Struggling unit looking for answers -- will change under center prove to be one of them?
It's safe to say that any hopes South Carolina had of playing for a national championship in three months' time have been significantly dampened over the last six days.
With a top-10 ranking and a national audience watching, the Gamecocks saw their visions of reaching the pinnacle of college football all but disappear when the clock hit double zeroes in last weekend's heartbreaking loss to Auburn.
And yet, in the midst of that disappointment, USC nears the halfway point of the season still in position to make 2011 the best in the program's 119-year history, but its room for error has grown substantially smaller.
The next test in the pursuit to keep those hopes alive comes in Saturday's SEC East meeting with Kentucky.
"We hope we handle [the loss] well. We think we will," USC coach Steve Spurrier said. "After this week last year we had two losses. We're not in bad shape. We're regrouping and trying to get smarter as coaches."
Ironically enough, Carolina's last meeting with the Wildcats played out almost identically to its recent loss to Auburn. Like the Tigers, UK scored the go-ahead touchdown with less than two minutes remaining in the game, and the Gamecocks failed to regain the lead on the following drive before time expired. Facing a different group of Wildcats this time around, Spurrier hopes his team can avoid a repeat performance.
"[Kentucky is] a different team this year," Spurrier said. "They lost (wide receiver) Randall Cobb and Mike Hartline, their quarterback, so they've struggled a bit on offense."
While the Wildcats' offense has been lackluster through the first five games of the season, Spurrier said their defense is another story.
"Their defense has had to play a lot, but they've got some guys that stuff the run," Spurrier said. "They've got a lot of stuff. They blitz from everywhere — zone blitzes, man blitzes. They've got a lot of defense, which is unusual for Kentucky. They used to only have about two or three defenses, so you sort of knew where they were, but these guys are all over the place."
This improvement on the defensive side presents a true challenge for the Gamecocks, who enter the weekend averaging just 174.6 passing yards per game. Making the switch to Connor Shaw at quarterback after a lack of production from Stephen Garcia, Spurrier hopes a change will provide a spark against the Wildcats.
"I know our offense looks pretty sorry," Spurrier said. "We're still seventh in the conference in offense like we were last year. We're obviously not peaking as well as we'd hoped, but we feel like Connor deserves a shot to see if he can perform at a higher level and get our offense going a little bit."
Spurrier said a major issue in the passing game's lack of production has been an inability to execute plays in a timely fashion. With this issue identified, he hopes the Gamecocks can see improvement in their passing attack against Kentucky.
"We hope that the ball will get out quicker and that [Shaw] has somewhere to throw it," Spurrier said. "It appears the last few games there's nowhere to throw it a lot of times. We'll see if we can do a better job as coaches of having somewhere to get the ball out."
Despite USC's change at quarterback for this week's matchup, Kentucky coach Joker Phillips said he doesn't anticipate the insertion of Shaw to alter Carolina's offensive plan.
"They're going to do what they do," Phillips said. "It's different than going from the two quarterbacks we saw last week, going back to the athletic guy. I think these two guys are similar. [Spurrier] always goes from a drop-back passer to a drop-back passer. His system or play calling doesn't change."
Shaw has drawn praise from teammates, wide receiver Alshon Jeffery in particular, while taking first team snaps through this week's practice. With the matchup with UK drawing closer, Jeffery said the sophomore has been composed as he prepares to make his first start since struggling in the season opener against East Carolina.
"He's looked pretty good from what I've seen," Jeffery said. "He's looked excellent. I don't think his confidence ever went down. He's always there encouraging Stephen, and Stephen's always there encouraging him."
Jeffery added that the switch hasn't been an issue for the offense in this week's set of practices and said he and the rest of the offense have faith in whomever lines up under center on Saturday.
"I'm comfortable with whoever's at quarterback. It doesn't matter to me," Jeffery said. "We're going to get behind whoever's at quarterback. We've just got to come together as a team, and hopefully we'll come out with a win."
The first five games haven't seen the level of production many expected from Jeffery. The All-SEC receiver has yet to record a 100-yard receiving performance this season after posting seven in 2010 and enters the matchup with a total of 332 receiving yards and just two touchdowns. In spite of the unimpressive numbers, however, Jeffery said he's not letting them affect his mindset heading into the weekend.
"I'm not frustrated at all. I just make the best of whatever my opportunities are," Jeffery said. "Things like that happen. You've just got to fight through it and stay confident — just talk to your quarterback and your teammates."
Coincidentally, Jeffery's breakout performance as a Gamecock came the last time USC hosted the Wildcats. Over the course of the 28-26 victory, Jeffery had seven catches for 138 yards and three touchdowns, including an acrobatic one-handed grab on a 28-yard pass in the second quarter.
"I just remember doing whatever the coaches told me to do and making a play whenever my number was called," Jeffery said. "That's all I did."
Two years later, Jeffery said he's more focused on making sure USC bounces back from last season's defeat to keep its hopes for 2011 intact.
"It's big to us," Jeffery said. "Last year around this time we beat Alabama. We came off a big win, then we came to them and we lost. We've just got to rebound."