Shifting Perception Can Again Begin
posted by David Cloninger, 9/25/2009 12:36:00 PM
And what we see is not always what we see.”
----------------------------- THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT
Was that the No. 4 team in the country that South Carolina beat on Thursday?
Yes.
Was that the fourth-best team in the country?
Oh no.
But the rest of the country might think it was, and that’s all that matters.
“Ole Miss is a good team, but it’s early in the year,” coach Steve Spurrier said after the game. “Who knows where they’ll end up?”
In this age of constant rankings and up-to-the-minute power discussions, anyone who’s sitting at their office chair firing off blogs and analytical charts of the Rebels and Gamecocks last night has got a lot to talk about. It probably centers on how dominant the Gamecocks’ defense looked against Jevan Snead and how Ole Miss just can’t win its SEC opener (last night was its sixth straight loss).
To those of us at the game or watching it on TV, we realize something else.
Neither team played particularly well, and the game often seemed to be a contest of who wanted to lose it the most. The fourth quarter, where the Gamecocks got 3 yards on 15 plays while trying to run the clock, was a frightening display of playing not to lose instead of playing to win, yet the Rebels wanted no part of it.
But you know what? It doesn’t matter now.
All that matters is USC won and USC beat a top-five team. That is the kind of headline that causes the country to take notice, no matter what the actual statistics say, because nine of every 10 people who read about the game won’t have any clue to what actually went on.
That is the approach and attitude the Gamecocks must begin possessing, if they haven’t already. No matter how good Ole Miss actually is or will turn out to be, on Thursday, the Rebels were ranked fourth in the country.
And USC beat them.
“It’s the biggest win here in … forever, you know,” quarterback Stephen Garcia said, nursing a sore rib cage picked up from spending much of the evening on his back. “I’m not really sure of the tradition here, you know, but it’s the biggest win since I’ve been here.”
Informed it’d been 28 years since the Gamecocks last knocked off a top-five team, Garcia blanched.
“Twenty-eight years?,” he asked. “Wow. Well, we got it tonight.”
Yes, they did.
Now they have to start fine-tuning the approach for the next one.
USC has been in the situation far too many times, losing close games to big teams. The excuse has always been that if the Gamecocks could just find a way to win one of those games, they could begin winning a few more and reverse the sorry history of the program.
They’ve got one now. The next one could be in three weeks at Alabama (ranked third this week) but for now, USC has two teams (S.C. State and Kentucky) that it should beat in the next two weeks.
The Gamecocks, in the eyes of the nation, have gotten over the hump and can begin embarking on the journey many had speculated for them when Spurrier was hired five years ago. That one seemed to have started in 2005, when the Gamecocks won five straight before losing their last two; in 2007, when a 6-1 start fizzled into five straight losses.
This is another chance. USC has had to fight for its respect, not being handed any kind of early hype or dark-horse SEC championship predictions, and delivered a haymaker in an important test. There are no false prophets here, because USC treated the game as a huge win, but only a small step toward achieving what it wants.
That’s a great approach.
We saw on Thursday what can happen when one team, built up to be something it may not be, can’t live up to the expectation.
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“Perception over reality,
And what we see is not always what we see.”
----------------------------- THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT
Was that the No. 4 team in the country that South Carolina beat on Thursday?
Yes.
Was that the fourth-best team in the country?
Oh no.
But the rest of the country might think it was, and that’s all that matters.
“Ole Miss is a good team, but it’s early in the year,” coach Steve Spurrier said after the game. “Who knows where they’ll end up?”
In this age of constant rankings and up-to-the-minute power discussions, anyone who’s sitting at their office chair firing off blogs and analytical charts of the Rebels and Gamecocks last night has got a lot to talk about. It probably centers on how dominant the Gamecocks’ defense looked against Jevan Snead and how Ole Miss just can’t win its SEC opener (last night was its sixth straight loss).
To those of us at the game or watching it on TV, we realize something else.
Neither team played particularly well, and the game often seemed to be a contest of who wanted to lose it the most. The fourth quarter, where the Gamecocks got 3 yards on 15 plays while trying to run the clock, was a frightening display of playing not to lose instead of playing to win, yet the Rebels wanted no part of it.
But you know what? It doesn’t matter now.
All that matters is USC won and USC beat a top-five team. That is the kind of headline that causes the country to take notice, no matter what the actual statistics say, because nine of every 10 people who read about the game won’t have any clue to what actually went on.
That is the approach and attitude the Gamecocks must begin possessing, if they haven’t already. No matter how good Ole Miss actually is or will turn out to be, on Thursday, the Rebels were ranked fourth in the country.
And USC beat them.
“It’s the biggest win here in … forever, you know,” quarterback Stephen Garcia said, nursing a sore rib cage picked up from spending much of the evening on his back. “I’m not really sure of the tradition here, you know, but it’s the biggest win since I’ve been here.”
Informed it’d been 28 years since the Gamecocks last knocked off a top-five team, Garcia blanched.
“Twenty-eight years?,” he asked. “Wow. Well, we got it tonight.”
Yes, they did.
Now they have to start fine-tuning the approach for the next one.
USC has been in the situation far too many times, losing close games to big teams. The excuse has always been that if the Gamecocks could just find a way to win one of those games, they could begin winning a few more and reverse the sorry history of the program.
They’ve got one now. The next one could be in three weeks at Alabama (ranked third this week) but for now, USC has two teams (S.C. State and Kentucky) that it should beat in the next two weeks.
The Gamecocks, in the eyes of the nation, have gotten over the hump and can begin embarking on the journey many had speculated for them when Spurrier was hired five years ago. That one seemed to have started in 2005, when the Gamecocks won five straight before losing their last two; in 2007, when a 6-1 start fizzled into five straight losses.
This is another chance. USC has had to fight for its respect, not being handed any kind of early hype or dark-horse SEC championship predictions, and delivered a haymaker in an important test. There are no false prophets here, because USC treated the game as a huge win, but only a small step toward achieving what it wants.
That’s a great approach.
We saw on Thursday what can happen when one team, built up to be something it may not be, can’t live up to the expectation.
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David Cloninger. David is a full-time staff writer for GamecockCentral, and covers Gamecock football, men's basketball, baseball and recruiting. He may be reached by email at david(at)gamecockcentral.com. Replace (at) with @.