Nov. 14, 2006
Columbia, S.C. – South Carolina head football coach Steve Spurrier met with the media on Tuesday afternoon as the Gamecocks prepare to face Middle Tennessee this Saturday at 12:30 pm at Williams-Brice Stadium.
Opening Statement
“Middle Tennessee is a pretty good team coming in here. Of course, Rick Stockstill was on our staff last year, and he and his coaches have done an excellent job. They play very aggressive defense, have two good running backs that have gained a bunch of yards, so they are a solid team. I think they are one game away from winning their conference championship, he’s probably going to be coach of the year in that conference and their team is playing very well. It’s going to be another difficult game for us, our guys will be ready and we had a pretty good practice yesterday. We expect to have another good one today and look forward to our final game here at Williams-Brice on Saturday at 12:30 pm. Like all teams in college, we will have our Senior Day. We don’t have a lot of seniors, like 10 or 11 that will be honored briefly with their parents out there. Looking forward to that and seeing if we can win one at home here. It’s not going to be easy. They are a good team, they will be ready to play and we should too. Last three weeks have not been a whole bunch of fun but sometimes in life you don’t always get what you would like to have and I think our guys will accept it and move on. That’s where we are right now and we will try to get a victory if we can this week. It won’t be easy, I know the fans will be here and we probably need the fans with us screaming and yelling this Saturday to help us beat Middle Tennessee.”
“We are whatever we are and we will be ready to play. We’ve got ready to play just about every game this year, I haven’t sensed any emotion downs all year and don’t expect one for this game. Our guys realized how important it is to try to get the sixth win. We sort of been in striking distance but haven’t done it recently so we are going to try again this week.”
On hiring Rick Stockstill to the coaching staff after Coach Holtz left “I didn’t know Stock all that well but certainly he had a wonderful reputation as being a real good guy and a good person, honest and so forth. He was our recruiting coordinator, so he had all the names in place ready to go. I think it is always important to keep two or three guys from the former staff if you can. He was certainly a guy that I hoped stay with us and he did (after Coach Holtz left).”
On Blake Mitchell
“He’s played a lot better. I think he has a little more understanding, maybe a little more confidence in himself. I know the look in his eye is a lot better than it used to be. I feel better when he goes back. Sometimes you don’t know what the heck is going to happen to the ball but I feel a lot better now that he is going to make good decisions. Good decisions and try to take care of it, which he did last game and certainly the second half of the Arkansas game. As it turned out, we weren’t quite good enough in either case and we have to move on and get ready for this one.”
“I thought he would play like he’s played the last two games, this year. He got off to a rough start, we made the change and now we are back to him. Syvelle is enjoying playing safety and I think he feels like that maybe a future for him. I talked with Coach Cooper and he is going to start back there this week and we will go from there.”
On the three blocked kicks last week
“If you watch the tape, which we did yesterday, the extra point we had good protection and the field goal we had good protection, and the guy got his left hand up exactly in the kicking lane of the ball. That ball comes out within about a four-five foot radius of the line and he got exactly on the ball, two in a row. I don’t know how to coach the last one any better than what our guys did. There was no penetration. I think Ryan could have kicked the second one (extra point) higher and that was crucial too. We had bad protection on one of the three, we had bad protection, and one of the linemen broke down. Trying to correct that, first blocks of the year but that’s what happens. We didn’t do a good job as coaches of teaching protection.”
An announcement by Coach Spurrier
“I do have one announcement for everyone. Here’s the best news, Sidney Rice told me that he is coming back next year. He told me and I told him, `Can I tell the media that?’ He said, `Yes sir.’ So put that on the news. Sidney Rice is coming back to play for the Gamecocks next year and so is Andy Boyd. I was talking to Andy yesterday right before dinner and I said, `Andy, you outta come back next year.’ He said, `Coach I want to.’ I said, `Really?’ He said, `Yes sir, we have a chance here.’ I said, `Well, I believe it too, we have a dang chance here next year.’ Andy is by far our best blocking tight end. He had an excellent game blocking last week and when he is in there. He senses that we may have a chance to do something special next year. I was very proud of that. Sidney is coming back; Andy is coming back for his sixth year. That was encouraging, we are starting to have some guys around here that say hey I want to play here at South Carolina as long as I can. That was some of the best news I heard in a long time.”
