Costly errors mask impressive stats for South Carolina
Six games into the regular season and the tone of head coach Steve Spurrier’s usually upbeat voice has changed.
It has systematically decreased in confidence, and his words now seem to favor reassurance instead of fearlessness.
“I really do believe we have some excellent senior leaders,” Spurrier said at his weekly press conference.
But things just don’t feel the same as they did four weeks ago.
Even the Head Ball Coach admitted that there has been a considerable shift in the atmosphere surrounding the team.
“No, no we’re not into tearing down anymore. We’re more into encouraging. I had my one little outburst after a couple of kickoff returns,” he said. “You can’t get [plays] back. You try to learn from them and move on. And that’s where we are.”
The preseason SEC East favorite’s hopes of winning a conference championship have dwindled, and now, with Georgia on a four-game tear, just reaching the SEC championship game seems next to impossible.
South Carolina and Georgia have gone in opposite directions since the Gamecocks took the Sept. 13 matchup, as well as what seemed to be the driver’s seat to the SEC East title. South Carolina has since lost back-to-back games for the first time since 2012, and has fallen to fifth in the division, as the Bulldogs have shot up to first.
In response to the team’s two losses, sophomore Pharoh Cooper said fifth-year senior Dylan Thompson and “a couple other linemen” called a players-only meeting to refocus heading into the bye week.
“It helped a lot to hear that from the veteran guys,” Cooper said. “They’ve been there, done this. They know how to win games. They’ve been here longer than us, so we’ll just listen to them and stay focused on practice.”
Cooper said it was the first players-only meeting the team has held in his tenure at South Carolina.
An erratic, yet high-octane offense led by Thompson has prevented the team from falling into the to the bottom of the SEC standings this year.
Each of the Gamecocks’ four running backs are averaging at least four yards per carry, and junior Mike Davis leads the quartet with 567 yards on the ground.
And despite a few too many untimely turnovers, Thompson has thrown for 1,577 yards, the third highest in the SEC and the 34th in the nation.
But Furman has given up only 795 yards through the air this season — the lowest in the FCS.
“Furman is like they always are,” Spurrier said. “Their players play extremely hard, don’t make many mistakes. They’re actually nationally ranked in a lot of defensive categories. So, they’re a solid team.”
Through six games, the Paladins have limited their opponents to 132.5 passing yards game, while South Carolina gives up 264.3 yards per game. However, the Gamecocks have seen 87 more pass attempts than the Paladins this season.
The Gamecocks have scored at least 30 points in four of the team’s last six games, simply because they’ve had to.
Spurrier noted that the team has refocused after the 3-3 start and has been forced to set its sights on more attainable goals, rather than the lofty ones that were set before the season started.
“I think they want to finish with a good season. I really do,” Spurrier said. “We do have a lot of senior players, fourth-year players and so forth. So, hopefully senior leadership will kick in and we can start playing better.”