2012 Christmas Sunday Thoughts

The big news of the week is the finalized decision to bring Mike Reed in as defensive backs coach. While we would have asked for a change here had Coach Cheese not moved over to work under Ellis Johnson, I believe I'd rather have Harbison over Reed at this point. Not to come off too negative, but I believe that Reed is a lateral hire at best. In defense of Coach Dabo, the available options were slim and at least we didn't end up with Willie Martinez. We'll obviously give Reed the benefit of the doubt and objectively observe his work moving forward. I just hope that I am wrong in being unimpressed with this hire based on Reed's body of work at NCST.

This is Christmas week. That means all the good things that come along with the Holiday Season-including fellowship with co-workers, friends, and families. When the Gamecocks in your life constantly remind you about whipping our ass, you can only grin and take it because they have simply whipped our ass the past four seasons. What I want you to do, though, is store up the pain, frustration, and general pissed off feeling that these spats bring about. It is not Cockfan's fault that we are a soft-very soft-football program. Instead, whenever the IPTAY world tour hits your town this Spring, I want you to regurgitate all the crap you had to hear to the Sweatshirt. Ask him why you have to put up with this shit all day long every day of the frickin year. Then ask him why he won't make the adjustments (A) in recruiting philosophy-the cycling of offensive/defensive linemen makes no sense (B) in S&C to mirror the Alabama's and LSU's of college football and (C) get more physical every single day-yes this means more contact in practice. That is, of course, unless you enjoy getting mocked and laughed at by those folks. Losing is bad, losing consecutively is unacceptable, losing four in a row is indescribable and almost incomprehensible and should not be tolerated-period. Again, Scar has gotten better in many areas. We have not...their improvement is not an excuse for Clemson to get its brains beaten in when we play.

We'll give you your dose of LSU moving forward. To be perfectly honest with you, I am quite concerned for the Sweatshirt and the Clemson team. Hopefully I am wrong, but after watching Scar whip our ass up front all night, I just don't have much confidence. If LSU wants, it can line up and just run all over Clemson. Defensively, we have not faced a line anywhere near as good/deep as these guys. Hopefully LSU is disappointed about making the trip to Atlanta and Les Miles will show his usual game management insanity for this one.

We are kicking off one of the best weeks of the year. We have Christmas and New Years on the platter along with Bowl Week. If you cannot get jacked up about parking your tail in the Lazy Boy and showing off your skills with the remote control, you must be sick. I think the only item that could dampen my spirits this week is ESPN's obsession with the NBA and Stephen A. Smith being plastered on my television a little more than usual moving forward. Make no bones about it, he and Dick Vitale are the most annoying "top tier" contributors on ESPN. After thinking a little more about this week, the mass quantity of football games means-at some point-I'll have to mute the dynamic duo of the Bachelor/Pollack and the Pam Ward's Beth Mowens' of the world while watching a subpar bowl game. (Note, first casualty of the mute button was the New Orleans Bowl yesterday afternoon)

Who hasn't enjoyed watching the train wreck that is the New York Jets? At one point I thought Josh McDaniel and the Broncos' front office were the biggest idiots in all of professional football...until the Jets' front office showed out last offseason. They essentially filled none of their needs and spent a fortune on a bad quarterback even though they were a running team. Everyone knew Sanchez was average at best...particularly Jetfan who were asking the same questions then as I am now. On top of all this, they create a circus trading for Tim Tebow completing a Spring/Summer of stupidity. It is no surprise they are in the situation they are in now-and I feel no sympathy for Buddy's kid especially after he proclaimed "Super Bowl or Bust!" several years ago. However, they did expose Tebow for something that he clearly is not-an NFL quarterback. Leapfrogging Tebow with Greg McIlroy seems quite insane from the outside looking in. Maybe Tebow is just that bad. Maybe Rex is scared that if Tebow wins a couple games he will be ridiculed to no end for not playing him earlier. I think it is the former...and I hope McIlroy's starts all result in Jets wins just to hear Jetfan rip this whole franchise more than they would anyway.

On a brighter note, golf will heat back up just after the New Year. The Tournament of Champions kicks off the PGA Tour slate in Hawaii prior to the west coast swing and Spring tournaments. If last year was any precursor, this will again be a great time to watch the pros tee it up. In the meantime, I'll keep on working on my game because it clearly needs a lot of work.

Everyone have a great Christmas and come back to STS ready to fire off about the LSU game.