Looks like this problem extends beyond the football program.  If true, this really points at the dreaded 'lack of institutional control' that tends to really nail schools.  However, there seemed to be a lot more damning evidence at Southern Cal, and we haven't seen anything there, yet.  What really surprises me is that we haven't heard anything from the administration at Tennessee.   More thoughts after the jump.

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/12/sports/ncaafootball/12tennessee.html?_r=3&ref=sports

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The big story I'm hearing today is that Alshon Jeffery has been cleared to play ball for Carolina.  He received a high enough score on his last SAT, but we were still waiting on a summer class grade that was expected to come out this week.  It seems that he has passed everything he needs to be cleared.  Also, he will begin his career as a Gamecock by taking classes in Summer II, so he will be on campus to begin working with the team on Sunday.

This is great news for Carolina.  Alshon has the physical skills to begin contributing this season.  There has been some questions about how we would replace Kenney.  While this does not answer that question.  It will provide some very useful depth. 

As for the Kenney question..... My personal belief is that while he is a special kind of talent, everyone had the same question when Sidney Rice left and Kenney was a virtual unknown on the roster.  We may not be able to replace his talent level, but we'll be fine.

Its still early int he process (My God, its only June), but with 7 commits, our 2010 class is shaping up pretty nicely so far.  With AJ Cann committing today, I'd like to take this opportunity to do a Mid-Summer look at our next class.  Players after the Jump.

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So... Spring practice is officially over.  That means that we all have to find ways to spend the next couple of months.  Luckily, its summer (my favorite time of the year) and finding good ways to pass the time seam to come pretty easy.  I for one will spend the next couple of months partaking in a variety of activities.  Surfing, beaching, boating, drinking, and maybe some traveling.  Hopefully, by the time fall practice starts up, I'll be knee deep into grad school in Cola.  (Keeping my fingers crossed)

What are all of ya'll's big summer plans?  Go ahead, let us know.

The main stream of this site is covering spring practice fairly well, and as I cannot attend any of the practices personally, I really don't have anything to add.   So, I am just going to complain about something.

Clemson's recruiting strategy is showing itself, again.  Marcus Lattimore, a long time Carolina lean, visited Clemson over the weekend.  (For the record, I am not one of those guys that gets bent out of shape everytime a recruit that likes The Gamecocks visits our rivals)  According to an interview that Lattimore did with TigerIllustrated.com, Lattimore shared with Dabo that he was interested in majoring in Sports Marketing...  Dabo proceeded to try to sell Marcus on Clemson's Sports Marketing program (a program they don't have) by claiming that Panther's owner Jerry Richardson went to Clemson.  The fun part is that Richardson didn't go to Clemson... He went to Wofford.  He was a star football player for Wofford in the 60's.  I just really hope that someone talks to Marcus and sets the story straight.

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As a general rule, I try to avoid the whole name calling thing.

That being said: David Reaves is a Douchebag. 

I can understand that he gave Jarvis Giles a call.  Giles used to be committed to Tenn. before the Doughnut King resigned and it makes sense to see if the kid is still interested now that they have a new head coach and a direction.

For Reaves to try and turn not just the open recruits that he was recruiting for South Carolina, but to actively persue the committed players in this class is douchbaggery of the highest caliber.  So far, it hasn't really worked out for him.  Not only are our committed players staying, but it looks like Giles may end up at South Carolina anyway.

I have to give props to Chris Payne (our first commit in this class, by the way) for sticking to his guns and having nothing to do with Reaves now that he's gone. 

On another note, I am kind of glad that Reaves is gone.  He was a good recruiting coordinator for us. But he was an awful QBs coach. Our QBs have not been getting quality coaching, or Smelly would be a lot better than he is in his 3rd year.  The Gamecock QB situation needed a bigger shakeup than just Garcia getting some meaningful practice time. Hopefully this will help. Currently it looks like Spurrier is going to get more involved in the development side of the QB situation. That can only be a good thing in my opinion. 

I saw a link in one of the Blogs last week that took me to a nice little article in the So Cal student newspaper.  In this article, the author claimed that the current perception that So Cal's dominance over the Pac 10 was no longer impressive because of the talent gap between So Cal and the rest of the Pac 10.  The author also claimed that this was Pete Carrol's fault. 

The crux of the argument basically said that because of So Cal's dominance on the field and on the recruiting trail, the rest of the conference as deteriorated into mediocrity.  Because of this mediocrity, beating up on the rest of the Pac 10 didn't impress poll voters anymore and hurts So Cal's standings nationally.  Or at least, that's the perception.  (Side note: The fact that Oregon State could win the conference if they win out kinda debunks this argument, by that's not the point here)

Why am I talking about this on an SEC blog or a USC blog?

Good question, with the performance we've seen out of Fla for the last couple of weeks (Average margin of victory for the last 6 games: 44.33) and the fact that many of the big play makers are underclassmen,  I start to wonder when this type of on field dominance is going to end for Fla.  If that's the case, does Fla do to the SEC what So Cal has done (supposedly) to the Pac 10?  I don't think so.  But its scary to think about.

Right now the SEC is the conference that recruits want to be in.  Many of our bigger teams are known for recruiting nationally.  If it stops being a hard fought conference, does that change?  I hope not.  One of the things I like about being a USC and SEC fan is that you never know who the top teams are going to be every year.