Gamecocks Dominated In-State

Like it or not Carolina fans, the Gamecocks were dominated in the in-state recruiting battles for the Class of 2008. With the exception of Chester cornerback/ receiver Charles Whitlock, the Gamecocks were shut out among the State's top 10 ranked players by most recruiting services. TheBigSpur.com did have OL T.J. Johnson ranked among the top 10 prospects in South Carolina.

Consensus top 10 prospects like A.J. Green, Daquan Bowers, Robert Quinn, and Dalton Freeman did not even make official visits to South Carolina.

Clemson is on the brink of having their best recruiting class in school history, and one that will further cement the talent base in the upstate. Clemson had a built in advantage with some prospects in SC this year, like Bowers, who had a relative play at Clemson and grew up a lifelong Clemson fan. Loris linebacker Jonathan Willard also had a family member play for the Tigers in the Danny Ford era. Dalton Freeman's dad, and his high school coach and Clemson OL coach Brad Scott are longtime friends, and that had a major impact on his recruiting.

Right or wrong, the Gamecocks chose not to pursue Berkeley runningback Andre Ellington and backed off A.C. Flora offensive lineman Kenneth Page. How bad can Page be? Certainly he has to be better than Justin Sorensen, Web Brown, and Gurminder Thind. Only time will tell.

When it seems like the weakness of the offense is the offensive line, the Gamecocks would look to sign more than two offensive linemen. Yet the Gamecocks passed on Wilmington, NC mammoth offensive tackle Nick Becton (VT), Page, offensive guards David Spurlock, and Rhonne Sanderson, the brother of former USC lineman Watts Sanderson, both of whom committed to FSU. Three of Spurrier's four recruiting classes will have two offensive line recruits or less.

What went so wrong for the Gamecocks only one year after reeling in the nations No. 4 recruiting class, acording to ESPN.com? Was it more a case of the stars lining up for the Gamecocks last year? I would say that Carolina caught lightning in a bottle last year as it was a perfect storm, so to speak. In 2007 both UNC and NC State were not only suffering through poor seasons, but both changed head coaches, which allowed the Gamecocks to load up on the top talent in that state.

In the sunshine state, Miami and FSU both had about a dozen schlarships to give, and Miami also had a coaching change. There were also a trio of highly touted prospects in the Midlands that the Gamecocks scored early commitment from, when Gary Gray and Quintin Richardson both cast their lot with the Gamecocks in the spring of 2007. Even though Mark Barnes did not go public with a commitment, it was known that he was going to choose South Carolina, and had tried to commit several times to former recruiter Rick Stockstill since the summer of 2005. Even though Gray ended up at Notre Dame, he was a national recruit and openly campaigned for other top prospects to join him at South Carolina. That got the momentum started early. Gray, Richardson and Barnes all attended the Gainesville, Fla. Nike camp to try and recruit prospects like quarterback Stephen Garcia, who eventually chose South Carolina.

It was the perfect storm for the Gamecocks, who also finished the season on a three game winning streak, and were very competitive in losses to Tennessee, Arkansas, and eventual national champion Florida. That momentum and the talk of winning the SEC propelled Spurrier and the Gamecocks to a great class.

This season it appeared that momentum would carry over. Despite losing Sidney Rice early to the NFL, and Jasper Brinkley and Nathan Pepper to season ending injuries, the Gamecocks were 6-1 and ranked 6th in the BCS poll. Then the wheels fell off the Spurrier express.

After narrowly avoiding a collapse in the second half at Chapel Hill, the Gamecocks came back home and laid an egg in losing 17-6 to Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt. Freaking Vanderbilt. The Gamecocks would not reach the end zone, committing early turnovers and displaying themost horrific offensive line performance I have ever seen.

The next week, Carolina fell behind Tennessee 21-0 before rallying for an apparent win. Then, once again, the Gamecocks snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, and lost in overtime.

Carolina was not really competitve on defense in losses to Arkansas and Florida, but had a great chance to defeart Clemson, before allowing Clemson to escape 3rd and 18 and 4th and 4 on their way to driving the length of the field inthe final two minutes for a last second victory. An injury depleted secondary could not stop Aaron Kelley on the final drive, and thus Steve Spurrier had a five game losing streak, and the Gamecocks would be home for the holidays.

Not only did the season go south for the winter, but so did recruiting. Carolina lost a lot of appeal nationally with several prospects that had strong interest in South Carolina due to their lofty national ranking.

A coaching shake up delayed offers to several prospects and left the Gamecocks two recruiters short the final week of the December recruiting period.

As the Gamecocks crawl toward the finish line of this recruiting season, there are four names left on the Gamecock recruitng board. Receiver Tommy Streeter, defensive ends Devin Taylor and Chaz Sutton, and transfer athlete D.J. Donley. By monday afternoon, the fate of Streeter, Taylor and Sutton will be known. By all accounts the Donely transfer will be official in March, when the Folkston, GA native is expected to enroll at South Carolina.

The 2008 season will be critical to the future success of the Spurrier era at South Carolina. A return to eight or more wins and a bowl game and the ship should be righted. But another step back with a 6-6 season and no bowl game, and the talk of Spurrier winning an SEC title at South Carolina will be all but forgotten and the future success of the program in doubt.

Spring Practice should be interesting. Stay tuned.