Spurrier says left tackle Shell could move to right 
The day before the Gamecocks make their 2012 home debut, there is still no definite answer to whether junior quarterback Connor Shaw will play against East Carolina. Shaw suffered a severe bone bruise during last Thursday’s game at Vanderbilt. South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier told listeners on his weekly call-in show Thursday night basically the same thing he has said the past couple of days.
“He threw the ball around a little bit (Thursday),” Spurrier said. “We’ll see how he feels tomorrow and Saturday, so he is still a little iffy. He thinks he can play, but if he’s in pain, we are not going to play him. Our trainers keep thinking that there is no way he can hurt the bone bruise anymore and that he has a good chance of playing, so we’re just going to wait it out until Saturday.”
Spurrier said he will likely make a decision on Shaw’s availability at around 11:30 a.m. Saturday during the Gamecock’s final pregame workout.
Spurrier also said he was surprised to find out that East Carolina has won the last three meetings with the Gamecocks in Columbia and remembers saying, “Dadgum, how did that happen?”
“They were pretty good, and we weren’t very good back then I guess,” Spurrier added. “The conversation out of Greenville, N.C., is that they are coming here to beat us. This is not just a big college team against a smaller college. We need our fans revved up, and we need to play well.”
Shell to right tackle?: Redshirt freshman tackle Brandon Shell had been playing the left tackle position the entire spring and summer and played some of the game against Vanderbilt on the left side. But after leaving late in the first half, Shell has reportedly been practicing at the right tackle position some this week.
“I think he likes it over there better,” Spurrier said. “He told me he felt a little more comfortable over there. I think he played it a little in high school, and for whatever reason, we started him at left tackle here. Really, there is no difference, and we’re just trying to get our best people on the field.”
Spurrier grateful for win at Vanderbilt: Spurrier expressed concern about how his teams often fail to put anyone away, referencing the Vandy game where the Gamecocks got out to a 10-0 lead only to let the Commodores get right back in it.
“There was about 10 plays in that game that could have made us a loser, and they all went our way; we were very fortunate to win the game,” Spurrier said. “We didn’t play very well.”
Spurrier wants more life from team: The Gamecocks’ eighth-year coach came down hard on his players for not showing enough emotion Thursday night against Vanderbilt. Spurrier was particularly harsh on his bench players, threatening to take them off the sideline if their attitude didn’t improve.
“We didn’t have a lot of life on the sideline,” Spurrier said. “The best enthusiasm we had was from our fans that came to the game. We had a bunch of deadbeat guys on the sideline, and that was disappointing. Guys that don’t play, they need to be up there cheering for their teammates. They’d better do that this week, or they won’t be suiting up a lot more. It’s important that your bench is alive and cheering for the guys out there.”