Sprinkling of comments from USC Rivals and also USC Facebook pages.
They aren't talking or thinking about Kentucky yet. There's a lot of consternation after the Gamecocks barely survived against Old Dominion...
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USCMBA77: Sellers is not a good quarterback and Beamer is not a good coach. Another losing season.
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uscwatson21: I just can't believe people spent all offseason arguing that Sellers was an elite passer based on one throw against Furman.
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bayrooster: And the backup is riding the pine while our starter struggles versus Old Dominion. Great coaches we got!
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cockofdawn: It’s the first game. Lord people!! This team isn’t good, that is obvious, but it is what we expect and usually have!! So let’s wait and see if they can squeeze out 6 wins. I still think 5 is the most logical prediction.
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senecacock7: At this point 3 wins would be good. Hell even Vandy doesn't look beatable
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uscwatson21: I originally said losing to Kentucky puts 4-8 in play. At this point losing to Kentucky may put 3-9 in play.
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Ward Jr: It certainly appears like it's going to be a long season based on what we saw from the new offense.
As soon as we run into an athletic SEC defense - which could be next weekend - they will concentrate on pinning Sellers in the pocket and forcing him to throw the ball which will probably lead to more turnovers.
Basically what defenses did to Ratter last season. However, Sellers obviously doesn't have Rattler's throwing ability right now and none of our receivers are anything close to Legette. In addition, we don't have the Anderson bowling ball running game to try to contain the damage when things get squirrely.
This will likely be the recipe for some very hapless and embarrassing games, especially given the schedule. Growing pains -- if we're actually growing.
I'd like to see Loggins start rotating QBs to give the defenses a little more to think about at least in the short run.
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Lurker123: I still see 4 as the floor.
UK is an absolute must win if we are looking to be bowl eligible.
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uscwatson21: The backup QB can't throw the ball. All he can do is run the ball so you're not giving the defense anything else to look at.
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USCMBA77: Poorly coached. Our team looks out of shape, sloppy and undisciplined and it all starts with coaching.. Sellers is awful. I knew we would be bad when it took three tries to score from the three yard line at the start of the game. Our schedule is brutal and the talent is not there to compete against good teams.
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hahnenkampf: Play execution is extremely slow.
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Ward Jr: This is our new normal unless our University gets serious about obtaining and retaining talent in this silly pay-to-play era.
Outside of a few great years with Spurrier, we've typically relied on a couple of skill players to carry us during the up times.
Take Mario Anderson. Why did we let him walk? If he was on the field tonight, this game wouldn't have been within 2 TDs.
Instead, he's helping Memphis tonight run up the score in a blowout.
Our endowment sits at around $1 billion right now.
A piece of new inflows could easily be redirected to NIL Initiatives.
There's no reason to be pulling in just a handful of 4 stars and watching some of them roll into the portal at year's end.
Coaching might be part of the issue, but it's a marginal piece at best given the new variables in this new system.
Reality remains that Beamer is 1 win shy of Spurrier after 3 seasons and he's played tougher competition and contending with the NIL.
We are talent depleted and it's very obvious.
It's a cumulative effect year after year.
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Crazy Cock 89: Player retention needs to be better because as Smart said in his interview post game. You have to have depth to compete in this conference. Transfers assist in providing depth.
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Robhawk29: Did the coaching staff really have to call a timeout at the end of the game to explain how to run out the clock? Anyone?
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Dan Balfour: Shane Beamer gotzalot of splaining to do. I had such high hopes. It's a 2 to 3 win season unless Shane has something big up his sleeves.
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Hal Gonzales: If they had run one more rocket up the middle on first down I would have lost my mind. Can we not try something else on first down?
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William Lowe: Poor kickers going to need the ice bath after all these field goals.
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Jesse Kirk: Absolute trash performance, they were lucky to win.
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Wayne Eargle: We should say Thank you, to ODU as they fumbled the ball into the hands of SC 2 x near their 5 yard line, giving us a gift that allowed USC to score. Otherwise, it was at best a Lackluster performance! The players do not seem to play with any inthusiasm or excitement, just slowly going through the motions, with a careless attitude. That speaks volumes to me.
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Karl Finklestein: Man. As much as it pains me to say this, there has been no improvement from last year. As a caveat, Coach Beamer was the reason that I rejoined GC Club and am all in. But what we saw tonight was a Gamecock team that either didn’t care or was indifferent. More telling was the just ridiculous play calling on offense. After 4 years we should see some improvement and excitement from our guys. And it’s not there. The cockpit bailed out at halftime - as in the kids left. That should be all we need to say.
The program is in deep trouble.
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Wendell Adams: OK I remember the 84 team that almost lost to The Citadel in the 1st game and we went on to the best season ever! That said we didn't play 7 top 25 teams either.
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Chad Murray:
Remember ODU has beaten Virginia Tech TWICE in recent years. They are scrappy. They in the AAC conference
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David Keels: If not for 2 fumbles inside the 10, Shamecocks offense would not have scored a single touchdown. O-line still a problem. Tackling still a problem. Sad to say, but not much hope for the season. Might win 1 or 2 more.
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C.C. Garland: Might be the only game we win this season.
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Howard D. Althen: I don't understand the cool graphic. It was ODU who we were favored to beat by 20 points. This USC football "team" was the most undisciplined uncoached group of players I have ever seen in my life. And there is ZERO excuse. The fan base is second to NONE. The facilities are second to NONE. The amount of $$ is second to none and THIS is what it has produced? THIS??!!
Shane Beamer is a great guy but I fear he is not a good coach. He definitely loves his players BUT he seems to be their buddy more than their coach.
No matter what, tonight was an unmitigated disaster and bar a miracle, it is going to be yet another long season for loyal fans who DESERVE BETTER.
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Jimmy Pinson: The offense SUCKS, and for those saying the defense looked good, remember OD was picked to be fouth in the Sun Belt conference this year. That defense will get RIPPED wide open against a good team. It’s about to be another long and awful year of football
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Ca Williamson: We going to get killed this year. Beamer is gone by December I think and Tanner needs to go as well. Bring Jimbo Fisher to Columbia...one thing for sure he's going to get 9 to 10 wins a year and recruit like hell..Beamer is a glorified secondary coach at best. He's not SEC material. And it shows. After 4 years we suck worse than his first year. Meanwhile I've watch Vandy..Ole Miss and others get better each year
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Frank Knight:
You schedule these scrimmages to win by 40 and pocket $10M before the SEC schedule starts. If they continue to play like this the SEC record will be 0-8. But I think we might possibly beat Akron.
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Kenny Bean Aldrich: The thing I noticed is Beamer wasn’t pumped during the off season with the videos and such. He is super worried about this offense. Sellers need to just relax a little on throwing and trust his arm, stop throwing it as hard as he can.
