Football Gripe

I just got back from making my lunch in the breakroom in my office, and every day there is a copy of the local newspaper in there to read. I, being a red blooded American male, of course read the sports section. This weekend is the big matchup between my Beloved South Carolina Gamecocks, and the Georgia Bulldogs. Of course the Dawgs are the local favorite seeing as how I live in Georgia and all, but every year it's the same old thing with the local media, and it drives me crazy when the proof just isn't there. Let me take an example and try to explain to you what I'm talking about:

"Lou Holtz, former football coach and still 10 percent humanoid, with the rest meat-byproducts, recently predicted South Carolina would upset Georgia.

I find this amusing, though not because Holtz doesn’t even have his own Friday column, and therefore his projections aren’t considered as scientific absolutes, like, say, the theory of relativity and Weekend Predictions. Rather, this is funny because in his 174 years of coaching, Holtz never once predicted a victory for his own team, even when he knew he was coming off a really good illegal offseason."

And more:

Spurrier is not with Florida.

With South Carolina, is he.

With gout, he might as well be.

The Dogs are favored by 18 points over South Carolina. If the line goes any higher, the SEC mandates they play at least one series blindfolded.

- Jeff Schultz, Atlanta Journal Constitution editorial

I hear the local talk radio hosts chuckle when someone mentions that SC has some talent on their team. They joke about Lou Holtz' NCAA Violations. They talk about how this UGA victory will be a 'hollow' one over Spurrier. The 'Mayhem in the AM' guys this morning had Lou Holtz on the show interviewing him and after they were done they commented 'Lou seems to actually believe that USC can upset Georgia!' followed by much laughter. This is repeated ad nauseam in print and TV and radio 'analyses'.

Granted, last week UGA dismantled a Boise State team that went undefeated last season, and USC didn't look its sharpest against UCF. But this is the same USC program that was beating UGA 16-0 at halftime last year. The year before UGA whomped us. The year before that, UGA escaped with a Pollack fumble/interception thing in the end zone and won by a field goal. It's been a close game, year in and year out.

I guess my biggest beef is that even though we beat Georgia, and recently barely lost to them, the media still laughs as though USC aint got an ice cube's chance. The funny thing about this is, most of the actual UGA fans I know, give USC some props for past battles well fought and some even have a bit of fear about Spurrier taking the reins there. So where's the disconnect between the media and the fans?

That's cool (pun intended), I personally don't think we will pull this one off, but damn, I will laugh soooo hard if we beat UGA, AGAIN. And I look forward to reading the post mortems containing lines like 'how could such a superior team lose to a bunch of untalented hacks from South Carolina?' (I've seen it before...)