Garcia, receivers struggling to connect
The biggest story entering the season for South Carolina is now nonexistent.
But even though Stephen Garcia has won his starting quarterback job back, the pressure hasn't subsided. Now he is being looked at to get the struggling passing game going.
"We all firmly believe he's our best guy now and the competition was over," said Spurrier of Garcia. "He's got every opportunity to take us as far as he can because we firmly believe he's our best quarterback on the team."
After the first two games this season, the Gamecocks are averaging 136.5 passing yards per game. Wide receiver Alshon Jeffery has 177 of the total 252 receiving yards. Ace Sanders is second in receiving yards with just 46 yards.
"What we do best is hand the ball to Marcus (Lattimore), (run) play-action a little bit and throwing the ball to Alshon. We all know that," Spurrier said. "We won't get away from that, but we do need to use some other guys more."
With Damiere Byrd still suspended and D.L. Moore out this week with injuries, the depth at wide receiver is lacking behind Sanders and Jeffery, though Jason Barnes and Bruce Ellington should be more of a factor this week. Furthermore, with Garcia only being sacked twice this season, the offensive line protection doesn't appear to be the problem, placing even more scrutiny on Garcia and the receivers.
For offensive line coach Shawn Elliott, there's always room for improvement. The line wants to give Garcia as much time as possible to find the open target.
"We've played two football games and we've given up two sacks and five or six pressures, so that throws a quarterback off," Elliott said. "You can't have a guy 6-foot-6 and 290 pounds rushing down your neck and expect to throw a perfect spiral with the timing and things of that nature. We've got to be better up front."
Ironically enough, Garcia's best plays against Georgia occurred when he was out of the pocket. He hit Jeffery on a 34-yard touchdown pass in the first quarter after scrambling away from pressure and rolling out. He later connected with Sanders on a scramble before Lattimore ran in for a 3-yard touchdown.
A move to a shorter and quicker passing game with three-step drops has been suggested by many observers, but Spurrier doesn't see that as the anecdote.
"The solution is that we're just not throwing some completions," Spurrier said. "And Georgia had some good coverage's on. We had a couple plays when there was nowhere to throw it. Stephen did a good job throwing it away."
Navy has allowed just 146 passing yards and no touchdowns through the air. With much of the attention on Navy's triple-option offense, its defense, which is ranked No. 30 in the county, has been largely overlooked.
"They just play hard," said offensive lineman Terrence Campbell. "They're very disciplined and very gap-sound. You see them make few mistakes. They don't give up — never give up — so we're just going to come out and play our game."
In defense of the Gamecock offensive unit, playing the first two games away from home played a factor.
"We can't wait to play at home," Campbell said. "Playing on the road, crowd noise has been a major factor with our play calls and just the things we do as an offense."
Finally back home now, the offense, specifically the passing game, aims to iron out the wrinkles this week before entering the bulk of the conference schedule.
"This could be the week we put it all together," Lattimore said.