South Carolina vs. Clemson Post-Game Notes

Nov. 28, 2009

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South Carolina

Head Coach Steve Spurrier: Improves to 177-67-2 as a collegiate head coach, 35-27 in his fifth year at South Carolina. He is now 3-5 against Clemson, including a 2-3 mark while head coach at South Carolina.
Records: South Carolina improves to 7-5 overall; Clemson falls to 8-4 on the season. Clemson now leads the all-time series 65-38-4, with a 49-30-3 advantage in games played in Columbia.
Streaks Snapped: The Gamecocks snap a three-game losing streak overall, a two-game losing streak to Clemson and a three-game skid against the Tigers at Williams-Brice Stadium. It’s South Carolina’s first win over Clemson at home since the 2001 season.
Winning More Often: Today’s win guarantees South Carolina a winning record for the second straight year and the fourth time in the five-year Spurrier era. It also gives the Gamecocks 28 wins over the last four years, tying the school record for wins in a four-year period. The Gamecocks also won 28 from 1987-90 and from 2005-08.
Defending Our Turf: South Carolina finishes the season with a 6-1 mark at Williams-Brice Stadium, their best since the 1988 season (also 6-1). The only loss came to top-ranked and defending national champion Florida.
Playing the Best: Today’s win marked the Gamecocks’ second victory over a ranked team this season; they also defeated #4 Ole Miss on Sept. 24. South Carolina is 2-3 against ranked opponents this season with losses to #21 Georgia, #2 Alabama and #1 Florida.
Big Win: The Gamecocks’ 34 points marks its largest scoring output against Clemson since 1996, a 34-31 Carolina win at Clemson. It’s the most points scored by the Gamecocks at home against the Tigers since a 56-20 victory in 1975. The 17-point margin of victory is the widest over Clemson for the Gamecocks since 1994, a 33-7 Carolina win in Clemson.

OFFENSIVE NOTES

The Gamecocks finished with 223 rushing yards, tying the second-best rushing output of the Spurrier era.
Freshman RB Kenny Miles rushed for a career-high 114 yards on 17 carries. It was his third 100-yard game of the season to go along with a 100-yard effort against Kentucky and 102 against Vanderbilt.
Freshman DB Stephon Gilmore took his first career snaps at quarterback in the first quarter, leading the Gamecocks for 59 yards in the “Wild Cock” formation to the 1-yard line before Garcia pitched to Brian Maddox for a touchdown run. Gilmore only played the one series, finishing with five carries for 20 yards and one completion for 39 yards to Alshon Jeffery.
Today marked the third time this season South Carolina scored double-digits in the first quarter (14). The Gamecocks scored 17 in the opening stanza at Georgia and 10 against Florida Atlantic the following week. It’s also the first time South Carolina has led at the half (17-7) since the South Carolina State game on Oct. 3.
TE Weslye Saunders caught two touchdown passes for the first time in his career, his only two catches of today’s game. The first went for nine yards in the first quarter, and the other was the final score of the game on a fourth-down play in the fourth.
QB Stephen Garcia completed 10-of-21 pass attempts for 126 yards for three touchdowns, tying a career-high for TD passes for the Carolina sophomore. Garcia, now 8-7 in his career as a starter, has 3,565 yards for his career, moving up to eighth all-time in South Carolina history, passing Jeff Grantz (3,440) and Dondrial Pinkins (3,459). Garcia has 2,733 for the 2009 season and remains fourth in school history in single-season passing yards. He also sits fourth in single-season pass completions (223) and second in single-season pass attempts (394).

DEFENSIVE NOTES

South Carolina forced three turnovers in today’s game. It marks the second-most forced by the Gamecocks this season, equaling their output at Georgia and falling one short of the season-high (4) at Alabama.
The Gamecocks held Clemson to 260 total yards, more than 110 yards below the Tigers’ season average (370.7). The Tigers were also held to 48 yards on the ground, their lowest output of the season and the third-fewest rushing yards allowed in the Spurrier era at South Carolina.
Clemson’s fumble recovered by Eric Norwood in the first quarter was the first turnover forced by South Carolina since the Alabama game on Oct. 17, a stretch of 17 quarters. Akeem Auguste forced the fumble, his second of the season.
DB DeVonte Holloman picked off his first career pass and returned it to the Clemson 11, a 54-yard return to set up the Gamecocks’ second touchdown of the day and give Carolina a 14-7 lead it would never relinquish.
LB Eric Norwood had five tackles in today’s game, including 1.0 for loss. He now has 54.5 for his career and remains seventh all-time in SEC history, now only 0.5 TFLs behind fifth place.

SPECIAL TEAMS NOTES

PK Spencer Lanning tied a career-long with a 47-yard field goal in the second quarter. He also connected from 47 at Tennessee. On the day, Lanning was 2-for-3, connecting from 47 and 38 yards. He is now 17-of-20 on the season, moving him to a tie for fourth place all-time in single-season field goals made with Mark Fleetwood, who made 17 in 1982.
WR Alshon Jeffery had his first career kickoff return, picking up a Clemson onside kick attempt in the fourth quarter and racing 31 yards to set up the Gamecocks’ final touchdown.

