Spurrier’s Starting Smelley
In the least surprising news of the young football season at South Carolina, head coach Steve Spurrier has just announced that sophomore Chris Smelley will start at quarterback Thursday night against the Vanderbilt Commodores.
Smelley was 4-2 as a starter last year, but more to the point he guided the Gamecocks (1-0, 0-0 SEC) on three consecutive touchdown drives during the fourth quarter of last Thursday night’s 34-0 victory over NC State.
In other news, if Spurrier’s team chokes against Vanderbilt again this year, at least the game is in Nashville - which means the Ol’ Ball Coach won’t be able to bitch at USC fans for booing.
Somehow, Carolina is favored by ten points in this game, and the Cocks are also likely to be ranked in the Top 25 when the AP and Coaches’ polls come out later today … neither of which gets our hopes up when stacked against the weight of history.
UPDATE - Stewart Mandel’s NCAA Power Rankings have just come out over at CNNSI , and Mandel’s Top 25 doesn’t include South Carolina. The SEC is well-represented, however, with Georgia (#3), LSU (#6), Florida (#7), Auburn (#9), Alabama (#13) and Tennessee (#21) all making appearances. Incidentally, Clemson dropped from #10 to #22 on Mandel’s list after getting blown out by the Crimson Tide.
UPDATE II - The new rankings are out, and Carolina came in #25 in the AP and #24 in the USA Today Coaches’ poll. Clempsun dropped out of the AP poll completely, and fell to #22 in the Coaches’ poll …
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