Sept. 1, 2007

Recap | Final Stats | Notes | Photo Gallery

South Carolina Head Coach Steve Spurrier
“It was an interesting ball game. We knew it would be. Like the Wofford game last year.

“I told the guys, we don’t look good on defense, but look up after the game, and they only have 14 points. We had some good goal line stands.

“We made some mistakes. We talk about being better on special teams, but we can’t even get 11 guys out there.

“We had a lot of penalties, and we earned every one of them. You could see them from the stands. They were good calls.

“We got that 14 point lead, then every time we got ball after that it seemed we were on the 2 yard line, like the Central Florida game two years ago.

“We are happy to get the win. We didn’t try too much. We got the two touchdown lead and tried to run the clock out. It was a good win.

“Some guys played really well. Some had some bad plays. I hope we can be a smarter team next week.

“We had the one turnover, the interception, and that was the start of them having the ball for 16 of next 18 minutes.

“It’s hard for a wide receiver to have back to back penalties, but Brown had that today.

“Mike Davis had a good game. I would have let him get 100 if I had realized he had 94.

“When the (opposing) quarterback can run, we struggle, against about everybody. We don’t have an answer. We don’t run our quarterback.

“The offense didn’t play that terrible. We scored 50 percent of the time. That’s OK.

“Now we know we are a bunch of average stiffs, and we will have and average year if we don’t play better. So maybe this is good for us.

“Andy Boyd caught everything. Jared Cook caught everything. Kenny dropped about the easiest pass he’s ever had.

With all the errors, we need to count our blessings we came out a winner tonight.”

South Carolina QB Tommy Beecher
“Blake Mitchell is our leader. The offense runs a little smoother with him out there. We are looking forward to seeing Blake out there next week. We could have played better tonight as an offense, but it was fun out there. I had a blast out there. The first two touchdowns were easy and then their defense kinda stepped it up and they threw a lot of different things at us from then on.

“We played alright. We have room for improvement, but a win is a win. They were tough and wanted to win, too.”

South Carolina QB Chris Smelley
“The line played really well. They really opened some lanes for us. They played well. The tight ends had some big catches tonight. They caught the ball well. We will have to look at the film. They dropped a lot in their coverage after awhile and that’s when we started running the ball a lot more.

“During warm-ups I was nervous, but then I went in the lockerroom and settled down a bit. I cleared my head. I did some good things, but I have a lot to improve on. Every game is different. You can’t compare this game to an SEC game or any other game.”

South Carolina TE Andy Boyd
(On his touchdown)
“The quarterback found me open and threw it to me. I guess in a way it works out. It feels good. It feels good to have three receptions. We looked good early on. We needed to work the kinks out and get everyone on the same page. The two quarterback system worked out. They seemed to hold their own and scrambled well. They also showed their arms. It was good for them to get in the game. We will need to wait until we see the film and then evaluate from there. After that, the coaches will do their best to prepare for the next game.

“A lot of catching the ball and being thrown passes is about being open in the coverages. On all three occasions I was open.”

South Carolina FS Brandon Isaac
“The defense did pretty good. To say this was our first game – it was pretty good. We came out with the win. We didn’t execute the way we are supposed to. I think we take our hats off to them – they came out to play.

“I would give us a C. We didn’t play to our potential. We didn’t tackle like we needed to. Next week hopefully we will execute better and win the game as well. We knew what they were going to do (a running quarterback). We saw the film, but their offense was good. We didn’t make the plays when we needed to at all times.”

South Carolina Defensive Coordinator Tyrone Nix
(How would you rate the tackling?)
“Not very good. It was a little bit of everything. It’s about being in good football position – getting low and not just tackling at the shoulder pads. We had a lot of young guys in there playing for us. We didn’t know what they’d do, but we did expect more from our leadership from a game stand point. I thought we’d see more from the leaders.”

South Carolina LB Jasper Brinkley
“We had to keep playing until the end of the game. We kept at it and they kept at. I give them credit – they didn’t give up. Our young players played hard.”

South Carolina LB Casper Brinkley
“We did alright. We had a lot of missed assignments and a lot of missed tackles. We can’t over-pursue. We need to be in good tackling positions. We need to go out and practice hard everyday this week and get better. We have to drive at the pitch.”

(On the option)
“It was more of the first game stuff than the option. We are not going to be perfect in the first game. We have to continue to work hard. No matter how far we got down – we didn’t give up. We kept working. Everyone bowed their necks at the goal line a few times and we kept them out.”

South Carolina TB Eric Norwood
“We played ok. We played average. We have a long way to go. We played ok, but we know we can play better.”

South Carolina RB Cory Boyd
“We stuck in there for awhile and we found a way to win. I can’t say we played perfect, but proved we can keep it going and win. We focused on a lot of goal line this week. Georgia is Georgia. We have to go to work.”

Louisiana-Lafayette Head Coach Ricky Bustle
Coach Ricky Bustle (Feelings on game)
“I thought our team showed good character out there tonight. I was a little disappointed that our team didn’t show more poise in the red zone. We had a few more chances down there, and I would’ve been happier with at least one more score.”

(On the play of the offense)
“We came out anxious and let our offense come to us. After the first quarter, we kind of settled down and got a few points back. It was good to put a few long drives together and in there after a tough first quarter.

“I’m proud of our offense. You usually don’t have a running quarterback in this league, but he (Michael Desormeaux) made a few plays. I really think, offensively, we can run the football.”

(On this year’s team)
“Character-wise, this is the most devoted team we’ve had here.”

ULL QB Michael Desormeaux
“I think it took us a while to realize we can do things against them and make it happen.

“We found out that we are a good football team. We have a lot of fighters. By no means are we there, but we’re on our way.”

ULL LB Brenton Burkhalter
“We came out and we were excited. There were a lot of new guys on the field. They [South Carolina] came out and played hard.

“We played hard. We had a lot of character. We came back from a 14 point deficit.

“It’s hard to assess Steve Spurrier. He’s still got tricks he’s going to throw at you. They came out and ran the ball hard.”

ULL RB Tyrell Fenroys
“We have to play hard each and every day and game. We have to come out hard.”