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Spurrier leaves Gators in past, prepares USC for mammoth victory
1) Will Sidney Rice continue his streak of consecutive games with a touchdown reception?
Like I've said for the past four weeks, this question has officially reached superstition status. I honestly feel that if I don't include it and Sidney Rice fails to catch a touchdown pass, it will be my fault. Therefore I will continue to include this question until further notice.
I've actually run out of things to say about him. When USC gets inside the 20-yard line, everybody in the stadium knows who is getting the ball, and they still can't stop him.
2) Can Carolina's defense keep up its bend-but-don't-break style of play?
It's no secret that the USC defense will give up some yards, but during the past four weeks they have stepped up when it mattered the most. They make just enough plays to win, and they miss just enough plays to keep me in a permanent state of uneasiness. I'm not complaining, because the Gamecocks keep winning, but for the sake of everybody that has to sit around me, a three-and-out every now and then would make life a lot easier.
3) Is this really only another game for Steve Spurrier?
Throughout the week, Spurrier has been shifting attention away from himself and onto the players.
"We prepare the same for Vanderbilt or Troy or Clemson or Florida, or whoever the team is that week," Spurrier said. "We try to prepare our guys the best we can and give them a game plan."
Riiiiiight.
Can't you just picture Florida's athletics director Jeremy Foley, the man who decided not to re-hire Spurrier at Florida, waking up at night in a cold sweat for the past, oh, say 365 days?
If Florida doesn't win this game comfortably, don't be surprised if Foley just buys a house in Columbia and pretends this was all some elaborate plan. I know I wouldn't want to go back to Gainesville.
4) Will Florida wide receiver Dallas Baker play?
After suffering a broken rib and punctured lung against Vanderbilt, Dallas Baker, Florida's second leading receiver, is listed as "questionable" while I'm writing this. I don't know how a guy with a freshly broken rib and a lung that isn't working at full capacity could even consider playing, but apparently he is.
While I respect that he is trying to play hurt, would you want to be coming across the middle with a broken rib and a punctured lung and look up to see a Lindsey twin foaming at the mouth with bloodshot eyes and an I-really-wouldn't-mind-being-the-guy-that-ended-Dallas-Baker's-career look on his face?
Stay home Dallas. Just stay home.
5) What will Florida coach Urban Meyer do if Carolina wins?
After a game in which LSU turned the ball over five times and still won 21-17, Florida coach Urban Meyer sat in the post-game press conference and was prepared to discuss how his team snatched defeat from the jaws of victory - but then it happened.
Six words into answering the very first question, Meyer broke down. After 24 seconds of agonizing silence, he tried to continue, but a few minutes later he broke down again.
Total meltdown, party of one, your table is ready.
It was the first time in my life that I was 750 miles away from an event and I still felt awkward. What a moment.
So what would Meyer do if he lost to the lowly Gamecocks, who just happen to be coached by the man who built the program he is trying to keep above water?
This has potential for a full-blown, stage five, Courtney Love-level breakdown.
IF the Gamecocks win and you see a guy approach him at the press conference and offer him a box of Kleenex and a bottle of Johnson & Johnson's Tear-Free Baby Shampoo, take up a collection and come bail me out.
I'll pay you back, I promise.
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