A Little Air of Optimism

Surviving Preseason Predictions might be the toughest fight for the Game Cocks. Well that, and their wonderfully outspoken quarter back Stephen Garcia- who don’t worry, doesn’t have a guaranteed job yet.

 

Last year South Carolina thought they were a little bit of a big deal and that’s because they did a lot of big things for the first time ever. Beating a No. 1 team, Alabama, won their first game ever in the Swamp, won the Eastern Division for the first time and made it to Atlanta.

            Of course we all know they lost there, but still they seem to be pretty proud even if head coach Steve Spurrier tries to keep them in reality. He particular mentions that the team needs to realize that Florida, Tennessee and Georgia all had down years last year and that helped them a great deal.

            “It was a good year. It wasn’t a great year,” he said. “We stretched our dimensions a little bit, but we’ve not hit where we believe we can go yet.”

            That being said, Spurrier has declared this a “new time” for the USC program. There are a lot of things he worries about but if you were to ask him what freshman he’s most excited about be prepared for his exuberant smile and ecstatic answer.

            “You ever heard of Jadeveon Clowney?”

            Football fans may remember the frenzy the young teenager caused as he debated which school to star at and for weeks his decision hinged on South Carolina, Clemson and Alabama. Clowney is a South Carolina native, which no doubt helped in the decision but Clowney’s decision to go to the Game Cocks makes Spurrier giddy just the same.

            “Shoot five, six years ago there’s no way he would pick South Carolina,” Spurrier said. “Now he thinks, ‘hey, we could win big at South Carolina’.”

            But its not all smiles in Columbus. Drama with their quarterback Stephen Garcia has left a bad taste with Spurrier who commented on his “stupidity” several times at SEC Media Days.

            “I guess we don’t want to kick [Garcia] out for stupidity,” Spurrier said to the laughter of reporters.

            The reason, he says, for the unlimited amount of patience with Garcia’s transgressions off the field has been the faith in the type of person Garcia is.

            “Basically we do believe he’s a good kid, a good person,” Spurrier said. “With this latest incident, we told him he could go play somewhere else if he wanted to but he wants to stay here.”

            Spurrier says Garcia has made lifestyle changes after several incidents where Garcia’s behavior was called “unruly and rambunctious”. When Garcia comes back, assuming he can keep his mouth shut for that long, he will be competing with Connor Shaw for starting quarter back. 

            A lot of Spurrier’s struggle this year is just the kind of thing that Garcia embodies- over zealous confidence and thinking he is invincible. Spurrier knows that the success the team had last year doesn’t mean they’ve accomplished anything yet.

            “There’s a little air of optimism which you have to have, that’s good,” he said. “Hopefully we’ll be smart enough to know that its not going to be easy, and we’ve got to play extremely well, prepare well to give ourselves a chance to do it.”            

             Keeping tabs on that confidence will be on the agenda as long as it takes for players to buy in to the fact that this is 2011, not 2010.

            “Its one thing to be competitive and another thing to win the game,” he said. “We’ve not won a huge majority of games yet. We’ve been competitive. We got enough players to get in the action, to compete with everybody we play. But taking that next step and winning a whole bunch of games, winning the SEC, that’s what we’re trying to do. We haven’t got there yet.”

            Keeping tabs on fan’s confidence will be another Spurrier struggle.

            “[The fans] are going to tell the guys how great they are. Hopefully we’ll be smart enough to handle it and go from there. But historically we’ve not, so it will be a challenge to see if we can handle some pre-season predictions, ‘cause we’ve never had much of those before in the past.”

            A strong component you will no doubt know the name of is running back Marcus Lattimore who again is expected to star on offense. His confidence is quiet but ever-present, even as he talks about his Heisman chances, saying he has studied a lot of film and thinks he has a chance. But chance, at least right now, is all he has before taking a regular season snap even if his coaches praise his hard working mentality.

            “Marcus gets the hardest worker in the weight room award every spring,” Spurrier said.

            Another hard worker on offense is receiver Alshon Jeffrey who Spurrier says you can brag on him but doesn’t affect him at all and says now he’s “a lot faster than he’s ever been.”

            Alshon, true to form, did remain modest when he spoke to reporters at Media Days saying it doesn’t matter to him who scores, “as long as we win.” Alshon hasn't forgotten that the trip to Atlanta last year did not have a favorable outcome. 

            “We didn’t win the whole thing,” he said. “We’re not anything special.”

            Alshon says he is working on running better routes and using his quickness to work on his overall game. He says its instrumental the team learns from last year’s experiences.

            For defensive tackle Travian Robertson, this year puts a lot of pressure on defense.

            “Its tough being on the defensive line in this conference, you don’t get anything that’s free,” Robertson said. “We’re going to take it one game at a time to eliminate mistakes from last year. We know its gonna be tougher than it was last year.”

            Robertson explains that the “little air of optimism” is actually a very important characteristic to keep on this team in particular. 

            “Lack of confidence has been a problem with our program in the past,” he said. “We’ve been working on that.” 

            Confidence seems to be on a better track but Spurrier has more to worry about. He says third and one defense needs to improve along with pass protection and special teams. But talent is not the main concern- getting player’s minds ready is.

            “Our talent level is by far the best it’s been since I’ve been there,” Spurrier said. “But now we gotta go play you know? We gotta go play.”

            Spurrier knows if you can win in Atlanta you can win the National Championship and he knows that its been proven the last five times its been put to the test.

