SEC Shorts
- Thread starter vacock
- Start date
Man, brutal year. Goes down as one of the most disappointing seasons we've had. To make matters worse, I got dumped by a girl the week of the Vandy game. I went into the game with the mindset "Well, at least we have Vandy, so that's one thing that'll go right this week." womp womp
Brutal. That's one of those "where were you for '07 Vandy" moments. Everyone remembers. I was on a work trip with a Clemson coworker. We were on site at a location. For the most part we were in a room watching on the laptop waiting on others to get some tasks done so we could proceed. He didn't say a word...just had a #$%# eating grin on his face all day. Every now and then he would say "you doin aight??". Caught a flight back home late that afternoon, which got delayed...ended up pulling up in the driveway around 2am. What a day.
Last edited:
2007 was the weirdest season across the board. South Florida, Boston College, and Kansas were each ranked #2 at different points in the season
Obviously the Navy game was a far bigger kick in the nut sack, given the implications, but this Vandy game has to be in strong consideration for #2 on the list of most disappointing losses. We were #6, playing at home against Vandy (with 2 more winnable games coming up), the SECCG was dead in our sights and we never mounted a threat in the game. To make it worse, it was just a crappy game overall. Vandy didn't play well by any stretch, but we somehow managed to play worse. Our 1st half possessions went:
interception
fumble
punt
punt
punt
punt
fg
fg
So, at this point we're thinking "Ok, it's 17-6. Vandy didn't score in the 2nd quarter. Let's just get to the locker room, shake it off, regroup and come back out strong in the 2nd half." Instead we go:
punt (3 and out, picking up 3 yards...this is when you knew the game was over)
interception
punt
downs
interception
punt
downs
Unfortunately, I think the Gamecocks have a lot of competition for #2 nut sack kick list. That Vandy game is certainly a strong contender. The UVA loss in the Belk Bowl also comes to mind. Not because there were major implications for the game, but just the way the whole thing went down. It was the moment we knew conclusively that Muschamp wasn't head coach material - while simultaneously knowing we were stuck with him for at least a couple more years.
That game was as close to coaching malpractice as you can get. Bentley SUCKED but Muschamp left Scar on the bench, basically just waving the white flag. I've never felt as frustrated as when he marched Bentley back out for the 3rd quarter. We've been in games where we just couldn't get anything going. But that's the one game in my life I can recall where the coach was not even trying to win the game. Worse, he wasn't even being sneaky about it. It was as if he was saying "We're going to lose this game and we're going to lose with Bentley at QB." And this was after had already shown himself to be more than capable against Mizzou earlier in the year. I've seen us do dumb things but that's the one time where it honestly felt like the head coach was not even attempting to win the game. I can't even say that about Brad Scott.
It was really a microcosm of the Muschamp tenure. "We're going to do the same thing over and over again with no variation no matter how many times it fails."
I stopped caring that much about bowl games when opt outs started. Does Deebo make a 28 point difference? Probably not. But would he have made enough of a difference to keep us on the field longer, get us points, and keep them from scoring a TD or 2. Very likely. I wasn't old enough to remember Navy. That Vandy game was so bad for me b/c it was the first time I had seen success and a top 10 ranking. Then not only to lose that one in embarrassing fashion, but to lose out the rest of the season and miss a bowl.
