After a few weeks spent recovering from the South Carolina football season, I'm back on the Bleacher Report scene.
I figured I'd change things up this time around—instead of a normal column, I present to you a pair of letters that I think need to be written:
Dear South Carolina Gamecock Nation,
On behalf of the entire Gamecock football program, I apologize for our unacceptable performance over the last four weeks.
After beginning the season with six wins and one loss and rising to sixth in the BCS rankings, we have since lost our last four games to fall out of SEC title contention—and possibly out of bowl contention too.
This is due in large part to the atrocious play of our defense.
I take full responsibility for the horrific performance of the D, which has given up an average of nearly 600 yards of total offense in each of its last two games.
Injuries to key players and errors committed by the offense are no excuse for the putrid play of our defense.
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Given the excellent progression of our offense the last three weeks, the defense should have been able to play with the same intensity and talent we showed at the beginning of the season.
Instead, we've failed to tackle, shed blocks, capitalize on our opponents' mistakes, or quite frankly play like anything other than a Pee-Wee team facing the New England Patriots.
I promise that after two weeks of hard, physical practice, our defense will be ready to face our most-hated rival, the Clemson Tigers.
I once again apologize for our unacceptable play.
Sincerely,
South Carolina Defensive Coordinator Tyrone Nix
Personally, I'm just hoping that there won't be a repeat of the 63-17 Clemson debacle of four years ago.
And now, I think two individuals owe the USC defense a particular letter of thanks:
Dear South Carolina Defense,
We would like to take the time to thank you for contributing to our renewed Heisman Trophy candidacies.
Thank you for allowing the first of us to rush for 323 yards and one TD, and to throw a touchdown pass. Your efforts allowed him to break the single game SEC rushing record, and to get get his name back in the Heisman talks.
Thanks.
The second of us would like to thank the USC defense for allowing him to score seven touchdowns—five rushing and two passing—and amass 524 yards of total offense. This performance has almost single-handedly pushed him to the top of the Heisman list.
In fairness, we must acknowledge that if Oregon had the opportunity to play you, QB Dennis Dixon would have almost certainly put up very impressive numbers as well.
From the bottom of both our hearts, we thank you for considerably boosting our Heisman hopes.
Most appreciatively,
Arkansas RB Darren McFadden and Florida QB Tim "Superman" Tebow
And so. This may seem to you to be an angry rant from a frustrated South Carolina fan...and you would be completely right.
I'm very disappointed in USC's performance over the last four weeks, and I hope this article provides some relief for the ailing Gamecock faithful.
If nothing else, at least it was therapeutic for me.
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7 months ago
The Gamecock fans on bleacher report are few and far between I see. Good work on the article Jody, do you get any of your info from gogamecocks.com? If you haven't heard of it, it's a great website for recruiting news, The State newspaper columns and other miscellaneous USC statistics from all sports.
I agree with your last few graphs about USC's disappointing season. I've been an avid Gamecocks fan for as long as I can remember and I can tell this season's demise began with the second half against North Carolina.
We're talking about North Carolina . . . not UNC basketball . . . but North Carolina football, home to Butch Davis' clowns of tobacco road. We all know what occured in the second half, there's no need to repeat that dreadful performance by the garnet and black.
My girlfriend and I went to a few games this season and I must say the Vanderbilt debacle was despicable to watch.
We had the honor of front row seats at Williams Brice to one of this season's biggest SEC upsets and it wasn't pretty in the least.
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