Nov. 17, 2013

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Head Coach Steve Spurrier

Opening Statement
Somehow it worked out again. We had trouble scoring obviously around the three-yard line two or three times. Elliot Fry kicked some field goals and our defense was sensational in the second half. First half they [Florida] had us a little bit on our heels. Running the ball. But our guys got tougher in the second half and shut Florida down pretty good. Somehow it worked out for us. We weren’t very good on offense again. Although we did make 370 yards, that’s pretty good I guess. Third downs we struggled again, but we had a lot of long ones. Anways it worked out again. We’re proud of the guys and proud to win 16 in a row here. We’re 6-2 in the conference, three years in a row and that’s pretty good for us. I’m proud of our players, our players play like winners. At halftime there wasn’t a lot of laughter or much joy in the locker room but afterwards we had a happy bunch of Gamecocks. Maybe something bigger is going to happen for us down the road, I don’t know. We’ll watch Missouri play a little bit, from a distance. We’ll be getting ready for Coastal and try to win our ninth game of the season next week if we can. We know they’re a good team and we know we’ve had struggles with just about everybody that’s come in here this year. This was a wonderful win for South Carolina. The fans were super, screaming and yelling, that made it tough on the Gators. Just to get a win the way it started out was good for us, good for the Gamecocks.

On the offense
Mike Davis got a few [touches], he had some good runs in there and then he had some sideways runs that didn’t go anywhere. Shon Carson finally broke a run there at the end, caught a little draw play and somehow nothing popped out of there. He must have gone 50-60 yards or so but we still had to kick a field goal. Buster [Rory] Anderson, who had dropped really a sort of seam route there in the second quarter, he made a heck of a catch down the middle. They sort of left the middle open and Connor [Shaw] saw him and threw it down there, so that was a catch. I thought we were going to get a touchdown, I thought Shaq [Roland], he actually had possession when his foot was down but I think they said he bobbled the ball initially, but that was awfully close. I think everybody saw that he had possession with his foot down but I guess the referees didn’t think he did. As it turned out it didn’t matter, we were able to get a couple of field goals. Fortunately the fake punt they had, it looked pretty good there for a while and I don’t know if the guy just dropped it or if Pharaoh [Cooper] came and knocked it out but it was close. Anyways, I think it was just meant to be for us to win this one today.

On when they learned that Auburn defeated Georgia
It was on the screen there, it was on the screen in the stadium and I think that’s when all our people started yelling. We haven’t even talked about it. Well after the game I said `by the way we do know that Auburn beat Georgia today.’ What a game that was, good gracious, a sort of hail-mary ball that went ricocheting around. I guess that’s why people watch football on television, games like the one they had. Ours was pretty interesting too. It was an old-fashioned football game I guess, a whole bunch of field goals by our team. We won one that way, usually you lose that way but tonight we won it.

Lorenzo Ward • Defensive Coordinator

On the personal foul penalties
We try to talk to the players before the game about not getting involved in a lot of the talking and bickering. Sometimes your emotions get ahold of you, but you can’t do it. You hurt your team when you do it and create a bad situation.

On giving up touchdowns on opening series
We had a substitution penalty. We thought they were going to change personnel, and they didn’t. That one was on me. We were trying to get the linebacker on, and he never saw the dime signal. I’ll take responsibility for the first one. We were in a situation where we had a chance to get off the field, and we didn’t do it. But we try to make sure we stick together as a group. Bad plays are going to happen. Florida is a good football team. They have great players, and we feel like we have good football players too. But we’ll definitely address the stops on first series.

Connor Shaw • Quarterback • Senior

On the struggles on the offensive side of the ball
Florida’s defense is really good. We knew that coming in. They’re one of the top [teams] in the league. We just couldn’t find the rhythm in the first half down in the red zone. The second half, I thought we battled a little bit stronger. W adjusted at half-time and came out and found a way to win.

On breaking Todd Ellis’ career starting quarterback wins record
Obviously it’s something special, and hopefully we can come out next week and execute and beat Coastal. I’ve got plenty of time after I’m done here to look back on all of it. So I’m just going to try and continue to help our team to win.

Elliott Fry • Kicker • Freshman

On feeling the pressure of making routine field goals
There’s pressure no matter what. It can get a little more nerve-racking just because you are expected to make anything from 40-yards in. Either way you go in with the same mindset.

On setting aside his missed field goal
A huge part of the kicking game is being able to block out the last kick and move on to the next one. After you miss there’s nothing you can do about it, so you just have to move on.

Jadeveon Clowney • Defensive End • Junior

On his performance
I always think I could have done more than I did. I had an average game; I’m always going to say that. I always look for ways to do better.

On grinding out wins
That’s the group of guys we have. We have tough guys that fight through a lot. We came in at half time, and we were down but I told the team keep your head up and keep fighting and that anything can happen in the SEC so we had to keep fighting.

On his injury
When I tackled the guy, I rolled over him and one of the linemen fell on my foot. I don’t really know what happened to it, but it got caught in there.

On the defense growing
The young guys are getting smarter and the older guys are stepping up. We just keep gelling together as a group, and that’s what we try to do every week. We just try to keep getting better.

Bruce Ellington • Wide Receiver • Junior

On his touchdown catch
It was a kind of play that was designed for (Damiere) Byrd to get the ball, but I saw my defender sitting so I just ran right past him. Connor (Shaw) did a heck of a job throwing the ball, and I scored a touchdown.

