Friday, December 29, 2006

Gamecocks face the Houston Cougars in today's Liberty Bowl @ 4:30!


There is a lot to do in Memphis. You could travel the city sampling bbq, hit the legendary Beale Street clubs for some of the best music in the country or take a tour of Elvis’ home (Graceland) like Syvelle Newton did yesterday. But today @ 4:30 pm, the Gamecocks (7-5) will leave the five-star Peabody Hotel behind and head to the Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium to face the Conference USA champion, Houston Cougars (10-3) on the artificial-turf in this year’s Liberty Bowl.

By the numbers: Cougar’s coach Art Briles is 0-2 in bowl games since taking the helm at Houston. Coach Spurrier is 0-1 at Carolina. SEC teams were 9-1 against C-USA teams in the regular season. With losses by Rice (to Troy), East Carolina (to SoFla) and Tulsa (to the Utes), C-USA teams are currently 0-3 in this year's bowl games. For all of you gamblers who like to put some money down, the Gamecocks are favored today by 5 points.

The State newspaper has an excellent article today on the importance of this afternoon’s Liberty Bowl game against Houston for Coach Steve Spurrier because “you always remember your last game.” Spurrier hit the nail on the head. Think about it, all last summer most people didn’t remember the magical season with notches of victories over Florida and Tennessee; they remembered the blemish of a blown lead and win by Mizzou in the Independence Bowl. The Visor is a football history encyclopedia and he knows that USC, with a 3-9 bowl record is the caboose of D-1 Schools, (with 3 bowl victories Indiana, Kansas and UNLV also share in this dubious honor.) After dropping an embarrassing (38-31) loss to Missouri in the 2nd half of last year’s Independence Bowl, Coach Spurrier will need another year to tie Coach Holtz for all-time bowl victories by a USC football coach (2, both against Ohio State in consecutive Outback Bowls).

The Bushido is pulling for the Gamecocks today and I’ll try to sneak out of work early to grab a cold one and catch the 4:30 game. The Gamecocks must respect and contain the throwing game of the Cougars led by Kevin Kolb, (C-USA Player of the Year) or we could end up with the same outcome as last year’s very similar styled Mizzou team. If the Gamecocks win today they will finish the season with 8 wins. If they blow-out Houston, they may just get enough votes to change that 35th ranking to a top 25!

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