South Carolina not cutting Gators any breaks despite rough season
Coming into the season, every Gamecock had circled two matchups on their calendar: this weekend’s with Florida and the annual rivalry game with Clemson.
The Gators were coming off of an 11-1 season and had smacked South Carolina 44-11 in last year’s meeting down in Gainesville. There was a strong possibility that the winner of this weekend’s game would represent the division.
But that was then.
A slew of injuries have derailed the Gators’ (4-5, 3-4 SEC) hopes, and they come to Williams-Brice Stadium struggling to become bowl eligible, with no shot at a trip to Atlanta.
But don’t expect coach Steve Spurrier and his team to be comforted by the fact that the Gators have struggled. They know Florida is Florida.
“They’re still No. 1 in the conference in total defense,” Spurrier said. “Their defense has played very well, and their offense has struggled a bit, and that’s why they’re 4-5 right now. But they’re a very good team. They clobbered us last year. We fumbled all over the place and got beat about as badly as we have in the past two or three years.”
“They’re a big strong bunch of guys that can play defense, and they’re very capable on offense if they don’t turn it over.”
Last weekend, Vanderbilt visited Florida and won in Gainesville for the first time since 1945, snapping a 22-game streak of losses to the Gators. Boos rained down on Florida during that game, and a year after being named SEC coach of the year, Will Muschamp is on the hot seat.
But once again, Spurrier did not put a lot of stock in what happened.
“I think a lot has been made about Vanderbilt beating [Florida],” Spurrier said. “You know, Vanderbilt did beat Georgia this year. It’s not a disgrace to lose to Vanderbilt. We have barely got by [Vanderbilt] the last two years, and I mean barely.”
Georgia visits Auburn at 3:30 p.m. Saturday, and their game will be wrapping up as the Gamecocks get ready to take the field against Florida.
That game has big implications for South Carolina, because if Auburn defeats Georgia, the Bulldogs are eliminated from the eastern division race, leaving only the Gamecocks and Missouri in the running.
So will the team be paying attention?
“No interest at all in that game,” Spurrier said. “We have no control over it. We’re just going to talk about trying to play our best this week and whatever happens within the division happens.”
Senior guard Ronald Patrick said that while the Gamecocks can’t win the division this week, they can lose it.”
“So we just need to focus on ourselves and go out there and prepare,” Patrick said.
Spurrier said that the team has many goals that don’t involve a trip to the conference championship, like winning six SEC games again.
The Gamecocks’ 15-game home winning streak is also on the line against Florida. With Michigan’s loss to Nebraska last weekend, South Carolina’s unbeaten streak at home is now the longest in the nation.
“It’s definitely a plus; we love playing at Williams-Brice,” Patrick said. “Night game, fans are going to be into it.”
So despite all the outside distractions, Spurrier has done his best to make sure that the team is focused on Florida and Florida alone.
The fact that the Gators handed the Gamecocks their most lopsided loss since the 2010 SEC championship game against Cam Newton and the Auburn Tigers is sure to only help the motivation.
“We all know what happened last year, but we know what can happen this year and what goals we have still in place,” Golightly said. “And we’re just trying to stay focused.”