Gamecocks name 5 permanent captains
Two weeks ago, South Carolina was the third-ranked team in the country with national pundits debating its chances of a national championship, coming off a 28-point win over Georgia.
After back-to-back losses on the road, most recently a 44-11 beating at Florida, the Gamecocks have fallen out of the top-10 and are all but mathematically eliminated from the SEC Eastern Division title.
“I was obviously a little irritated, but I’m over that,” USC coach Steve Spurrier said. “When you get mad, you got to get over it, you got to move on, and we’re looking forward to the ball game this week.
“We’re trying to reinforce our guys with the positives, and say, ‘Hey, we were a pretty good team two and a half weeks ago, let’s get back to being a pretty good team.’”
As the Gamecocks prepare to host Tennessee at noon Saturday, they’re trying to return to the things that made them a good team two weeks ago — running the ball and stout defense.
Aside from allowing more than 250 rushing yards at LSU, the defense has done its part, holding Florida’s offense to 183 yards despite allowing 44 points.
The running game, and consequently the offense, has stalled, with just 36 rushing yards against the Gators.
“Our formula for winning has not occurred over the last two weeks, and we know what it is, and we are going to hope and try our best to get back to that,” Spurrier said.
With how USC has struggled on the road, trailing Kentucky at the half and barely getting past Vanderbilt before losing at LSU and at UF, defensive tackle Byron Jerideau said the Gamecocks play better at home. Spurrier said he doesn’t think being on the road is the reason for USC’s losses, though.
“I guess it was a tough stretch, but if we were strong enough and tough enough and mentally tough enough, we could have handled it but we just didn’t handle it as well as we had hoped,” he said.
“I think it’s a combination,” Spurrier continued. “Obviously, the Swamp and Death Valley are two difficult places, but still, we fumbled it away in the Swamp, any chance we had. Whether or not we had a good chance, we will never know. And the other one, we had some chances but it didn’t work out. But again, those two teams are 14-1 right now, and they are both top-10 in the country.”
Spurrier has been particularly unhappy with how quarterback Connor Shaw has played since the Georgia game. He benched Shaw in favor of Dylan Thompson for the second half against Florida, but Spurrier told Shaw Saturday “is his game.”
“I told him the other day, ‘You are not coming out unless you get hurt,’” Spurrier said. “If he skunks it up through the first half, he’s going to skunk it up the whole second half. This is his game.”
Captains: The Gamecocks voted on five permanent captains for the 2012 season — seniors Shaq Wilson, D.J. Swearinger, T.J. Johnson, Justice Cunningham and junior Marcus Lattimore.
“Hopefully, our captains and our seniors are ready to turn this season back into a positive this Saturday here at home,” Spurrier said. “I know our fans are fired up and ready to come. We haven’t performed well the last couple of weeks, but we need to regroup and get this season back rolling the way we had it rolling a couple weeks ago.”
Injury update: Defensive line coach Brad Lawing said defensive tackle Kelcy Quarles did not practice Tuesday night with a shoulder sprain. Defensive end Jadeveon Clowney said he practiced some Tuesday night, but didn’t do a whole lot. He wore a boot on his foot when meeting with the media after the loss to Florida.