Oct. 17, 2006

Columbia, S.C. – South Carolina head football coach Steve Spurrier met with the media on Tuesday afternoon. The Gamecocks take a 4-2 record as well as a 2-2 mark in the conference into Nashville, Tenn. this weekend to meet the Vanderbilt Commodores. Vandy comes into the match-up with a 3-4 record, 1-3 in the SEC.

Opening Statement “Before we talk about Vanderbilt, I just want to mention, since I get to send a direct message to our fans all the time, I want to say thanks for the atmosphere of the Auburn game. Our fans are doing their part in building a championship program here. I can’t ask all of them to agree with everything I do here, but I do want our fans to know that I’m trying to run this football program like I have at Duke and at Florida. I’m trying to do a lot of the same things and I think 98, 99 percent of them understand what I’m trying to do. The part that they play in creating a big-time environment at our stadium, is very important to us and I appreciate all they do.”

“Vanderbilt, as we know, had the big weekend last week (at Georgia). It did not surprise any of us that has been watching SEC ball this year. I think Alabama beat them by three points; they lost a heartbreaker to Ole Miss when they had like five turnovers with over 400 yards and they were a field goal away from beating Arkansas. They are a good team, a very good team. Of course, Bobby Johnson and his staff have done an excellent job there. They probably coach as well as any coaching staff in the conference to tell you the truth. Their players make very few mistakes, it seems like they are always in position and they play with tremendous effort. It is going to be a very difficult game, like all of ours are, if we are going to go in there and come out with a win. We are looking forward to it. We have been off for a week we are getting a little healthier, Mike West, Web Brown and so forth. We are pretty close to full strength as where we started the season. Marquee Hall is probably the one player that certainly we can use on the defensive line, who is injured. I think he is actually scheduled to have his surgery tomorrow. The Vandy crowd I’m sure will be alive. I keep telling our coaches and our guys it is going to be loud out there. I really believe all the Commodore fans that have been in the background will come out for this one. Any time you have a big victory like they just had, increases hope that they can be one of the best teams in the conference. They are certainly right there with everybody, and of course they get to play us, Tennessee, Florida in the remainder of the season. When it is all over with we will find out how good any of us are, how good Vandy is, Florida, Tennessee and so forth. A lot of season left, sort of exciting that so many teams have a chance. We are not completely out of it but we certainly don’t need to worry about anything but Vanderbilt. We are looking forward to the game this week.”

Comparing Vanderbilt to last year’s team
“(Jay) Cutler could run too, they just didn’t feature him that much running. Although they did a little bit, but their offense made a lot of yards against everybody last year and they still are making a bunch of yards. I think their defense is a little bit stronger, similar scheme and such but maybe a little more active than the Vandy defense last year.”

They have been pretty good all year. Three of their four losses have been within a touchdown. If a play or two would have gone their way they could have beaten Ole Miss, Alabama and Arkansas. And they lost at Michigan. They have been competitive the entire year and will probably be very competitive the remainder of the year.”

On his background with Vandy head coach Bobby Johnson “Our backgrounds had not crossed that much. I do sit next to Bobby at the SEC meetings for some reason. Maybe it is my Duke background that kicks in with his Vandy and Furman background, so we have a little bit in common. We seem to think a little bit alike on a lot of the issues that come up. For example, last year there was a quarterback from Arizona that had transferred to Vanderbilt, that new rule if you graduate and you have eligibility, you don’t have to sit out a year. Most of the SEC coaches were really worried that Vanderbilt was getting a competitive advantage on the rest of us because of this rule. I don’t think that player is playing much at all for them but I think it is a good rule. If you can graduate early and you don’t particularly have a chance to play where you are, go somewhere where you can have a chance to play college football. That’s a rule that kicked in just over the last year or so.”

On Sidney Rice’s performance this year
“His numbers are down and that is just sort of the way it has happened. I don’t have a particular answer for it. Obviously our goal is to win the game, our goal is to not to necessarily pad stats for any players. He had the one big game but that has been it. I don’t have the answer for what has happened except that we are not a great drop-back pass team. We weren’t really last year either. He is getting some balls sort of coming at him, but if you can’t get it off when you drop back, it doesn’t make much sense to drop back a whole lot. He’s done okay. He has been covered a little bit more this year than he did in one-on-one coverages. It’s not all the balls not coming to him, some time he hasn’t gone up and got it like he did last year. I think it is a combination of things but he is ready to go. He has had excellent passes. Hopefully he, and Kenny McKinley can help us try to beat Vanderbilt.”

On success on the road over the last two years
“You don’t change a whole lot, just get prepared to go play. If the crowd noise doesn’t bother you and you can stay onside, our guys have done that better than when we first got there, I think it was just the Auburn game last year that we jumped offside a few times. We look forward to going on the road. It’s interesting, when you watch those NFL teams, some have better records on the road than at home. Home field is certainly an advantage for a lot of teams and we are trying to build it here at home. It’s basically, us, players and coaches; we have not done our part. The fans have done their part in the big games and we need to do a better job coaching and playing to create home field advantage here.”

“I was looking the other day about how we won some of those road games last year, at Arkansas, at Tennessee, occasionally we would get a favorable call, haven’t got many favorables this year. We got some good calls last year, we got some good turnovers at the right time, we made some fourth and one stops, things like that kept happening for us last year. Somehow or another we beat some teams and we still made a lot of errors in the games. You always think you have to play close to perfect to upset a team but we had a lot of errors in the Arkansas and Tennessee games. The Florida (home) game we played with no turnovers and probably a big reason we won that one and red-zone scoring. We were 5-for-5 against Florida with four touchdowns and a field goal. Auburn we were 1-for-4, Georgia we were 0-for-3. That’s what it comes down to.”

On Vanderbilt’s offense
“They probably are (more balanced). They spread it out, throw it around, the quarterback can run. They are playing the latest version of college football.”

On his concerns with the team
“We really don’t have a bunch of concerns other than trying to get better each week, trying to improve and learn the game a little better, all those kinds of things. Who knows what is going to happen when the game kicks off, but expect a down to the wire game.”

On Syvelle Newton’s injury last year in the Vanderbilt game
“The way it happened, you didn’t see anything. We thought he maybe sprained his ankle, twisted his ankle and of course they had to help him off the field. Everyone was trying to congratulate him and he was, `Whoa, something is wrong down there.’ He had like a burning sensation and they told us he tore his Achilles and that put him out for the year. Amazingly, when Dr. Guy did the surgery, we asked if he could come back and he said that he had a chance. Syvelle did an excellent job rehabbing and doing what the doctors asked him to do. He is very close to where he was last year.”