NCAA Football – South Carolina is just stops from making history

We covered South Carolina’s story back in early October. Without much of a warning, the South Carolina Gamecocks had pulled off one of its most clever and memorable upsets in the program’s history. The Gamecocks defeated at home the NCAA defending champions, the Alabama Crimson Tide. Not only did they won its first game ever against a No.1 ranked school, but -check this out- they outplayed the man who had ridiculed its defense on the previous season: Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram.

Head Coach Steve Spurrier was finally able to break the spell and South Carolina defeated the Alabama Crimson Tide 35 to 21. The Gamecocks quarterback Stephen Garcia had one of his best nights ever. If you are into numbers, Garcia completed 17 of 20 for 201 yards and three touchdown-passes. Freshman Marcus Lattimore of South Carolina outplayed Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram. Lattimore completed 23 carriages and for 93 yards and 2 touchdowns. Ingram, on the other hand, went completed 11 for 41 yards and no touchdowns.

This weekend, many things could change. The guys from South Carolina are going to head on to Florida and play their hearts for the SEC East Crown. There has been 117 seasons of South Carolina football. Only once, back in 1969 had the people in Columbus, South Carolina celebrated an ACC Championship. Let it be noticed, that they haven’t got this close to win again, since. Until this week, when the Gamecocks face the Florida Gators in what could be their second biggest upset of the season.

Since its win over the No. 1 team in the nation, the Gamecocks have had a somewhat irregular series against 4 teams. The record since they crushed Alabama: 2-2. The Gamecocks had to go into overdrive to leave behind Vanderbilt and Tennessee, and, let’s be frank, their game against Arkansas last weekend, wasn’t the prettiest showcase of football ever.

But here is the key to this all. If South Carolina defeats Florida, it will have a Ticket to play the Auburn Tigers. Ok, I know its not official yet, but taking into account the marvelous season that the Auburn Tigers have had, there is a good chance that those boys are going to win the SEC West. So, if we take a quick look at the references, one could assume that whether Florida or South Carolina makes it to the SEC Championship Game, there is still a fairly good chance that either team could upset the Auburn Tigers.

Historically, the SEC West has been the weaker end of the conference. What we need to focus on here is on a simple fact: most any team in the SEC West has been much stronger then any other team in the SEC East this season. And here is where the Gamecocks have to react. South Carolina is not a big school. We have already talked about this issue on another blog entry. South Carolina is not one of those elite football program schools in the country we expect to see each year in the Bowl Games. The Florida Gators, on the other hand, is one of those teams.

What’s the difference? Well, the Gator will always have a better chance next year. For the Gamecocks this season might be as good as it gets for a long-long while. And if that is not enough motivation to go out there and put their hearts out on the field, then they probably don’t deserve a chance at SEC Championship Game.

NFL – The Dallas Cowboys are not making the cut

This NFL season has been a complete and utter disaster for the Dallas Cowboys. The team has been struggling in each and every aspect of the game. No matter where or how you look at the Dallas Cowboys, this team is having one season to forget. The last debacle came at the legendary Lambeau Field, this Sunday night, while the Green Bay Packers manhandled the Dallas Cowboys in their 45-7 crushing of what was already a very ill and under-par team.

Jerry Jones, the 68-year-old owner of the Dallas Cowboys since 1989, had seen some ups and downs throughout his years as the team’s general manager. But this season promises to take the No. 1 spot when it comes to rankings the Cowboys’ failure. Sure, Jones is one of those guys -actually, he is one of the few owners who is in a day-to-day basis- involved with his team. Even more, he is known to eventually even go down to the sidelines and work from within.

Jones was there when the Dallas Cowboys won its Super Bowl in 1993. But things have not been so sweet since then. This season, for instance, The Cowboy have only defeated the Houston Texas at Houston, in week three. But Washington, Chicago, Tennessee, Minnesota, the New York Giants, Jacksonville and most recently, the Green Bay Packers, have all managed to defeat the Cowboys. Matter of fact, the last two games have been lost by double digit margins.

Now the Dallas Cowboys head coach, Wade Phillips, could be working his way around the last minutes at his job. Had Wade Phillips managed to lose by 7 points against the Packers, heck by 12 points even, this would be a whole different story. And yet when you put this whole thing into perspective, the team is just not working so well.  Here is the funny thing. At the beginning of the season, Wade Phillips had a team that could have made it to the off-season and once there, win a couple of games.

Last season, the Cowboys went on to a decent 11-5 record and even went on to win the first game of the playoffs. We are talking about a team that won its first playoff game in more then a decade. So, this time around, it was only logical if you would expect the team to at least be close in the chase for a spot in the playoffs. Keep in mind that the team that at the beginning of the season was going for a Super Bowl bet, is now probably going to end up with a top 3 pick in next year’s NFL draft.

There are too many issues with this team right now.  They are really struggling in defense. When it comes to rushing yards the team has averaged 75.6 managing to hit the  31st best record in the league. And they have allowed over 129 rushing yards and are ranked 24th in the nation. The bottom line is that the season is already two months old and whether the Dallas Cowboys decide to stick with Wade Phillips and see what happens from there on, or decide to make a very drastic change and replace its coaches, you have to realize that its not a matter of who’s in the coach spot. The organization is in trouble. Like Jones himself said when asked who could he lay his finger and blame for what happened this season: there are not enough fingers to point out what has gone wrong. He couldn’t be more accurate in his diagnosis.

Exciting Dewhurst in the Making

Posted by Leigh on October 14, 2010 · Leave a Comment 

The final declarations for the Group One Darley Dewhurst Stakes on Saturday, have the promise of making it one of the most thrilling events of the season, with the three prominent challengers that punters have been anticipating seeing battle it out, Dream Ahead, Frankel and Saamidd, included in the prestigious event.

Bwin finally making a move in the UK

Global gaming giant Bwin have finally decided to have a serious crack at the UK market. After years of ignoring the UK because of the maturity of the local market, they have hired several experienced UK folk to bring them into the fold. Earlier this year Bwin bought into the Oddschecker listings, but haven't covered horse racing.... until now.

How popular that will be in the UK, where punters expect to be allowed a decent bet is unknown. Bwin is a firm which in the past has banned all customers who were employed by other gambling firms, campaigned the Greek government to set a pitiful MAXIMUM stake in order to block competition, pathetically tried to welsh on paying out an Aussie client because he was beating them betting in-play, and numerous other controversial or even indefensible actions - search any betting forum for their previous black marks.

They might have a massive advertising budget, but they have a lot of work to do to gain market share in a mature UK market which expects better service.Posted byScott Fergusonat18:16