South Carolina football will have the same faces coaching in the secondary but new assignments.

Defensive coordinator Lorenzo Ward will now handle all of the safeties after coaching cornerbacks last season.

Jeep Hunter, who coached safeties last season, will coach the spurs this coming season.

Jury is still out in regards to this being a good move or not....time will tell.

Well John Butler has left before we even knew who John Butler truly was. What we do know is he was the South Carolina football Special Teams Coach for the last year and now will take his services to Penn State.

In Butler’s one season at USC, the Gamecocks ranked No. 60 nationally in kickoff returns, No. 68 in punt returns, No. 68 in kickoff coverage and No. 48 in punt coverage.

Motivation to go to Penn State could have been the chance to get closer to home as he has roots in Philly and went to Catholic University.  Can not really say we hate to lose him as we did not really know him nor did he seem to have a huge impact, it was just one year on the job.

Now, who to get in this role?  Yes, it is critical due to the fact the team needs a new punter, field goal kicker, kickoff specialist and punt return specialist next season.  So getting a strong special teams guy in soon is important.

One familar name already being rumored is Ray Rychleski.  Before being fired last week as special teams coordinator for the Indianapolis Colts, a job he held for three seasons, he was USC special teams coach for one year in 2008.

Well good luck John Butler, maybe one day we will know who you were.

Monday night Alabama defeated LSU 21-0 in the BCS championship game.  For LSU it was clearly an unsatisfying result, but for many other college football fans the result was going to be unsatisfying regardless of what took place on the field.  Some fans didn't want to see a rematch; others didn't think a non-champion should be allowed to play for the National Championship, and many are unsatisfied with the BCS as a whole and want change.  Change should come to the BCS, and it probably will, sooner rather than later.

Before talking about where the BCS should go, it is instructive to remember where it has been.  In the beginning there was no championship game at all. Bowls were created by individual communities beginning with the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.  The bowls were free to issue invitations to whomever they liked, and they did.

It wasn't until the 1960s and 1970s that bowls began to enter into agreements requiring them to select a team from a particular conference.  The Rose made agreements with the Pac-12's and B1G's predecessors; the Orange selected the Big 8 champion, and the Sugar Bowl became a SEC tie-in.  That arrangement helped the conferences and the bowls involved, but it did little to select a national champion, in large part because that was not what they were designed to do.

Junior defensive end Devin Taylor has elected to return to the University of South Carolina for his senior season, he announced today.

This was the right choice for Taylor as he could use one more year to grow and position him better for potential NFL success (i.e draft status).  Also you get to stay in college for one more year...that means one more year of Five Points, the Vista, hanging out in the dorm, some Xbox...oh the college life.

Maybe Steve Spurrier pulled a Billy Madison moment and grabbed Devin Taylor and said...."Stay here. Stay here as long as you can. For the love of God, cherish it. You have to cherish it."  Picture it like this:



Here is the press release provided by USC -

Tonight the LSU Tigers will play the Alabama Crimson Tide in New Orleans for the BCS National Championship. For the first time in the BCS era, two teams will play for the national championship game out of the same conference.  My question is - how does this affect USC and is it good or bad for USC? 

It always comes down to money, and the payout for this BCS game is around 21.2 million dollars, all going to the SEC.  This is a positive for South Carolina as the SEC will divide the bowl money between all member teams.

And...  

South Carolina won their 11th game of the season by beating Nebraska in the Capital One Bowl by a score of 30-13.

Breaking it Down...1st Quarter...South Carolina won the toss and elected to receive the ball.  After a quick first down, Connor Shaw was sacked twice in the next three plays, and USC had to punt.  Nebraska started their first drive at the Carolina 46 and scored 3 quick plays later.  The extra point was blocked, and Stephon Gilmore returned it for two points to leave the score 6-2.  On their second drive the Gamecocks kept the ball on the ground for 11 consecutive plays.  On fourth and goal from the one Shaw snuck the ball in for the TD.  The extra point gave SC a 9-6 lead.  Nebraska gained a first down before being forced to punt, but during the punt USC was called for a facemask.  With the extended drive, the Cornhuskers were able to score again and make the extra point.  It started to look like Lorenzo Ward's appointment as successor to Ellis Johnson was a big mistake.  The Gamecock offense punted after three downs, and gave Nebraska good field position.

The South Carolina Gamecocks defeated the Nebraska Cornhuskers in the Capital One Bowl game by the score of 30-13.  With the win, USC gets a historic school record 11 wins on the season.

Here are three things we learned from the win:

The saying goes that defense wins championships but you could also insert ‘bowl games’ into that saying.

Teams from the Big Ten conference have won five of the past seven Capital One Bowls against their SEC foes but don’t expect Nebraska to be victorious as they have not played a SEC defensive unit like South Carolina’s.

Let me explain this further...

University of Nebraska

Location: Lincoln, Nebraska 

Students: 24,593 (19,345 undergrad) 

Record vs USC: Nebraska leads the series 3-0, last game was played in 1987

2011 Record: 9-3 overall, 5-3 Big Ten, currently ranked 20th

Head Coach: Bo Pelini (4th season as head coach, record 39-15)

Stadium: Citrus Bowl (Capacity 70,000)

Famous Alumni of Nebraska: Johnny Carson (former host of The Tonight Show), Warren Buffet (Fiancial Guru), Gerry Thomas (inventor of the TV dinner), Ndamukong Suh (NFL), and Tom Osborne(Former Coach, Congressman)

Let's break this game down further...

The South Carolina Gamecocks are set to square off with the Nebraska Cornhuskers on January 2nd at the Capital One bowl.

Looking at the early sports betting line it has South Carolina at – 2 ½.  Some have the game at -1 for USC but as we looked at most casino online betting lines right now they go from -1 to -3 and it seems encouraging people to take Nebraska in this game.

This Gamecocks blog would be bias, wait we are, in saying that the Gamecocks will win.  This game boils down to which team has success running the ball and stopping the run.

USC, as a team, averages 198 yards per game on the ground.  Nebraska, as a team, averages 223 yards per game on the ground.  For both teams, when they have been successful is when the run game is successful.

The game also pits South Carolina's No. 45-ranked offense, averaging 30.1 PPG, against a Cornhuskers defense that ranks No. 39 at 22.8 PPG. The Gamecocks aerial game is averaging 177.4 yards per game, less than the Cornhuskers secondary allows through the air, 189.1 YPG per game.

Defensively, the Cornhuskers feature the league's No. 66-rated run defense, allowing 161 yards per game.  The Gamecocks enter as the No. 2 ranked pass defense in the country (133 YPG) and 44th in run defense (135.9 YPG).

In summary, South Carolina has the edge in this game as said before the key to obtaining the win is stopping the run.  USC can and will do this.  Just look at this stat to see why….USC is only allowing opponents to average 3.7 yards per carry this year, one of the better marks in the SEC, which is really saying something considering the fact that Alabama and LSU are both in this conference as well.