better chance to win is a question I’m not so sure about. Even without full knowledge of the playbook, when he’s been in there Garcia has led the offense quite well at times. He’s had a rough quarter or two, but no more so than Smelley. The offense has been about as effective and at times more so with Garcia under center, so maybe Garcia’s playmaking ability simply outweighs his lack of knowledge in comparison to Smelley.

Really, though, Garcia has been far from perfect, so it’s not completely inconceivable that having Smelley in there adds a few wrinkles that Spurrier has good reason to like. Plus, I’ll be the first to admit that some of these playbook issues are hard to see from a fan’s point of view.

Plus, you know as well as I do that Spurrier likes the alternating QB system because he can coach his signal callers on the sidelines and then send them in with ball plays. One of Spurrier’s biggest criticisms of Garcia is that Garcia doesn’t take playcalls from the sidelines well or know when to audible, so maybe Spurrier thinks he can address that problem by sending plays in with Garcia.

When the ‘Cocks lost to Vandy in early September, followed by an immediate second loss to Georgia, the ‘Cocks found themselves 1-2. Was there a feeling of “here we go again”? Is Spurrier at all on the hotseat, this being his fourth year in Columbia, or has this season been good enough to keep fans happy?

There was something of a feeling of ‘here we go again,’ although the performance against Georgia (who was then a top-five team) was promising enough to give us some hope. However, we followed that loss up with a close win over Wofford and an underwhelming performance UAB, and Gamecocks fans were again on edge. When we beat Ole Miss, though, it had become clear that we have a very good defense and that our offense is at least good enough to score the 25-30 points that a defensive team needs to win. Since then, we’ve done well other than against LSU.

If we had followed that slow start with a five or six win season, then Spurrier would have been on the hotseat in my view. Our standards aren’t as high as some schools, but we expect better than what we got last year. However, now that we’ve turned out to have a decent year and, with a number of young talents like Garcia, look to have a program primed for a good future, Spurrier is probably not in danger of finishing the season on the hotseat. I reserve the right, though, to change my mind if we lose to Clemson. Beating the Tigers this year is an imperative. They don’t have a good team, their program is in turmoil, and we have a chance to out-recruit them this year. It’s never been more important to beat them and we have no excuse not to.

Have you ever been inside a Cockaboose?

Nope. Unfortunately, I’ve only walked by and gazed at them longingly like most other peon Gamecocks. It’s too bad. I hear that when you enter a Cockaboose, your eyes are greeted by half-naked Kristen Davis lookalikes ready to serve you the whiskey drink of your choice. Must be nice.

How would you gameplan against the Gators offense if you were the defensive coordinator?

You have to try to pressure Tebow to have any chance against the Gators, so I would cook up some effective blitz packages first of all. If you don’t have guys in the backfield putting a helmet on Tebow or whoever he pitches the ball to as soon as they look to cross the line of scrimmage, Florida will eventually beat you because they have skill-position players that are usually going to make plays when they get the chance.

However, you have to be very careful blitzing Florida, because if the Gators pick up the blitz and Tebow gets the ball to one of his speedsters on the edges, it’s off to the races unless a safety makes a play, and by that time you’ve given up a first down anyways. To address this issue, I would creatively try to disguise my blitzes. I would also use the corner blitz once or twice. The element of surprise is key to making sure you don’t get burned.

Last but not least, you have to hope your players don’t lose their cool. As with defending any option attack, your ends, linebackers, and safeties have to keep their assignments and not lose their tackling angles when playing Florida.

One thing to note is that Ellis Johnson claims that the 4-2-5 scheme he often uses is designed to stop the spread. The basic idea is that the extra safety can close in on a back once the back gets the ball in space. I hope Johnson is right.

Has Spurrier saved any special wrinkles in his offense to confuse Florida’s defense?

Spurrier brought out an odd formation several times against Arkansas where he lined up the tackles alongside the wideouts (Ed. note: that’s Emory and Henry.). We ran a handful of screen plays to the wideouts out of this formation, as well as one quick slant over the middle. I think Spurrier also used this once or twice against Kentucky.

We’ve also run a few plays over the last few games out of the Wildcat/Hog/Rebel formation, with Bobby Wallace taking the snap and Stephen Garcia lining up as a receiver. This formation has yet to yield any large gains, although I think I remember us getting a first down or two in short yardage situations with Wallace keeping the ball. You just know, though, that Spurrier has a play where Garcia gets that ball on an end around and then chucks it down the field.

As you know, Spurrier has also resorted to an alternating QB system. Although neither QB performed too well, this system seemed to work from a playcalling standpoint, as there seemed to be less on-field confusion about what play we were supposed to be running, something that Spurrier has criticized Garcia for.

While Spurrier surely took Arkansas seriously and used these tactics to help us beat the Hogs, you have to think that in the back of his mind he knows that, with an offense that’s struggled under normal circumstances, he’ll need to leave all of his tricks on the field to give us a chance against Florida. These strategies are probably also part of his plan for taking out Clemson.

Score prediction, please.

Usually when the Gamecocks take on an elite team, I pick Carolina for the upset. I picked us against Georgia and LSU, for instance. However, this time I don’t like our chances too much. Florida is a great team and is playing its best ball right now, and while we’re certainly looking as good as we have since Spurrier came on board, I don’t know if we have enough. I say we’ll keep it close early with defense and a big offensive play or two, but eventually we’ll make mistakes, our defense will wear down under the strain of playing against one of the country’s best offenses, and the Gators will pull away a bit. I’m going to go with 34-23 Gators. While I don’t like to accept moral victories, that would be a respectable final margin for the Gamecocks considering the quality of the opponent.

All of that said, by Saturday morning I’ll be predicting a 13 point Gamecocks victory. I lose my powers of rationality by around midday Friday. And just to make it clear, I do think we have a chance. It’s a slim one, but if everything comes together, we could make this interesting.