Shaw to start despite illness earlier in the week
By Tanner Abel | Oct. 31, 2013There has been nonstop chatter around Columbia about Connor Shaw’s performance in South Carolina’s victory last week against Missouri.
There has been nonstop chatter around Columbia about Connor Shaw’s performance in South Carolina’s victory last week against Missouri.
With just days until the South Carolina men’s basketball team plays its first exhibition match of the season, coach Frank Martinis still waiting for his team to mature.
This Sunday, the men’s soccer team will take the field for what will be their final away game of the season against arguably be their toughest opponent to date. The UAB Blazers, who come in sporting the highest-scoring offense in the country, have been a force to be reckoned with this season, ranking 10th in the latest NCAA Coaches poll. The Blazers have steam-rolled through the second half of their schedule, winning 8 of their last 9, with their sole loss coming in overtime to No. 20 Old Dominion.
After losing five of its last six matches, including its last two, the South Carolina volleyball team is in dire need of a break. In the past two weekends, the Gamecocks have given both Mississippi State and Tennessee their first SEC victories.
For reasons I have never understood, some people have had negative opinions of Connor Shaw. Throughout his career, I have heard people on campus and around South Carolina say that he runs too much and that he doesn’t make the right decisions.
It’s a time-tested adage of sports: Teams must play their best at the end of a season. So far, the South Carolina men’s soccer team has done just that, and it will need to continue as the postseason nears.
The ball screamed over the net to the Tennessee side. The Volunteers’ Lexi Dempsey turned as the ball deflected off her side and right back over the net, falling harmlessly in between a couple of Gamecock defenders for a point. Just like that, a surefire South Carolina kill turned into a point for the other team. If one kill could epitomize an entire match, it would be that one, as South Carolina fell 3-0 to Tennessee at home Friday.
The South Carolina women’s soccer team kept their SEC regular season title hopes alive this weekend by picking up a pair of much-needed wins. The Gamecocks defeated Vanderbilt 4-1 at home on Friday before traveling to Mississippi State, where they came away with a 1-0 win on Sunday.
South Carolina came into Saturday night’s match against New Mexico with four brutal games to finish off the regular season. Still having to play two of the top three teams in Conference USA, the Gamecocks needed a win to remain afloat in the standings.
In Saturday’s thrilling 27-24 overtime victory at previously unbeaten Missouri, the Gamecocks — known for their overall youth this season — hitched their wagon to the team’s experienced veterans.
Before South Carolina’s dramatic comeback in the 27-24 victory over Missouri, it looked like mistakes would cost the Gamecocks the victory. The errors started with a missed 40-yard field goal in the first quarter by true freshman Elliott Fry, who redeemed himself later in overtime from the same distance.
Connor Shaw wasn’t supposed to play Saturday against Missouri. Neither was Kelcy Quarles. But with South Carolina down 17-0 midway through the third quarter and struggling to avoid turnovers, coach Steve Spurrier went up to Shaw and asked him if he could play.
The talk all week on the South Carolina offense has been the injury to South Carolina senior quarterback Connor Shaw.
At the beginning of the season, the game in Missouri was just a blip between road games at Arkansas and Tennessee, two places that South Carolina has historically struggled to succeed at.
1. Both teams’ quarterback situations are eerily similar. Both starters are out with injuries, but both teams have backups that are capable of filling in. How impressed was Missouri with the performance that Maty Mauk put on against Florida, and was it better than anticipated?
After playing for four straight weekends, it’s safe to say that the South Carolina equestrian team enjoyed their week off last week.
In the early moments of last weekend’s tough loss at Tennessee, No. 21 South Carolina’s defense looked more like a force to be reckoned with than it had all season.