Sept. 9, 2002

Columbia, S.C. – “We do not have big-play people. James Adkisson gives us big-play capability, he got injured early in the second half and is out three-five weeks. Rod Thomas is out indefinitely with an ankle injury. Andrea Gause had some swelling in the knee, but we’re going to go with him as long as we can.”

“We cannot make mistakes. We have to be a mistake-free football team. I don’t believe I have ever coached a football team in my entire life that had seven turnovers in a football game. The football was on the ground more then it is in Coach (Mark) Berson’s soccer match. It was unbelievable.”

“Looking at it defensively, Virginia had two long drives against us. On the first drive, four times they converted 3rd and 5 or more. They hit the back out of the backfield twice we didn’t react to it. They hit two screens, we were in man coverage and we didn’t jump on it. They hit one out where our corner had too much cushion. Then the quarterback scrambled. We never had a sack, we never made them pay the price for throwing the football. We didn’t give up the big run, but we gave up the third down and the big play.”

“On defense it just doesn’t fit. We stop them on two downs and then have a problem on third down. That is what constitutes long drives.”

“Offensively, when you go back and look at it we did some good things on offense. Everybody is trying to make the great play. We try to do that, get extra yardage but we have to eliminate the bad play.”

“I think the offensive line played fairly well. Corey Jenkins played well except tried to make big plays. Three of our turnovers occurred inside their 20-yard line. All three of them, including Langston Moore’s would have been on first down.”

“Andrew Pinnock played pretty well, Cedric Williams played pretty well as did Watts Sanderson. The guy that is playing pretty good on defense is Langston Moore, he is playing excellent. I think Moe Thompson played his best game and Teddy Crawford played his best since he has been at South Carolina.”

“Looking at the University of Georgia, this is the last thing I want to do, to go into the Georgia game with that type of performance. This could be embarrassing on Saturday.”

“They (Georgia) have the best offensive line in the country. (Jon) Stinchcomb, and (Kevin) Breedlove are All-American candidates. They are big and strong.”

“They have two quarterbacks. (David) Greene was a Freshman All-American quarterback last year. He completed 22-33 last year against us. Then they have D.J. Shockley who looked impressive against Clemson.”

“Georgia’s receiving corps is the best in the country. (Fred) Gibson did not play against us last year, he is outstanding. (Terrence) Edwards is a career leading receiver there. Then you put in (Damien) Gary, he’s the fastest guy on the team and that’s hard to believe with Gibson and Edwards.”

“Musa Smith is a great runner. He has very quick feet and he is powerful.”

“So where is their weakness on offense? It sure isn’t in the offensive line, receiver, quarterback or tailback.”

“I thought Clemson did a tremendous job, played hard and played physical against them and Georgia still put 31 points on the board.”

“They don’t do a lot on offense, but what they do they do very well. They are very similar to Florida State in they run a sprint draw and sprint draw pass and you can’t tell a difference between the two. With their offensive line, we won’t be able to get pressure on them even if we blitz.”

“Defensively, I think they are better then last year, at least when we played them. They are much more aggressive. They have two great linebackers. Boss Bailey is an All-American. If I get a chance to talk to him after the game I’m just going to ask him one question, “Why didn’t you go out?” I mean the guy is as good as you are going to fine. The defensive line is very big, strong, aggressive and their secondary is physical and quick.”