On Connor Shaw
Connor is a heck of a guy. He is a leader. He may mess up, but he stays with it and he continues to fight. He did a great job throwing the ball to me for the touchdown.

Shon Carson • Tailback • Sophomore

On his career performance tonight
Coach gave me reps in practice. They were keying in on Mike (Davis) and that helped open it up for me more.

On his contribution
It felt great. I have been through a lot of injures and now all of my hard work over the summer is paying off.

Jimmy Legree • Cornerback • Senior

On staying focused
That’s one of the main things Coach Brown has talked about: staying focused, keeping your eyes in the right spots and never get caught slipping. With a team like Florida, due to their injuries, we knew they would run it a lot. I just had to stay patient.

On his interception
It was great coverage. It was kind of a desperate situation for them, the quarterback threw the ball right to me, and I made the play.

Mike Davis • Tailback • Sophomore

On his health
I’m great. I’m 100%. Right now, we got the win, so I’m feeling great.

On Shon Carson’s performance
I have a lot of confidence in Shon. I have a lot of confidence in a lot of guys playing behind me. We have a great set of running backs.

On getting this win
It’s a great feeling. I’m just glad we beat Florida. Hopefully, things will play out in our hands. It was a great win for us.

Head Coach Will Muschamp

Opening Statement
I am very proud with our guys’ effort. We followed the script and what we felt like we needed to do to win the game, and that was ball possession, field position, beat the clock, play good defense, which we did for the most part throughout the night against a very good offensive football team. So I am extremely proud of our players and the way they continued to fight in the game. There’s a lot of negativity out there. These guys pulled together and showed you a little something of what they’re about. We just need to make some plays in those situations and win the game. The bottom line is winning, and we didn’t do it. We did not get the job done. So that’s on me, and we will go back and continue to work hard with these last two, I’m looking forward to that. The 58-yard run there at the end, we just kind of bounced out of our gap with our corner with pressure on the four down look. We changed gaps on it, and they spit on us. We know we had the safety down covering on the “x,” and we had no overlap. Unfortunately when you pressure a little bit, that’s what happens. The 34-yard pass on the third-and-nine was a beautifully thrown ball. South Carolina had great coverage and their guy made a play. We have got to get the ball off in those situations. But I am extremely proud of our staff, and our players have pulled together, trying to put ourselves in a position to win the game on the road against a very good football team. We just got to come up with a couple of those plays here and there. Missed two field goals, and we are a team that needs to capitalize on those opportunities. So we will continue to work on that. I felt like we got some good movement in the run game tonight, and we got good pressure on the quarterback. His legs didn’t hurt us like they have before. He’s an outstanding player and scrambler, so I am pleased with that. We’ll get it done, we’ll keep working.

On the tough spot quarterback Skyler Mornhinweg was put in, never having taken a collegiate snap
Well, I am very proud of him. I just told him to cut it loose and have fun. And we weren’t going to put a lot on him as far as asking him to do a bunch of different things. We gave them some different looks… did a good job of putting ourselves in position to move the ball, and we did. We had them off balance, especially in the first two drives going down and getting points. We were able to eat the clock and move the ball and follow the script, so to speak and do what we needed to do to be successful.

On red zone defense
Well, I wish we would have played better on the field. We’ve played pretty good situational football for the most part. You have got to force them to some field goals, this is just extremely disappointing coming off the goal line. We’ve got all the momentum. We have got to make that play in that situation. We have got to make the right call. I liked the call, changing gaps inside, and they just spit on us.

On the effort shown with mass injuries
We have had one starter (on the offensive line) play the same position for nine games. It’s difficult. It’s hard. It’s not excuses; it’s real. Probably South Carolina and Missouri are the two best fronts we’ve played this year. You know Jadeveon (Clowney) gets a lot of credit, but 90 (Chaz Sutton) is a really good player and (Kelcy) Quarles is very good player, 99. But I was very pleased. We could not get in loose downs with them, passing situations. We had to manage down and distance, because they are an extremely athletic, talented front. I thought that we did a very good job for the most part putting ourselves in situations to be successful.

Skyler Mornhinweg – RS Freshman – Quarterback

On game preparation
I was just preparing like I was going to be the guy all week. Coach Pease did a great job getting me prepared. He had a great game plan and we went with it.

On game plan
Coach Pease, he had a great plan this week. We really pounded it in on the goal line and did a heck of a job. The running backs did a great job running it, so coach had a great game plan.

Dante Flowler, Jr. – Sophomore – Buck

On losing streak
It’s frustrating, but I want to take my hat off to my team. For us, after all this adversity we have no excuses, but we kept fighting. For 60 minutes we played tough football and we gave it all we could. They came up with the `W,’ but at the end of the day I’m proud of my team.

Max Garcia – Junior – Offensive Linemen

On running the ball
I think we did a great job running the ball in the first half. We really went out there and got after it. Starting on the first play of the game, that was the intensity of the week; we’re going to run the ball and we’re going to play smash mouth football and we showed that in the first half. I think we showed people that we are physical and that we are still Florida.

On playing multiple positions
It was pretty easy, we worked it a lot in practice. We are really versatile with all the things that have happened this year. Guys are used to playing multiple positions.