BE ANY GOOD, THAT IS

With only four days until the University of South Carolina Gamecocks charge through the smoke at Williams-Brice Stadium to “Also Sprach Zarathustra” for first time in 2008, pundits across the state and beyond are chiming in with expectations.

Most notably, some weird-looking guy I’ve never heard of from the “Bleacher Report” said the Gamecocks “won’t fold again.” Excellent.

If South Carolina can beat Georgia once again, they have a very real possibility of starting out the season 7-0 before they face LSU.

Games with North Carolina State, Vanderbilt, Wofford, UAB, Ole Miss, and Kentucky should be relatively easy victories for the Gamecocks. The real test in their first seven games will clearly be the Georgia Bulldogs. [...]

The second half of South Carolina’s schedule is brutal. Games with LSU, Tennessee, Arkansas, Florida, and Clemson round out the year. Four of these five teams, excluding Arkansas, are potential top 10 teams.

That said, I think South Carolina takes all of them but the LSU and Clemson games. Tennessee is at home, and I am not so impressed with the way things are shaping up in Gainesville. Too many injuries and too many off-the-field issues.

Closer to home, the Charleston Post and Courier says the Gamecocks need to do six things to have an eight win season. Unfortunately, they don’t really make any assertions, they just ask a bunch of questions. And the few points they do make — “USC cannot enter 2008 letting [last year's five-game losing streak] hang over its head” — are quite vanilla.

Seneca’s Daily Journal added a feel-good story about “learning from mistakes” to keep some of the Upstate Gamecocks hopeful.

And not to be outdone, the esteemed Independent-Mail of Anderson published a truly inspired story titled, “USC hopes to rebound from 6-6 record.” Der… No way! Really?