Mitchell was a Holtz recruit. Beecher was recruited immediately after Spurrier was hired, which was the best he could find on short notice. Besides the current redshirts, Smelley and Garcia are the only two highly-recruited QB’s on the roster, and Smelley played pretty well.

Beecher is a really tough QB, and I personally think Spurrier wanted to give him a fair shot, especially since he’s a year older than Smelley and had been considering a transfer. Maybe he’ll get another chance, but he probably blew it Thursday night IMO.

South Carolina has a long history with the ACC that reads like a soap opera. There’s an old grudge between South Carolina and the North Carolina ACC schools, particularly regarding USC’s 1971 withdrawal from the ACC, and repeated failed discussions about readmission. NC newspapers have had a few editorials this week that revisited the saga.

Furthermore, our biggest in-state rival is in the ACC, and we recruit heavily in “ACC territory”.

Suffice to say that Ohio State chanting “Big Ten” would not be a valid comparison. Besides, that’s not much to brag about these days anyway.

[Translation: It's lookin' like a loooooong season in Oxford, Ohio.]

Let me throw in one more hearty “FUCK!” for good measure.

Okay, now on with my Friday.

I love AT&T Fast Access DSL.

::expects check::

Also, those of you familiar with the Ron Franklin oeuvre – what was up with him starting some thought about how Jim Harbaugh was talking about a Stanford player like he was a blonde-haired, blue-eyed daughter and sort of tapering off in a Humbert Humbert mode? That freaked me out to no end.