SPORTS GROUCH Bowled Over!

Posted 1/9/19

Our Gamecock family faithfully sat through the Belch Bowl.

No, we weren’t in Charlotte. And we feel for the Gamecock faithful who were. It was not pretty.

Jake Bentley almost seemed like …

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SPORTS GROUCH Bowled Over!

Posted

Our Gamecock family faithfully sat through the Belch Bowl.

No, we weren’t in Charlotte. And we feel for the Gamecock faithful who were. It was not pretty.

Jake Bentley almost seemed like the only one who wanted to be there.

Football requires 22 players who want to play.

Virginia’s Cavaliers wanted to play as they rolled up 27 points. What about the Gamecocks? Zero. They even missed their lone chance at a field goal.

Do we need a new coaching staff? Probably.

Clemson plays to win

At Tiger Town, they have figured it out. It’s about winning. The Tigers won all their games this season.

They had to change quarterbacks to do it - and it took guts to start freshman Trevor  Lawrence over an experienced Kelly Bryant.

Lawrence and his Clemson team mates made national No 3 Notre Dame look like a high school team. 

Despite that, for Monday night’s title game, the bookies had Alabama a 5-point favorite and many fans thought that a sace bet.

It wasn’t. If you bet on Bama, you lost your shirt.

Clemson came with the best game plan, delivered the best execution, kept Alabama off balance for 60 minutes and was at the Bama goal line as time ran out.

If I had told you before the game that Clemson would win 44-16, you would have wondered what I was smoking.

Congratulations, Clemson.

What do players win?

Back to bowl games. Do we have too many of them? 

You bet. It’s ridiculous.

Those who support this annual joke like to say the bowls are for the players.

For many, it’s the last time they will dress in their team’s uniforms, a final bonding experience for guys who have played 60 minutes of every losing game.

In previous years you only had to win half your games to qualify. Now we have so many bowls they invite teams that won only 5 of their 12 seasonal games.

After seasons like that, most players would rather go home to their families.

40 bowl games plus 3 NCAA playoffs are about 35 too many. They involve 84 college teams. At many bowls, camera crews do not show the empty seats.

The winners are ESPN which needs games, local cable channel sales people who get something live to sell and college athletic departments which pocket big bucks they don’t share with the academicians.

College ADs defend this as a boost to enrollment and beaucoup tuition bucks.

Most games were as lopsided as the Carolina and Clemson games. Too bad the Lamecocks didn’t show up for their game.

Oh, well, there’s always next season.

  The Sports Grouch welcomes readers’ emails at ChronicleSports@yahoo.com

Clemson, Alabama, Bentley

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