Oct. 14, 2014

South Carolina Head Coach Steve Spurrier
Opening Statement
“We have Furman University coming in for Homecoming, hopefully have a big crowd come back for the annual Homecoming pageantry. If we can play better the second half of the season. I really believe that we can do that. We have some excellent senior leaders. Dylan [Thompson], A.J. Cann, J.T. Surratt and the others, guys really want to finish the year the best they possibly can. We had some good practices last week and had a good one yesterday, and hopefully we’ll continue throughout this week.

“Furman is a team that won their first couple games, struggled their last four, but they did take Coastal [Carolina] to overtime, one or two overtimes two weeks ago. Furman is like they always are, their players play extremely hard and don’t make many mistakes. They’re nationally ranked in a lot of defensive categories so they’re a solid team. I think the last time we played them, it was a very close game until Stephon Gilmore picked one off and went about 80 yards. I think it was about 28-19 and he picked one off to put that one away.

“We’re looking forward to how we play and seeing if we can make some improvements. It seems like we’ve had a few players nicked up in the last two weeks, not during the game, a little bit, but we’re pretty healthy going into the game. I’m not sure if Brandon Wilds will be ready, but all three other tailbacks are 100 percent so rather or not Brandon will play, we’ll see. Cody Waldrop’s knee has not responded very well. Mike Matulis probably will not play. We’re not quite as deep as we started the year, but still we have plenty of players and we’re hopefully ready to play our best this week.”

On what he’s seen on film from Furman
“They’re a well-coached team. They don’t make many mistakes. Obviously they’re fired up to come in and beat the big state university team, but again, we need to really concern ourselves with how we play, just make sure that we get in the habit of playing sound, fundamental football. Hopefully special teams wise, we can hold our own, maybe make a play or two. We’re always looking to see if we can play the best we can. They have given us fits. Wofford has given us fits every time we play them. Furman’s been a close one. I don’t know have the answer as to why so much, but those teams are pretty good.”

On lining up in two tight end formations
“We use that a lot. We’ve used the two tight ends a lot all year. Sometimes we put them together and sometimes we spread them out. It’s one of the formations we use a lot.”

On D.J. Smith’s suspension
“D.J. Smith is out the first half and he’s eligible to play the second half. That is the rule on targeting.”

On possibly playing Connor Mitch or Perry Orth against Furman
“Every game we play, we’d like to play as many players as possible. All five, except the first one, we got blown out the first one and Texas A&M had the ball the last nine or 10 minutes, so we couldn’t get the backups in at the end. Again, we have to try to beat Furman and then get those guys in there. But we have talked about getting Connor Mitch and Perry Orth in there for a play or two, maybe a little bit like we did with Dylan [Thompson] when Connor Shaw was playing, get them in there in the second quarter and let them hand off, throw a ball, do something. We may be the only team in America that hasn’t played a backup quarterback through the first six games. Those guys have practiced. A lot of the backup receivers have practiced well. Kane Whitehurst, Shamier Jeffery, haven’t had a catch all year. When everybody gets to play and everybody gets to contribute a little bit, it’s just a lot more fun for everybody.”

On if it’s tougher getting the guys motivated right now
“No I don’t think so. I think our guys worked pretty hard in the weight room yesterday. I think they want to finish with a good season. We do have a lot of senior players, fourth-year players, hopefully senior leadership will kick in and we can start playing better. We’ve been pretty fortunate around here to win our last five and six games, whether or not we can do it again is going to be a task, but we have to try to. We have to see if we can become a lot better team starting this week.”