Nov. 2, 2010

Head Coach Steve Spurrier met with the media Tuesday afternoon to preview Saturday’s SEC home game against Arkansas.

Steve Spurrier Press Conference

South Carolina Head Coach Steve Spurrier
Opening Statement
Ok, we’re playing a team this week that’s about like us, they are 6-2, they are ranked 17 or 19 in the country, somewhere in there, about like us. Very similar, record-wise and so forth. We both played two-thirds of the season, so we’ll see who plays the best last third as we go through. Our pass defense we thought was better going into last week’s game, but obviously we didn’t play very well. Coverage-wise we had some breakdowns, guys were out of position, we just didn’t cover some guys when we were trying too. I thought coach Johnson called an excellent game. Coach Ward and all our coaches were spending overtime, trying to play some pass defense around here and if were going to finish strong we got to get better in that area. Also, we had a lot of mistakes offensively last game. We were very fortunate to beat Tennessee because of some mental errors and so forth on our offensive team. First time all year we were on the two-yard line and failed to score, couldn’t even get a field goal, had a turnover there. We were only four of seven in the red zone and prior to that, we were leading the conference in red zone scoring. So, anyway, we were able to win a game where we didn’t play well, we had enough mistakes and so forth to lose the game. So it worked out for us and again we’re going to try and get better. Hopefully, our guys will have a real good week of practice to where we can gain some confidence as we make our stretch run here in the next four weeks. But other than that, we are very healthy, except for Chris Culliver. Chris had a shoulder injury that will eliminate him for the rest of the season. So, we wish Chris the best. He’s played well here and we got to have somebody jump in there and take his place. Marty Markett will get a chance, C.C. Whitlock will probably be the first guy in there and hopefully those guys will play well. So other than that, we got a lot to work on at practice this week, but should be an exciting game. Again, Arkansas is leading the conference in pass offense, not only are they leading it I think they are leading it by about 100 yards more per game than the second place team, so they are way ahead in pass offense. Right now, we’re at the bottom in pass defense, but we’re number one in run defense, so if you had your choice you certainly would prefer being number one in run defense. So, anyway, should be a heck of a game. I know our fans will be pumped up, fired up and it’s a huge game for us. One of the goals that our team set was to win all the home games. I don’t mind telling you that now because we do have a chance. I don’t know if we can do it or not, but that was a goal. For our guys to beat Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee the same year right here at Williams-Brice, it’s pretty neat and we’ll see if we can finish it off trying to win seven home games this year. It won’t be easy, but if we play well we’ll have a chance. So, were looking forward to see if we can play a lot better this Saturday night

Is the pass defense something that can get turned around enough in five to six days?
Well, if we can teach our guys to stay in their position on the field and be a ball player it can. If not then no it won’t. If we can smash a receiver or two while he’s catching the ball instead of standing around letting him catch it. It can get better, so we got to be more aggressive back there, and we got to play our assignments and go play. Because Arkansas is obviously the best passing team in the conference, although, they lost their best receiver, I think Childs, unfortunately got hurt last week, but they still got plenty of players and of course their quarterback Ryan Mallett may be the first quarterback taken in the draft, they say. Who knows, but he’s a big time passer.

What do you like or dislike about going to the spread offense this year?
That’s too complicated, but I do believe there is a place for a quarterback underneath and a place for the quarterback in shotgun. I believe you need to do both. Some people like to stay in the spread. I think as a guy who played quarterback some that there is a time to be underneath and a time to be in shotgun, so hopefully we will continue to do both.

Do you feel like you have to score a lot of points?
Well, you never know. You never know until the game starts and this, that and the other. The way our season has been going, what works best for us is try to run the ball with Marcus, stay on the field, and consume some clock and Arkansas doesn’t play that way. They will try and score in three plays if they can. Tell their defense go stop them and get us back out there. Last year, we had that attitude because our defense got them off the field quickly last year, but we just struggled stopping third downs. Sometimes, I ask our defensive coaches why is this guy out there and they say, well, the other guys are tired. Well, if we could get them off the field on those third downs then they wouldn’t be as tired. So, we just got to play overall better, offense, defense. Our special teams coverage was very good last week. We had a punt hit one of our guys in the foot, and Blake Baxley made a beautiful fumble recovery. One thing we did do well was getting the loose balls last week. That’s probably why we won the game. I think we got every fumble that was out there and we haven’t been doing that. So, that was encouraging to get some turnovers, but we really did not play our best, but it worked out and we got to sharpen up these next several games.

What is the reasoning for players being out of position in the pass defense?
Just a guy who is supposed to be in the middle of the field and just runs over yonder somewhere or if a guy is supposed to be here he ran off and left his area. Sometimes, when we’re playing man-to-man and you’re trying to stay on the inside or outside we get beat the other way or something like that. And, you know, sometimes you just get beat. A guy runs a good route, ball’s on time, and their isn’t anything you can do about that. It’s a team sport, so even if we’re playing man-to-man we generally have a helping guy either in the middle of the field, in the corner, or at the post, something like that so those players need to be there and we have not done that well all year. We have had some safeties that run out of the middle of the field or corners of where they are supposed to be and we got to quit that. We got to be where we’re supposes to be and give our defense a chance to play well. We have talked about that. Coach Lorenzo Ward, who is sort of our pass defense coordinator now, coach Johnson is head of everything, but Lorenzo Ward is a guy that’s played secondary, a guy who coached it in the NFL and so forth, so were giving him a little bit more importance as far as pass defense.

