Gamecocks focus on stopping run, improving offense against Spurrier’s former team
The race for the SEC East comes down to this weekend.
Despite the Gamecocks’ loss against LSU on Saturday, a win at No. 3 Florida will put them in the top spot of their division. If they win out this year, they guarantee themselves a trip to the conference championship. The Gators improved to 5-0 in the SEC with a win over Vanderbilt last weekend.
Coach Steve Spurrier said in his press conference Tuesday that if the No. 9 Gamecocks can’t escape the Swamp with a win, they will turn to other goals for the season. But as of now, their mission is clear: to take a major step toward a trip to Atlanta, where they played for an SEC championship in 2010.
“If we’re going to win our division, which we hope to do, this is a crucial game,” Spurrier said. “We all know that. I don’t know how else to say it, except we’ll go down there and be ready to give it our best shot and hopefully play with a little bit more energy from a lot of our guys than the last time we played.”
The Gamecocks struggled both to establish their offense and to stop the run. USC was limited to 34 rushing yards on the night. Junior tailback Marcus Lattimore tallied 35, while junior quarterback Connor Shaw, who had rushed more than 70 yards in his previous two games, finished with -1.
Spurrier said although the blocking of USC’s offensive line was partially to blame, Shaw should have passed the ball more than he did. He finished the night completing 19-of-34 attempts for 177 yards, but he was also sacked four times and threw two interceptions.
“Hopefully, we can get him looking down field longer before he takes off,” Spurrier said. “Obviously, he’s been very successful running out of the pocket, but the other night, he ran it too quickly several times.”
Although Spurrier said he considered playing sophomore quarterback Dylan Thompson after he thought Shaw had been hit in the head, he added that Shaw is still the Gamecocks’ top quarterback.
He also said the Gamecocks will try to get more touches for Lattimore against Florida. As a freshman, the tailback ran for 212 yards and three touchdowns at the Swamp.
Defensively, USC’s focus this week will be on stopping Florida’s running game. The Gators are led by senior running back Mike Gillislee, who has averaged 103 yards per game. Sophomore quarterback Jeff Driskel is also a threat on the ground with an average of 54 yards.
The Gamecocks allowed LSU to rush for 258 yards, which senior linebacker Shaq Wilson attributed to poor tackling and not playing in the right gaps. The Tigers had a physical offensive line and schemes with as many as eight linemen, and Wilson said Florida’s offense will be very similar.
“They do a lot of the same things, get a lot of the big personnel in there and at times they bring six people on [offensive] line, maybe seven,” Wilson said. “So they definitely want to run the ball, establish the running game, get things going with the running game. So if we can get the run stopped and make them one-dimensional, we’ll do very [well.]”
USC’s defense has been thinned by injuries, and defensive line coach Brad Lawing said after Tuesday’s practice he still has not determined whether sophomore tackle Kelcy Quarles, redshirt sophomore tackle J.T. Surratt and redshirt senior tackle Byron Jerideau will play Saturday.
To add to the significance of this weekend’s contest, facing Florida has personal importance for Spurrier, who won the Heisman as a quarterback there in 1966. He also coached the Gators from 1990 to 2001, leading them to a national championship and six SEC championships. His son, co-offensive coordinator Steve Spurrier Jr., earned his master’s degree from UF.
Spurrier said he has a good relationship with Florida coach Will Muschamp and called the competition between the two schools “healthy.”
“I’m a Gamecock now, and this is our team,” Spurrier said. “I certainly hope the Gators finish second in the East this year. That would be a good finish for them, and hopefully we finish first.”
As USC gets ready to face its third top-10 opponent in three weeks, wide receiver Bruce Ellington said the team is fully aware of the magnitude of this week’s game and that the players have not allowed last week’s loss to affect their preparations.
“We’re moving on from last week,” Ellington said. “That game was last week. Even though we lost, we just have to focus on this week and focus on the task at hand. We have to go to Florida and try to get a win.”
With a spot in the SEC Championship on the line, senior spur DeVonte Holloman said the Gamecocks are looking forward to their battle against a division opponent.
“We didn’t play awful on Saturday,” Holloman said in a release. “But we know how much more important this game is, being against an (SEC) East opponent. So the intensity has picked up a little bit.”