ESPN fancies themselves the Sports World’s “Svengali” and I’m not so sure they aren’t. They saw that the AAC’s USF Bulls (10-2) (7-1) were paired against the SEC’s South Carolina Gamecocks (6-6) (3-5). Last year the AAC’s Memphis Tigers (9-3) were paired against the SEC’s Auburn Tigers (6-6) going into the game.
Auburn’s defense throttled Memphis, holding them to 205 yards total offense and holding QB Paxton Lynch to 16/37 for 106 yards 0 TDs and 1 INT. Auburn came out of the game 7-6 and Memphis came out 9-4. The final score was 31-10 Auburn.
Auburn played in the SEC west and 5 of their 6 losses came to SEC west opponents as follows: @ LSU 45-21, Mississippi State 17-9, @ Arkansas 54-46 OT, Ole Miss 27-19 and Alabama 29-13. Auburn’s 6th loss was to SEC east Georgia 20-13. All 6 of Auburn’s losses were in the SEC and by an average of 11.83 points per loss average. The only lopsided scores were against LSU -24 and Bama -16. Against Miss St., Arkansas, Ole Miss and Georgia the average loss dipped to an average of 7.75 ppg.
To be fair, Justin Fuente had taken the Va Tech job and Interim coach Darrell Dickey led the Memphis team against Auburn. So the AAC was put in their proper place by the svengali’s at ESPN.
USF opponent South Carolina’s 6 losses were @ Miss. St. 27-14, @ Kentucky 17-10, Texas A&M 24-13, Georgia 28-14, @ Florida 20-7, @Clemson 56-7. The Gamecocks 6 losses were by an average of 17.83 ppg. Throw out the Clemson debacle and the avg loss per game drops to 11.6.
The Gamecocks freshman RB Rico Dowdy (5’11” 211 lbs) only played in 8 games to get his 714 yards rushing, so if he had played in 12 @ 89.25 ypg, Dowdy would have rushed for 1071 yards. Not bad for a freshman. South Carolina averages 198.4 ypg passing and 138 ypg rushing. While 336 yards a game total offense isn’t that impressive, you have to consider the competition they played against.
The Gamecocks defense gave up 24.83 ppg to USF’s 31.8 ppg and they played a tougher schedule than the Bulls. Add to that Muschamp is good at scheming against good offenses as evidenced by holding Texas A&M to 24 points and Kentucky to 17. Clemson was the BUZZSAW !!! For USF he has 3 weeks to prepare.
The Gamecocks are mobile agile and hostile. They will enter this game with a huge chip on their shoulder just like Auburn did last year against Memphis. Our guys have to be ready for a 60 minute fist fight against some grown men. ESPN is sitting there smugly thinking USF (one of the AAC’s best) will get their clock cleaned against South Carolina a low level SEC team. This justifies their premise that USF doesn’t deserve P5 status. So our guys don’t need to worry about things they can’t control (possible loss of their coach) and put their full attention to the Gamecocks.
GO BULLS !!!!!
Auburn’s defense throttled Memphis, holding them to 205 yards total offense and holding QB Paxton Lynch to 16/37 for 106 yards 0 TDs and 1 INT. Auburn came out of the game 7-6 and Memphis came out 9-4. The final score was 31-10 Auburn.
Auburn played in the SEC west and 5 of their 6 losses came to SEC west opponents as follows: @ LSU 45-21, Mississippi State 17-9, @ Arkansas 54-46 OT, Ole Miss 27-19 and Alabama 29-13. Auburn’s 6th loss was to SEC east Georgia 20-13. All 6 of Auburn’s losses were in the SEC and by an average of 11.83 points per loss average. The only lopsided scores were against LSU -24 and Bama -16. Against Miss St., Arkansas, Ole Miss and Georgia the average loss dipped to an average of 7.75 ppg.
To be fair, Justin Fuente had taken the Va Tech job and Interim coach Darrell Dickey led the Memphis team against Auburn. So the AAC was put in their proper place by the svengali’s at ESPN.
USF opponent South Carolina’s 6 losses were @ Miss. St. 27-14, @ Kentucky 17-10, Texas A&M 24-13, Georgia 28-14, @ Florida 20-7, @Clemson 56-7. The Gamecocks 6 losses were by an average of 17.83 ppg. Throw out the Clemson debacle and the avg loss per game drops to 11.6.
The Gamecocks freshman RB Rico Dowdy (5’11” 211 lbs) only played in 8 games to get his 714 yards rushing, so if he had played in 12 @ 89.25 ypg, Dowdy would have rushed for 1071 yards. Not bad for a freshman. South Carolina averages 198.4 ypg passing and 138 ypg rushing. While 336 yards a game total offense isn’t that impressive, you have to consider the competition they played against.
The Gamecocks defense gave up 24.83 ppg to USF’s 31.8 ppg and they played a tougher schedule than the Bulls. Add to that Muschamp is good at scheming against good offenses as evidenced by holding Texas A&M to 24 points and Kentucky to 17. Clemson was the BUZZSAW !!! For USF he has 3 weeks to prepare.
The Gamecocks are mobile agile and hostile. They will enter this game with a huge chip on their shoulder just like Auburn did last year against Memphis. Our guys have to be ready for a 60 minute fist fight against some grown men. ESPN is sitting there smugly thinking USF (one of the AAC’s best) will get their clock cleaned against South Carolina a low level SEC team. This justifies their premise that USF doesn’t deserve P5 status. So our guys don’t need to worry about things they can’t control (possible loss of their coach) and put their full attention to the Gamecocks.
GO BULLS !!!!!
