What Curse?
Posted October 10, 2010, 5:20 PM ET

In the Palmetto state, it's known as the "Chicken Curse".

It is the one single explanation to describe every athletic failure concerning the University of South Carolina. Supposedly, this strange hex goes back to the beginning of dirt, or whenever the school officially became "USC".

I don't believe in curses....and I also don't believe my eyes. Because the Gamecocks beat the crap out of the nation's #1 ranked football team, the Alabama Crimson Tide.

Check that....Bama used to be #1.

The Gamecocks were fantastic. No flukes, no trick plays....just great football. The Cocks played so well, that even the "Ball Coach" said good things about his quarterback.

Spurrier claimed it might be one of the biggest moments in school history.....who ya' kidding? It's by far the biggest moment in school history.....even though Ray Tanner's national championship baseball team might have an argument.

Either way, I can only imagine the scene at Five Points afterwards. I also assume that there are very few sober folks stumbling around the greater Columbia area....

The win, coupled with Les Miles' trickery of Urban Meyer's Gators, puts South Carolina in the driver's seat of the SEC East. Yeah, there are still some danger games ahead like Arkansas and Florida, and even a trip to high-scoring Kentucky this weekend....but make no mistake about it: the Gamecocks are really, really good.

And one more thing....there's no such thing as the Chicken Curse.

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I had the chance to watch the NC State Wolfpack play in person on the Southern Fried Football™ Tour.

I know people are excited in the capital city of South Carolina with the Cocks, but they're getting giddy in the capital city of North Carolina, too.

The Pack can play.

And a quick look at the schedule indicates that a Thursday night showdown with Florida State is fast approaching.....and the winner is liable to be the odds-on favorite to win the Atlantic Division and go to Charlotte for the ACC title game.

Tom O'Brien's slow, steady approach to putting together a football program appears to be working just fine, thank you. In past years State has been slammed by injuries, but 2010 appears to be the break-through year that O'Brien and the Wolfpack faithful have been waiting on.

It was supposed to be the Heels that claimed the headlines, but instead it's the Wolfpack that looks like the best threat to break the championship drought on Tobacco Road.

While NC State fans are circling the calendar for that big home game against the Noles, they need to be careful about their roadtrip to Greenville to play in-state rival, ECU.

The Pirates were thumped by the Heels, but their amazing comeback win against CUSA rival Southern Miss will get the locals fired up for their arrival.

Speaking of being thumped by the Heels, the Clemson Tigers can be added to the list. UNC beat the Tigers for the first time since 2001 and in the process claimed their third straight win of the season.

After the loss, Dabo Swinney said he was embarrassed and blamed the loss on his inability to coach. Right now, most Clemson fans would agree. The Tigers have dropped three straight to Auburn, Miami and UNC. One constant for Clemson has been their failure in close games. Since 2006, the Tigers are 6-15 in games determined by a touchdown or less.

I guess I won't be hearing from Miami Hurricane fans for a while. Every year about this time, I hear that the "U" is back and they are going to take care of business. After watching the Canes get destroyed at home by Florida State, maybe we need to put the smacktalk on the back-burner.

The Canes could still represent the ACC's Coastal Division in the title game, but they won't with more efforts like the one against FSU.

Last week, I claimed that Les Miles was the luckiest coach in college football history.

After watching the conclusion of the LSU-Florida game......I'll stick by my claim.

Whoever made up the "I'd rather be lucky than good" line doesn't know how accurate they are!

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Are the Carolina Panthers the worst team in the NFL?

I think you can make a case on behalf of Jerry Richardson's team. After attempting to watch them play the offensively-challenged Chicago Bears, there's not much left to say about the Panthers.

They are unwatchable when they have the ball.....unless you want to see how they are going to screw up either a handoff, snap, pass or any other assorted offensive play. To be honest with you, I'm not sure that I've ever seen a NFL team more inept offensively than Carolina.

To date, the Panthers have scored 0 touchdowns in four pre-season games, and 5 touchdowns in the first five regular season games of 2010. That's pathetic.

The good news is that they get a week off this weekend, but then they get the equally bad San Francisco 49ers at the Bank of America stadium. If there is going to be a blackout in the Queen City this year, this game has a chance.

The game with San Fran is important....because another loss at home to a lousy team begs the question if the team can actually go 0-16 this season. All year, I've refused to believe that it was a legit topic....but Sunday's performance was so awful, that you begin to wonder if they can put anything together on offense.

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The Chase for the Cup rolls into Charlotte this week.

In all my years of hosting a sports talk show in the Queen City, this is the least amount of buzz I've ever seen or heard about NASCAR.

Maybe it's the dominance of Jimmie Johnson.....or the suck-ability of Dale, Jr.....Whatever it is, the sport has some serious problems.

There just doesn't seem to be any talk about the races, despite the fact that the drivers have been getting into altercations seemingly every week. It is a really fascinating topic. But I'm not sure there is one single answer to how you solve the problem.

Either way, I'm looking forward to being at the Speedway Club on Thursday for our radio remote.