GoGamecocks.com
Morris: Run down
As USC prepares for No. 2 Georgia, lurking in the back of players minds might be the fact that the Gamecocks have beaten a top-three team only once
Posted on 09.10.08
CommentsRelated Content
- Analyst: Expect trickery from Spurrier vs. UGA
- The dread offense
- Practice report: Search for McKinley replacement
- Video: Coach Spurrier and players preview the Georgia game
- Stafford returns to his QB roots
- No quarterback starter named yet
- It ain't over — it's only September!
- Spurrier: Doubts go with the job
THE SUBJECT DURING a South Carolina coaches’ staff meeting early this week turned to a familiar subject around Williams-Brice Stadium. Steve Spurrier reminded his staff, just as he will his team this week, that no USC team has defeated a team ranked either No. 1 or No. 2 in the country.
It was precisely the same conversation Spurrier had with his staff and team two years ago when second-ranked Auburn came to Columbia. USC, of course, lost that game and a season ago extended its string to 10 losses against No. 1- or No. 2-ranked opponents when No. 2 LSU got the best of the Gamecocks.
“We have a chance to do some history right here,” Spurrier said Tuesday, speaking of Saturday’s USC game against No. 2 Georgia. “So the opportunity presents itself. That’s something we can try to do, try our best to accomplish something here. ... We talk about trying to do things that have never happened in the history of our program. We’ve done a few, but we haven’t done that.”
In three seasons under Spurrier, USC defeated Florida for the first time in 66 years. It won at Tennessee for the first time. He is the first USC coach to field bowl-eligible teams in his first three seasons.
Through Rex Enright, Paul Dietzel, Jim Carlin and Joe Morrison, no USC coach has managed a victory against a No. 1- or No. 2-ranked opponent. The highest-ranked team USC has beaten was No. 3 North Carolina in 1981.
Against teams ranked in the top three, USC counts that one win against 19 losses. As a stand-alone statistic, one could make a strong case that USC fails miserably when it comes to playing top-notch competition.
You need some context. That kind of statistic on its own is similar to the declaration by a television network announcer during the 2000 World Series. He said the New York Yankees were unbeatable when leading after eight innings.
The announcer’s premise was that the Yankees won more than 95 percent of such games. Four years later, a baseball statistics nut named David Smith calculated that major league baseball teams, as a whole, win 95 percent of games in which they lead after eight innings.
Such is the case with college football teams playing against opponents ranked among the top three teams in the country, using The Associated Press weekly poll. Only Miami and Tennessee among ACC and SEC teams have respectable records against top-ranked teams since the AP polls began in 1936.
Before we go any further in this highly unscientific study, USC fans should know that Clemson stinks against the big boys as well. Clemson is 1-9 all-time against top-three teams, its only win coming against No. 3 Florida State in 2003.
The research was expanded to include games against third-ranked opponents for the express purpose of increasing the sample. The research also included all current ACC and SEC schools all-time, figuring that the relevancy of such numbers extends beyond the length of the teams’ membership in their respective leagues.
What the research found was that — aside from Miami and Tennessee — USC and Clemson are not alone in not faring well against stiff competition. It makes sense. Take Saturday’s game at Williams-Brice Stadium. USC enters as a seven-point underdog, according to the oddsmakers.
USC is a flawed team against a vastly superior Georgia club. USC might be without its one playmaker on offense, wide receiver Kenny McKinley, who is nursing a hamstring injury. Georgia appears every bit deserving of its national ranking.
“Number 2 team?” Spurrier said when asked about Georgia’s national standing. “Oh, certainly, certainly. ... They really don’t have any weaknesses: offense, defense, special team play. They’re a good team, well-coached, guys hustle and play hard all the time, in position and don’t make mistakes.”
Should unranked USC win, it would be a tremendous upset, the kind of upending that seldom happens, at least when involving an ACC or SEC team going against a top-three team.
Miami is the exception. The Hurricanes are 17-20 all-time against top-three teams, including a 9-7 record against No. 1-ranked opponents. Included in that record was a streak from 1981 through 1991 in which Miami defeated eight consecutive No. 1’s.
That number becomes more significant when you consider that nearly half of the ACC and SEC — 11 of 24 members, including USC and Clemson — have never defeated a No. 1.
What the numbers represent overall is USC faces long odds against Georgia. Even Garrett Anderson, USC’s starting center, admitted Tuesday that he was intimidated by Auburn’s No. 2 national ranking two years ago.
“My third game of college football was against Auburn, and they were No. 2,” Anderson recalled. “I remember that got into my head mentally.”
Anderson said this time he will see Georgia as just another college football team, regardless of its strength and its national ranking. Unfortunately, the odds say that line of thinking will not make any difference.
Listen to Morris Tuesdays from 4-5 p.m. on ESPN Radio 93.1 FM.
Most Viewed Stories
- Spurrier hires new assistant
- Late losses dampen USC bowl spirit
- Outback still likes USC; Beecher demoted
- RB Giles getting closer to decision
- Gamecocks pass Ivy League hoops test
- Spurrier questions Kiffin's call
- South Carolina rolls by Princeton 84-58
- Coaching news may ignite recruiting
- Two Carolina coaches hit the road
- Women's pregame: USC vs. Wake Forest
@Nyx.CommentBody@