Junior cornerback Jimmy Legree’s game-sealing interception in the fourth quarter of Saturday’s 19-14 win over Florida will undoubtedly emerge as the most memorable defensive effort of the game. But the play was just the cherry on top of the Gamecock defense’s dominating performance in the final two quarters of South Carolina’s closing SEC contest of the year.
“Our defense was really sensational the second half,” coach Steve Spurrier said. “Our guys got tougher in the second half and shut Florida down pretty good.”
The first half of play ended with the Gators leading 14-6, and while the two teams were only separated by 12 yards of total offense at the halfway point, South Carolina’s inability to find the end zone after breaching enemy territory led to the discrepancy in the halftime score.
Going into the locker room with the Gamecocks’ SEC Championship hopes dwindling, defensive coordinator Lorenzo Ward decided changes needed to be made in order to slow down a Florida rushing attacked that had already gained 169 yards.
“We tried to settle our guys down and make a simple adjustment,” Ward said. “And when we did that we played better.”
After Ward simplified the defense, South Carolina held Florida scoreless in the second half to spearhead the Gamecocks’ comeback victory.
The Gator offense was less than balanced on the day, as Florida attempted just 14 passes while handing it off 41 times. The Gators’ preference to run the ball rather than air it out was a product of Florida’s revolving door at the quarterback position this year.
After losing Jeff Driskel to a broken leg in September and Tyler Murphy’s failure to make the start Saturday after being listed as a game-time decision, redshirt freshman Skyler Mornhinweg was handed the first start of his career against the Gamecocks. With the unproven Mornhinweg taking snaps, the Gators were forced to keep the ball on the ground.
Despite the uncertainty at quarterback going into the contest, Ward said he took advantage of the bye week to ready his defensive unit for whoever Florida would put under center come game time.
“Having two weeks to prepare, we prepared for everything,” Ward said. “I didn’t know [Murphy] wasn’t going to play until we went out to warm up and I saw him in street clothes.”
Junior defensive end Jadeveon Clowney made the most of the Gators’ predictability on offense, registering two tackles-for-loss on the day after tracking down the runner in the backfield, part of his five total stops in the game.
In the second quarter of Saturday’s victory, Clowney made the Gamecock faithful hold their collective breath when he emerged from a pile writhing in pain and grabbing his leg. It was eventually discovered that Clowney had reaggravated the bone spurs in his foot that have been bothering him for the bulk of the season, and South Carolina fans were able to exhale when the star returned to the field shortly after.
For the second consecutive game, redshirt junior linebacker Sharrod Golightly claimed a share of the team-lead for tackles, registering six stops along with freshman linebacker Skai Moore and redshirt junior cornerback Victor Hampton.
Clowney said the mix of youth and experience leading the team on the stat sheet Saturday is a product of growth throughout the season.
“A lot of younger guys are getting smarter and a lot of older guys are stepping up,” Clowney said. “And we just keep gelling together, as a group, and that’s what we try to do every week.”
Saturday’s win over Florida saw the Gamecocks claw their way back from a fourth-quarter deficit, a far cry from the reputation the team had gained early in the season for building seemingly insurmountable leads only to narrowly avoid disaster in the end.
Clowney said that the growth his defense has experienced this season is what allowed the unit to emerge from the locker room after halftime and pitch a shutout for the final 30 minutes of play to give the offense the breathing room it needed to win the game.
“It’s the group of guys we’ve got here,” Clowney said. “We came in at halftime and we were down and I told the team, ‘Man, keep your head up and just keep fighting,’. This is the SEC, the toughest conference to play in, and anything can happen in the SEC.”