UP NEXT
South Carolina is bowl-qualified at 7-5 and will await an invitation to one of eight bowls with a Southeastern Conference tie-in. Those include the Capital One, Outback, Cotton, Chick-Fil-A, Music City, Liberty, Independence and PapaJohns.com bowls that run Dec. 27 through Jan. 2.

Clemson

TEAM NOTES

When CJ Spiller returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown it was the seventh touchdown this year not scored by the Clemson offense.. This ties the Clemson single season record for touchdowns on returns in a season. The 1990 Clemson team also had seven touchdowns on returns.
Clemson’s DaQuan Bowers blocked a Spencer Lanning field goal attempt in the third period. It was Clemson’s first block of any kind this year. Over the last three years Clemson has five blocked kicks and four are against South Carolina.
Clemson established a school record for receptions, reception yards and touchdowns by the tight end position in a season today. Clemson tight ends had a combined nine catches for 118 yards and a touchdown today. That gives Clemson tight ends 55 catches for 583 yards and eight touchdowns this year. The previous records for catches and yards were 46 for 582 in 1970. The previous touchdown record was seven set by the 1974 Clemson team.
South Carolina rushed for 223 net yards today, the second highest total against Clemson this year. Georgia Tech, Clemson’s opponent next week in the ACC Championship game, has the most with 301 back on Sept. 10.
Today marked the fifth time in the last six years that the team with the better overall record entering this rivalry game, lost.
Today was just the second time since 1988 that Clemson had lost at South Carolina. The only other loss was in 2001, a 20-15 South Carolina victory. That was also the last time the game was a day game in Columbia.
Today ended a three-game losing streak for the team with two weeks to prepare. Each of the last three years the team with an extra week to prepare lost the game. South Carolina had an extra week to prepare this year but won.
Today Clemson scored just 17 points, ending the Tigers school record streak of six straight games scoring at least 34 points.
Today ended Clemson’s six-game winning streak in games played in the month of November. The last November loss was at Florida State on Nov. 8, 2008 by a 41-27 score.

PLAYER NOTES

C.J. Spiller returned the opening kickoff 88 yards for a touchdown today. It was his seventh career kickoff return for a score and that establishes an NCAA record. Spiller, former Southern California All-American Anthony Davis (1972-74) and Ashlan Davis of Tulsa (2004-05) had six kickoff returns for touchdown prior to today.
Spiller’s kickoff return for a score to open the game was his eighth total kick return for a score in his career. He has seven kickoffs and one punt return. That ties an NCAA record held by many for total kick returns for touchdown in a career.
This was Spiller’s fourth kickoff return for a touchdown this year. He already had the ACC record. The national record is five by Ashlan Davis of Tulsa in 2004.
Spiller also went over the 7000 all-purpose yardage mark on the play. He needed just 26 all-purpose yards entering today’s game to become the fifth player in NCAA history to reach that milestone. He finished the day with 141 all-purpose yards and now has 7115 entering the ACC Championship game, fifth best in NCAA history. The record is now 7764 by Brandon West of Western Michigan, who completed his career this past Tuesday evening.
Spiller’s kickoff return for a score was the second time this year he has taken the opening kickoff for a touchdown. He also did it against Middle Tennessee State in the season opener.
While kickoff returns for a touchdown would be considered a good thing, Clemson is just 4-3 in Spiller’s career when he has a kickoff return for a touchdown. The losses were to Alabama, Maryland and today against South Carolina.
The kickoff return for a touchdown was Spiller’s ninth touchdown play of at least 50 yards this year and the 21st of his career. It was the eighth different game he has had a touchdown of at least 50 yards this year. He had two against Miami.
Spiller’s touchdown on the kickoff return gives him at least on touchdown in every game this year. He is the only player in the nation to score a touchdown in every game this year. His streak is the second longest in Clemson history. Travis Zachery scored in 13 straight games over the 2000 and 2001 seasons.
Spiller had 19 yards receiving today and now has 440 for the season. He broke his own Clemson single season record for reception yardage in today’s game. He had the previous record with 436 last year.
When Kyle Parker threw an interception in the first half, it was his first interception since the Florida State game. He had gone 69 straight passes without throwing an interception.
Parker did establish a Clemson record for consecutive games throwing a touchdown pass today when he threw the 22-yard scoring pass to Michael Palmer in the second half. He has now thrown at least one touchdown pass in seven straight games. The previous record was six games in a row by Woody Dantzler in 2000 and Mike Eppley in 1984.
Rashard Hall had an interception in the first half, it was the sixth of the year for the Clemson freshman. That is the most by a Clemson freshman since 2002 when Justin Miller had eight.
Michael Palmer had eight catches for 106 yards today. It is the first 100-yard receiving game by a Clemson tight end since September 12, 1970 when John McMakin had five catches for 107 yards against The Citadel. Palmer’s game today was just the second 100-yard receiving game by a Clemson tight end. Yes, Bennie Cunningham never had a 100-yard receiving game in his All-America career at Clemson.
Palmer’s eight catches are the second most in a game by a Clemson tight end. John McMakin had nine catches against Florida State in 1970.