Why did you guys decide to put Connor Shaw in?
Well, we wanted to run that one play to see if it could make anything. It didn’t make much, so we put Stephen back in and so forth. Connor is a pretty good runner so we put him in there to try and run one of those wildcat type plays. But, you still got to block somebody and we didn’t block it very well, so I think he just made a couple of yards on it. We may get Gilmore back out there this week. We need to try and find a run or two here or there that can make some yards and we usually make some yards when Stephon Gilmore is in there in that formation.

When did you make the decision to give Coach Ward more pass defense responsibilities?
Just gave him a little promotion. Coach Johnson is in charge of everything. I’m in charge of everything, offense, defense and special teams. But, he’s the secondary coach. Shawn Elliott is run game coordinator, so lets make him pass defense coordinator and he’s fine with that. So, we gave him a little tentative pass defense coordinator. So, right now his group is bottom of the conference and we’re hoping it’s going to get better. He got it while they were on the bottom, sort of like President Obama. Giving him a little time to get it sorted out.

What do you think about your team playing to the level of your competition?
I don’t like it anymore than our gamecock fans do. I wish we could put teams away when we’re in position to do that and it seems like we become careless and allow them to get right back in the game. It obviously cost us one this year and it could of cost us one Saturday. Fake punt, that’s poor coaching on my part. We had no guy covering the end run. I’m over there yelling watch the fake of. Course, I watch that every time they punt from midfield, especially when you have a two-touchdown lead but we had a return on and that was just bad coaching on my part.

Is the execution of the general offense allowing you to look at putting in some trick plays?
What happens is anyone knows if you’re trying to throw the ball and you’re getting sacked and your going backwards. Then, you don’t try to throw much anymore, so that’s just common sense. So, hopefully we can get our passes off when we try a pass occasionally and protect and get it off try to execute it. We did a few last week, but overall not very well. The line has played pretty well. I think they played much better then the last couple years, so we just got to go coach better and try to get our guys to play better, simple as that.

In the Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee games your run to pass ratio was 2/1. Is this game going to be similar are you looking for more of a 50/50?
Who knows? We may come out firing every down like we used to and hope we don’t go backwards. No, we will shoot for 50/50, but obviously giving the ball to Marcus in the “I” and the “gun” is what we do best right now.

With Florida looming and what it means to your team how difficult is your job to get your team to focus on this one.
We talked briefly about it Monday, yesterday, that this is Arkansas week and next week we’ll talk about the Florida game. We all know what that’s about and we’ll wait till next week to talk about it. Arkansas is a team that I think in the five years I’ve been here, we’re 2-3 against them, so were going to hopefully even it up. We’re going to try to beat Arkansas. Like I said, our guys, believe it or not, set a goal of winning all the home games. We actually thought we had a team that could win all the home games this year and when the captains said that to me, I said, you know we play Alabama here, don’t you? Well coach, we think we can beat them. Well, ok, we will put that goal on our list to try and achieve and we’ll see if we do it. That would be neat. I don’t think South Carolina has ever won seven home games. That would be neat if, IF that were to happen. That’s one of our goals. So, this week has tremendous importance. Even winning eight or nine games in a season is miraculous here, as you guys know, so we got a lot to play for every week.

What would you tell Gamecock fans that look at this game and go oh win or loss it doesn’t matter as long as we beat Florida a week later?
You tell them whatever you want too. I’m worried about coaching against Arkansas.

What accounts for Marcus’ ability to avoid traffic in the middle?
Well, obviously, he’s an outstanding back that has natural vision. Obviously, he makes cuts that he doesn’t think about before he does it, he just does it and that’s what the great ones have the ability to do. There are some small holes and it seems like all of a sudden he’s just coming out the other side, like the other day. We actually blocked pretty well in the fourth quarter, We gave him a little crack. A lot of other times, there wasn’t much room for him to run, but the line did a good job in the fourth quarter. We didn’t do real great down on the goal line. We had to sneak it in with Stephen Garcia, but Marcus got behind the wad and drove it in there. He’s a powerful kid that even when he’s not running, he’ll help push a teammate into the end zone.

Where’s this D-line rank among all the D-lines you have had in your coaching career?
I don’t know how they rank overall, but they have played very well. I think coach Lawing is finally getting recognized as one of the best D-line coaches in the country. His guys play hard, they are in good position, they know what to do and our D-line I think was leading the conference in sacks even though we haven’t been that good on pass defense and we’re number one in run defense. So, those are some pretty good stats for the D-line coach. He needs a raise next year, that’s for sure.