ORLANDO, Fla.—South Carolina fielded its first ever football team on a Christmas Eve to play Furman in 1892.
It felt like Christmas once again for the Gamecocks as the seconds wound down on their 30-13 win over Nebraska in the Capital One Bowl.
Not just any win, but it was the 11th win of the season, a first for USC in its 120-year history. The 1984 team had gotten close, but fell short, losing in the Gator Bowl to Oklahoma State.
Most giddy of all in the celebration after the game was USC coach Steve Spurrier, who said it didn't get any better than this for him. For a coach that has won national championships at Florida, it didn't get any better than making a different kind of history at South Carolina with a team that had expectations of greatness before the season, but could have easily let it slip out of its hands.
The veteran quarterback dismissed from the team. The starting tailback and Heisman contender injured and out for the season, and then more injuries to key starters. An NCAA notice of allegations. The Gamecocks faced nearly every adversity there was, and when it was time to hold on and press forward, that was exactly what they did.
Trailing with just seven seconds left in the half, the Gamecocks held on and pressed forward in a different way than they had all season, as quarterback Connor Shaw found wideout Alshon Jeffery for a 51-yard "Hail Mary" pass. Jeffery, who was later ejected in the third quarter for a personal foul, leaped over a group of defenders, held onto the ball, and pushed forward to cross the plane, giving USC an unprecedented 16-13 lead going into halftime.
"Connor (Shaw) rolled out and dodged one or two guys and stumbled a minute," Spurrier said. "The next thing I knew he got his feet and got a good throw on it. I don't know if the wind carried it right beyond one of their guys, but I looked up and I saw Alshon (Jeffery) pluck it out of the air. Then, I think he made an excellent dive into the end zone to go back up 3 or 4 more yards. It obviously was a big play."
Shaw has a knack for dodging trouble and catching his feet. He started the first game of the season, but was pulled for the veteran Stephen Garcia, who rallied the Gamecocks from a 17-point deficit to beat ECU.
But when Garcia was dismissed for his poor decision-making off the field, Shaw was ready and on his feet. He took back the starting role and finished what he started against ECU in the bowl game against Nebraska, as he ran for 25 yards on a fourth down to Nebraska's 6-yard line, all but icing the game with less than five minutes remaining.
Shaw was hit hard on the play, looking disoriented for several seconds before coming back to the sideline. He recuperated from the blow and pointed to the stands, shouting an emphatic, "Let's do this!"
"Connor was ready when his chance came," Spurrier said. "We knew that, so it wasn't like, hey, we're in trouble. We never were in a lot of trouble because we have a defense that can play. We got receivers, quarterbacks, we got ball players, so you keep playing the game and fortunately we won a bunch of close games, and today was a close game until about the fourth quarter there, so it was neat."
Tailback Kenny Miles would punch in the final score of the game to give the Gamecocks an insurmountable 17-point lead with three minutes remaining. Miles was also an unpredictable part of the unpredictable season, starting his first game of the season against Nebraska after having a wrist injury.
"This season was special and this team was special," Miles said. "I'm glad that we came out here and we played Gamecock football today."
When Spurrier became the coach at South Carolina, Gamecock football wasn't much to brag about. And in his first five seasons as a coach, Spurrier wasn't much to brag about, but just as his team has done all season, Spurrier overcame the adversity he faced, proving that he was still the Head Ball Coach from Florida.
He vowed to make a change when he first came to USC and brought that to fruition with the school-record 11-win season, calling this year's squad "the best team ever from South Carolina." He made a similar vow after the game—to not have to wait so long to make history again.
"We're a happy bunch of guys," Spurrier said. "Like I told the guys, next year's team, they'll try to win 12 because 11 already happened, so we'll have some new goals next year."
