SEC Preseason Preview: Can South Carolina dominate the SEC East?

In Steve Spurrier, South Carolina is coached by one of the greatest coaches the SEC (and College Football), has ever seen. And he’s great with doing something from nothing, because  South Carolina’s not historically Georgia, LSU or Alabama, and yet he can still pick up some immense recruits and sends some great ones to the pros. This year, South Carolina goes into the season higher thought-of than ever. So can they win the SEC East title, which they missed out on last year? Last year Let’s get this straight: If they hadn’t have had such a sucky SEC conference, they would have won the SEC East. They went 4-0 against their division, but because Georgia managed to avoid playing anyone

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Three SEC teams in ESPN’s Top 10 running games

ESPN has picked three SEC teams in their Top 10 running games in the country for 2012. Alabama (#2), LSU (#5) and South Carolina (#9) were the teams – which is hardly surprising that Alabama boast Eddie Lacy, LSU has Spencer Ware and Michael Ford, and South Carolina has perhaps the best of the lot – if he remains healthy – in Marcus Lattimore. The biggest factor, according to the website, is the fact that Alabama and LSU both return four starting offensive linesmen, while South Carolina brings back just two. The order is: 1) Southern California 2) Alabama 3) Oregon 4) Texas 5) LSU  6) Wisconsin 7) Georgia Tech 8) Stanford 9) South Carolina 10) Nebraska

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Quick reflection on SEC Media Days: Why didn’t people mention soft scheduling?

This is going to sound really nasty bearing in mind that this is a blog on the SEC and the fact that we are read by SEC fans, but we’ve been looking for the ‘juiciest’ (trust me, there aren’t very many) quotes from the SEC Media Days, and we struggled to get anything that kept us particularly awake. However, like the ghost that haunts us and never seems to give up, we couldn’t help but think: Why on earth did NO-ONE ask either Commissioner Slive or any of the SEC head coaches about Non-Conference scheduling? Here is why: When the 2014 play-offs come along and the Committee -whoever they might be – are deciding ‘strength of schedule’, they hopefully will

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Recruiting: Georgia grabs one recruit, loses another to USC

Georgia has beaten Georgia Tech to the commitment for 4-star linebacker Naim Mustafaa, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has reported. He told the AJC: “I made my decision about a week ago; I just had to come down to Georgia and tell them face to face. It just came down to where I wanted to be, really. Georgia Tech and Georgia are both great schools. I had to choose one.” Mustafaa is the son of seven-year NFL veteran Reggie Rutland, who played for Georgia Tech. However, Saturday was not all good news for Bulldogs fans. They had battled it out for in-state offensive linesman JP Vonashek with South Carolina, and ultimately lost the battle to their SEC rival. Vonashek told the AJC: “It

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SEC Spring Meetings: Winners/Losers

The SEC Spring Meetings in Destin, Fl. weren’t low on discussion. To make it a quick read (and to not try and tread on too much old ground, The SEC Football Blog brings you a (not completely complete) list of winners and losers from the three days of meetings. If you have any more, please comment! WINNERS The supporters of tradition: The SEC voted for the 6-1-1 schedule to stick around for the next half a decade, meaning that the century-old Auburn-Georgia and Alabama – Tennessee rivalries stay intact. And so does the LSU vs Florida game, which has been going for a mere 41 years, which is just a smidgeon shorter than how old Les Miles is (and yes,

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Florida President reveals scheduling decision

Les Miles is not going to get what he wants out of the SEC scheduling gods, conference President (and Florida Chancellor) Dr Bernie Machen has revealed in a press conference. Future SEC schedules would adopt a 6-1-1 schedule, that would see six divisional rivals, one rotating rival, and one permanent rival. The reason? Machen and his fellow Chancellors thought it was important to keep 100-year, cross-conference rivalries such as Alabama vs Tennessee and Georgia vs Auburn as well as the 41-year old rivalry of Florida and LSU. “I’m Florida. We think that cross-division rivalries are really important and we particularly cherish the LSU rivalry. I think it’s been really great for both of our schools. We would be in a

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Schedule grumblings dominate SEC Spring Meetings talk

It’s as though everyone’s either on a schedule, or grumbling about them these days. And the SEC coaches are no different at the Spring Meetings in Destin, FL. A few points: There some seriousness in discussions of nine-game SEC schedule, with Nick Saban advocating it, according to Clay Travis.. “Clay Travis (@ClayTravisBGID: Biggest news on SEC football coaches meeting was seriousness of 9 game schedule. Told Saban advocated for 9.” Steve Spurrier wants divisions decided not by overall SEC record, but divisional record, and boy is he banging his drum about it. He’s still a little peeved that South Carolina didn’t get into its second straight SEC title game, even though it beat Georgia (in one of the games of the season, we

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Spring Meetings: SEC coaches vote in $300-per-game stipend

The SEC coaches might have just done something that could change the course of college football. This tweet came from Scott Hood at Gamecock Central: Scott Hood ‏@ScottHood63 In case you missed it, Steve Spurrier told me last night the SEC coaches unanimously approved giving FB players $300 per game for expenses. This isn’t just big news. This is massive news. This could mean that players are at least paid for playing – taking back some of the money that schools, clothing companies and other parties (yes, even college football blogs!) so happily take from them year in, year out. Hood played this down slightly, saying it probably wouldn’t get through the Athletic Directors and Presidents: Scott Hood ‏@ScottHood63: The key question, though,

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Recruiting News: DB picks USC

Ali Groves could have gone to Florida. Or to Vanderbilt. Or to Missouri. But instead, the Stephenson High defensive back chose Steve Spurrier and the University of South Carolina for his football career. The biggest issue for him may be a neck fracture, which kept him out for most of the 2011 season. Having said that, he was cleared to play in December – rather like a certain SEC alum we all know – so should be fine come September. Palmetto Sports said that linebacker Brandon Golson of Georgia Military Junior College may also come to Columbia as soon as this week. It must be noted that Groves wasn’t offered by his two homestate universities – UGA or Georgia Tech

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Tuesday Spring Meetings: Spurrier, the 6-1-1, and other stories

It’s been a busy first day at the SEC Spring Meetings with everybody getting to find out how they felt about a play-off. Everyone wants a four-team play-off, and in particular the four-best teams in the country. But Steve Spurrier said that actually, the winners of the East and West should be decided ONLY on their records in their divisions. He said: “We’ve lost seven games in the last two years, and five of them are to Auburn and Arkansas. We were pretty good against them other guys, I guess.” Nice way to talk about your divisional rivals, Steve. In that world, LSU would have played South Carolina in Atlanta for the SEC Championship, by the way. Mark Richt, Georgia’s

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