This letter is in response to the articles "Play selection hurting Gamecocks in the red zone" and "Gamecocks best when aggressive" which ran Tuesday, September 15 and Wednesday, September 16.
I take slight issue with the back to back sports features Tuesday and Wednesday about the football team.
The Tuesday edition calls out the head ball coach to “run the ball,” especially in the red zone. To be sure, Brandon Wilds is a beast, and I’m all for him getting the ball more, but I think it is telling that, by your own statistic, we rushed the ball seven times for 31 yards inside the 20 and still failed to score a touchdown. If we had run it three times in a row and not scored, people would’ve complained that we should’ve gotten the ball to our biggest playmaker Pharoh Cooper on the edge — which we tried, but even the great "King Tutchdown" was stopped.
In Wednesday’s edition, you argue that aggression is key. I agree whole-heartedly that the defense needs to play aggressively and for a full 60 minutes. Then, however, you go after Spurrier’s play-calling again, this time calling for him to be more aggressive. You call two pass plays (to Deebo Samuel and Jerell Adams) the best plays of the year and you lament that he didn’t call more like them. I agree in some ways, but your statement here seems incongruous with your earlier plea to run it more.
Finally, don’t get me wrong: I love it when Spurrier goes for it on fourth down, but once again, if we had not converted, people would be all over him (as some were after a failed conversion against UNC) saying that he should’ve just gotten the easy three points. More often than play-calling, execution is the real issue. Now let’s just go out and execute. Go Gamecocks!
- Lochlan Angle is a first year history and theatre student.