             “We’ll see if we can do it.”

Arkansas’ Warning in the West

SEC Coaches echo each other at SEC Media Days once they hear a question about Arkansas. They each shake their head and utter the same nervous answer,  “They’re good.”

Time to study the competition.

When opposing coaches talk about their upcoming 2011 engagements with Arkansas its a quick lesson to the threat looming for SEC schedules.
With out hesitation USC head coach Steve Spurrier knows right away who he's nervous for.
"Arkansas played against us better than anybody," he said. "They blocked and tackled, didn't make many mistakes either- they're a good team."
South Carolina defensive tackle Travarian Robertson also nervously eyes the competition and remembers them vividly from last year.
"Arkansas had a great offensive line," he said. "They got a great coach and from what I've seen they stuck together as a team, have great confidence and great discipline."

Like many other teams in the conference, Arkansas has to replace a prolific quarterback in Ryan Mallet, who left for the NFL Draft. The competition in Fayetteville will pit junior Tyler Wilson and sophomore Brandon Mitchell against each other for starting quarterback position.

“With Wilson, it’s very impressive how much he cares, his commitment not just studying offense but defenses,” head coach Bobby Petrino said. “I’ve been very impressed with Tyler.”

“He still has a little time to get ready,” receiver Jarius Wright said. “But who ever the coach decides to put out, the team will have their back.”

Petrino says Wilson fills a leadership role amongst the team. Wilson and the younger Mitchell have been competing since the spring, and Petrino doesn’t think much will change about making a decision closer to game time. He describes that it is a ‘process’. When one quarterback does great in practice, he may falter with the spring game. If one does poorly in practice, he may flourish in scrimmages.

With inexperience in that position, a lot of help will come from the running game and an extremely successful back in Knile Davis. 

“We have a huge advantage with Davis,” Petrino said. “He can get us out of bad runs.”

Last year, Davis had better numbers than both Alabama’s Trent Richardson and South Carolina’s Marcus Lattimore. This year the quiet expectation of his explosion on the field is hard to miss from teammates and opposing teams alike.

“We have a running back that’s going to shock the world,” said teammate defensive end Tenarius Wright.

When Petrino talks about his receivers like Jarius Wright, Joe Adams, Greg Childs, or Cobi Hamilton he simply says, “they make plays.” That small statement makes a gigantic impact on the field for young Razorback QB’s.

“The benefit for our QB is they don’t have to be saying, ‘this is my best receiver, I have to throw to him,” Coach Petrino said. “They can all make plays for you.”

The Razorback offensive line has also improved according to teammates. And that’s great news for a team needing to protect young arms and using Davis as a weapon. But according to Petrino, while his offensive line has been given accolades, after losing key players there is still reason for concern.

“On paper that unit will have the biggest question mark,” Petrino said. “The advantage of having back our interior makes the question marks on the edges. Size wise and athletic wise we’re there. They’re just youthful.”

On top a stellar offense anticipated in Fayetteville, coach Bobby Petrino says his defense doesn’t get enough credit. “They never do,” he says.

 “Every game I tell them, ‘Hey, defense is where you win big games, where you win championships.’” He said. “And they held their rope, they kept us in a lot of games.”

“We have pride in our defense,” receiver Jarius Wright said. “This year we have depth on D, more experience. We’re kinda depending on them this year.”

Last year Arkansas was good. This year, they have even more pre-season buzz surrounding them. From what coaches and players say, they are using the mistakes of last year to perfect their present season.

“Being a 7-5 team, having that taste in our mouth…” Tenarius Wright said shaking his head. “We don’t want that taste in our mouth anymore.”

No matter the unit Petrino says the goals are avoiding mental mistakes. Mistakes Wright saw some of last year.

“Last year we needed more focus, more mental capacity,” he said. “We just needed that extra edge. The big stage was just a lot to us. It was definitely jaw-dropping to me.”

Now, there’s a call to action. The team as a whole has made an effort to study more film and to study it better, paying more attention to more detail. Outside the film room, there’s a blatant and upfront goal whether it be as a team or individually.

“Just being faster and stronger,” Tenarius Wright said. “We are realizing this is not just a game. We’re going to strive to be better. We’re watching film and picking up more detail. We just are playing no hesitation, no thinking about it, just full speed football right now.”

According to Petrino spring’s focus for the team was third downs, and creating offensive confidence by going with the big plays, the deep throws and explosive runs. On the other side of the ball, defense worked on red zone D and stopping the run, which is everyone’s weapon in the SEC this year.

For Arkansas’ running game, while things look good, Davis knows there is still room to improve. Whether that’s with the ball in his hands or being a team leader in the weight room.

“I’ve definitely stepped up to be a vocal leader this year,” Davis said. “My blocking has to be good but my reads coming out of the backfield have to be better than last year.”

In Arkansas’s weight room instead of flashy signs, there is just a 2011 schedule- no circles, no marks, just a black and white view of what’s ahead. While they stare at opposing names and dates as they train, enemy camps are training too, only they have Arkansas’s name circled on their schedules.

“Do you think you are an honest contender for the National Championship this year?” one reporter asked several Arkansas players.

“I do,” was the only answer given.

“There’s no extra pressure with the West, we have high expectations ourselves,” Jarius Wright said. “We’re a pretty close bunch already, we take care of our teammates.”

 Jarius speaks for a team with focused confidence and chemistry. A team that realizes the blemishes of last season and their close path to success this year, as long as they stick together and keep on the “grind.”