Gamecocks hope to make adjustments during bye week
With South Carolina idle this weekend, coach Steve Spurrier’s press conference Tuesday discussed the state of the Gamecocks at midseason — or at least what they hope is the halfway point of the 2011 campaign.
“It’s sort of interesting that we’ve played seven games,” Spurrier said. “Last year we played 14. We’re hoping to play 14 this year. We don’t know yet, obviously.”
USC will have to win the SEC East again if it wants to play 14 games. At 6-1 overall and 4-1 in the conference, the Gamecocks control their own destiny in the divisional race. But they still have hurdles to clear, the biggest of which will be the absence of tailback Marcus Lattimore, who suffered a season-ending knee injury in USC’s 14-12 win at Mississippi State on Saturday.
“The loss of Marcus is huge for us,” Spurrier said. “We got to regroup and keep on playing.”
It appears the Gamecocks will go about doing that with a true freshman in Lattimore’s place when they play on Oct. 29 at Tennessee. Blythewood High product Brandon Wilds will start at tailback against the Volunteers, Spurrier said.
“If we can make some yards, certainly we can hand it off to him 20, 25 times,” Spurrier said. “He’s got good size, good quickness, good speed. He’s ready to go.”
Spurrier said he is optimistic that injured tailback Kenny Miles, and — to a lesser extent — Eric Baker, could be healthy enough to play against UT. Miles has a sprained wrist that has held him out of competition since the Vanderbilt game. He currently has a cast on the wrist. Baker severely sprained his ankle against Vandy.
With the benefit of the bye week, USC believes Miles could make enough progress to be cleared to play. Baker is considered more of a long shot.
If Baker and Miles aren’t available, walk-on Josh Hinch, curiously a Knoxville, Tenn., native, will be Wilds’ backup, Spurrier said. Hinch, a redshirt senior who transferred to USC from a NAIA school in Kansas, was one of the stars of the spring game in April with six receptions for 43 yards and three carries for nine yards.
“He’s a nifty little fellow,” said Spurrier of Hinch. “He’s a pretty good little player though. If we have to play with him, we can do it.”
One player who will not be playing much “traditional” tailback is Bruce Ellington, Spurrier said. The slotback will for the most part remain in his current role as a receiver and wildcat quarterback whenever USC wants a change of pace on offense.
“He could play some tailback, but I think we’ll leave him mainly at wide receiver and use him at [wildcat],” Spurrier said.
Given the controversy that has surrounded his team over the past week, the growing list of injuries and its inconsistent play to date, Spurrier said the Gamecocks should “count our blessings” to be in the thick of the conference championship race, but can’t lose sight of what they must improve upon to have the type of “big season” that was expected of them in the preseason.
“We need to play a lot better. Offense, defense, special teams, everything. Coach better,” Spurrier said. “I believe we’re capable of doing that, so that’s what’s encouraging too. We haven’t played to our potential, I don’t think.
“This is not a great team by any means. We’ve a pretty good team that maybe has a chance to be better, but you have to do it on the field and not talk about potential and all this, that and the other.”