USC GAME PREVIEW

South Carolina (6-5, 3-5) @ #24 Clemson (8-3, 5-3 ACC), Saturday, November 25th, Noon, ESPNHD, XM Satellite Radio ch 191-193.

The Line: Clemson -5

Edge goes to:

Offense: Push

Defense: Clemson

Special Teams: South Carolina

Intangibles: South Carolina... They're due. They're more than due. They've been playing well against good teams (almost beating Auburn, Arkansas, and Florida) and Clemson hasn't. USC HAS to win this game. They MUST get this monkey off of their back. They've been Clemson's bitch for 1,460 straight days. Yes I factored in the leap year, so as of tomorrow they will have been Clemson's bitch for 1,461 days.

Our panel of DFIG "experts" say:

Willy Mac:

Amazingly through all the food, alcohol, and sleeping, Chili and I have somehow managed to make our preview post a whopping fourteen hours before the game. This aside, this is going to be the same old sad story for us unfortunately. Much like in past games, our success will rely solely on Tommy Bowden and Rob Spence’s stubbornness and Will Proctor’s cocksuridness… if that’s even a word… which Microsoft is telling me otherwise… f*ck you Bill Gates. We can sit here, and sulk, and think about the honest truth that is an ass whooping waiting in the wings to swoop down and jump on us tomorrow, or we can think about the positives. We’ve had double the time to prepare for this game and I think fourteen days is plenty of time for Tommy Bowden to work all of the stubborn prick out of his system. Carolina has been playing up and we’ve been playing down… but I think two weeks is enough of a break for our Tiger’s to get it in gear. Hopefully... HOPEFULLY... Some changes have been made on the offensive side of the ball. The defense will see a lot of time tomorrow but I think that the play of some of our younger guys will pull us through another close one.

Clemson 20, South Carolina 17
Spurrier to Miami at the end of the season

Mark my words, if tomorrow's game gets out of hand for either side, there WILL be another fight.

Chili:

I was disappointed when Clemson lost to VT this year, but I still held hope that this could be a special season. After the Maryland game, all hope for anything out of the ordinary was lost. The Tigers kept themselves respectable by eeking by NC State. While hope of a good bowl game is gone, we can still put a nice gold star next to this season's record if Clemson can knock off a good Sakerlina squad. Speaking of Sakerlina, some idiot Gamecock just discovered my Gamecocks Say the Dumbest Sh*t post and made a mini rambling and incoherent comment about it, again ballyhooing Carolina's ability to lure the Gameday crew without mentioning that all the crew could talk about was how lame USC's showing was compared to ours. A poster prior to him summed up Gameday's interest in USC pretty perfectly by saying they came to USC more for their coach and for the visiting team than they did the Cocks. Anybody who throws out the "rival school's alumni delivering pizza" line proves them self to be an unoriginal hack unworthy of our full wrath. Okay, all that was besides the point. While many Tigernetters are taking USC lightly and just breaking out their .txt file of old Gamecock jokes, Clemson should absolutely be ready for a battle come Saturday. Sakerlina faired respectably against Arkansas, a team with an offense similar to ours. Our O hasn't sizzled lately and hopefully much tweaking has been done to the system. Offensively, Carolina is starting Blake Mitchell, who has performed well lately but might find it tough to do so with Gaines Adams in his face. Sidney Rice is always a threat, and we may see Syvelle Newton worked back into the O a little bit after some time playing defense. Sakerlina's run defense isn't quite as good as advertised except for the middle, where we will have a tough time running. Hopefully Proctor will keep their D honest by throwing some 15-20 yard passes and you can bet we'll see some screens whether you want them or not. James Davis should be rested enough to make up for 3 subpar games where he managed but a combined rushing total of around 154 yards. I hate to be wishy-washy, but I really don't know how to guage this game. We know what Sakerlina team will show up; the same one that has played some top teams close. The question is whether we'll see the Clemson team that bulldozed GT and prior teams, or the Clemson team that looked lost offensively versus VT, UMd, and NCSU. Will the real Clemson please stand up?

If Clemson shows up: Clemson 32, Sakerlina 24