Sept. 3, 2008

The 24th-ranked South Carolina Gamecocks begin their 17th season of Southeastern Conference league action when they open the 2008 conference slate on the road at Vanderbilt on Thursday, Sept. 4. The ESPN cameras will be on hand to televise the game to a national audience. The Gamecocks and Commodores both opened their `08 campaigns with wins last Thursday. The Gamecocks blanked NC State by a 34-0 score, while Vanderbilt had little trouble disposing of Miami (O) by a 34-13 margin. Carolina looks to get even on the all-time ledger, as the Gamecocks hold a 522-523-44 record while playing in their 115th season of intercollegiate football. The school’s only conference championship came in the 1969 season when it posted a 6-0 record to win the ACC title in Paul Dietzel’s fourth year.

GAMECOCKS AND `DORES

This is the 18th meeting on the gridiron between Carolina and Vanderbilt. The Gamecocks lead the all-time series, 14-3. The teams have played every year since 1992. USC won each of the first seven tilts (including a win in 1961) before Vandy broke through with back-to-back wins in 1998 and `99. The Commodores snapped a seven-game losing streak to Carolina last season when they went into Columbia and stymied the Gamecock offense en route to a 17-6 win. The last time the teams met in Nashville, the Gamecocks left with a convincing 31-13 win in 2006. The Gamecocks have won eight of the nine previous meetings between the two squads in Nashville, with their only setback coming by a 17-14 score on Oct. 24, 1998. The Gamecocks have scored 30 or more points in four of the last five meetings and in six of the last eight contests, while holding Vanderbilt to 14 points or less in nine of the last 13 and in 12 of the last 17 games.

THE HBC AND VANDY

South Carolina Head Coach Steve Spurrier is 14-1 all-time against Vanderbilt, winning twice while at Duke, 10 times while coaching at Florida and twice as the Gamecocks’ head coach. His lone loss came last season in Columbia when the Commodores posted a 17-6 win. His 14 wins against Vandy is his second highest mark against any school, trailing only his perfect 15-0 mark against Kentucky.

ANOTHER THURSDAY NIGHT

This is the fourth-straight year in which the Gamecocks have played on a Thursday for ESPN. They are 4-1 in that span in Thursday night specials. Carolina opened its 2005 season on a Thursday night with a 24-15 win against Central Florida. In 2006, the Gamecocks opened the season at Mississippi State on a Thursday and came away with a 15-0 win. They also lost a mid-season Thursday night contest at home to Auburn by a 24-17 margin. In 2007, they defeated eighth-ranked Kentucky at home on a Thursday night by a 38-23 score. They opened the 2008 season with a 34-0 shutout win over NC State last Thursday in Columbia. They are also scheduled to open the 2009 season on a Thursday at NC State.

RECAPPING THE OPENER

The South Carolina Gamecocks opened the 2008 season with a 34-0 whitewash of NC State in Columbia on Thursday, August 28. The Gamecock defense completely shut down the Wolfpack attack, limiting NC State to just 138 yards of total offense – 89 on the ground and 49 through the air. Both offenses sputtered for much of the game as the teams combined for eight turnovers, four for each squad. South Carolina held a slim 3-0 lead at intermission, but extended that to a 13-point cushion in the third quarter, then put the game away with a 21-point final stanza.

OPENER NOTES

4 South Carolina snapped a five-game losing streak, the program’s longest drought since losing the final five games of the 2002 campaign.

4 South Carolina scored its ninth-straight season-opening win, keeping them perfect in season openers since the turn of the century.

4 The Gamecocks posted their first shutout since Aug. 31, 2006, when they won at Mississippi State 15-0. It was the program’s first shutout of an ACC opponent since a 48-0 win over N.C. State on Oct. 31, 1987.

4 With 31 points in the second half, the Gamecocks had their highest output in a half since Oct. 8, 2005, when they scored 34 points in the second of a 44-16 win over Kentucky.

4 The South Carolina defense kept NC State out of the red zone in the game. In fact, the Wolfpack got no closer than the Gamecocks’ 32-yard line. Holding the Wolfpack to just 49 passing yards, the defense turned in the best pass defense in Coach Spurrier’s tenure.

4 The 34-point shutout win was the biggest margin of victory in a shutout for Carolina since they blanked Western Carolina by a 38-0 score on Sept. 10, 1988. That `88 squad also pitched a shutout the following week, 17-0 over East Carolina, the last time USC has posted back-to-back whitewashes.

BESTS UNDER SPURRIER

4 The Gamecocks posted their second shutout in the Steve Spurrier Era against NC State.

4 Carolina held NC State to just 10 first downs, the fewest in the Spurrier Era.

4 The five passes completed by the Wolfpack tied for the fewest allowed by Carolina in the last four years. Wofford also completed just five passes in 2006.

4 The 49 passing yards was the fewest allowed in the Spurrier Era, topping the previous mark of 63 against Louisiana-Lafayette in 2007.

4 The 138 total yards allowed also set the standard, bettering the mark of 161 against Miss. State in `06.

THE HBC IN OPENERS

South Carolina Head Coach Steve Spurrier improved his record to 18-1 in season-opening games in his 19 seasons as a collegiate head coach. The only loss in that stretch was ironically a 27-21 loss to the Carolina Gamecocks in Columbia on Sept. 2, 1989 when he was the head ball coach in his final season at Duke. That Blue Devil squad went on to win the ACC title that season. The USC victory was led by the great Todd Ellis, who is now the play-by-play voice of Gamecock Football. Since that time, Coach Spurrier has won 16 straight season opening games with his squad scoring 40 or more points in 10 of those 16 games.

SEC OPENERS

The Gamecocks begin their 17th season competing in the Southeastern Conference. They are 7-9 in their previous 16 conference openers. This is just the third time that South Carolina has opened its conference slate against someone other than Georgia. They are 5-9 in conference openers against the Bulldogs, and 2-0 against other SEC foes, defeating Vanderbilt in Nashville, 31-6, to open the 2004 slate and winning at Mississippi State, 15-0, to start the 2006 campaign.

LOOKING FOR MOMENTUM

The Gamecocks are hoping that a win over Vanderbilt will provide the momentum for a successful SEC season. In its 16 previous seasons in the league, South Carolina has posted a trio of 5-3 campaigns and a pair of 4-4 seasons. They were under .500 in the league in each of the other 11 campaigns.

THE LAST TIME THEY MET

The South Carolina Gamecocks brought a lofty No. 6 national ranking into Williams-Brice Stadium on Oct. 20, 2008, but left with their second loss of the season in eight tries after Vanderbilt posted a 17-6 upset victory. Vanderbilt had lost seven straight to the Gamecocks and were 0-14 all-time against Head Coach Steve Spurrier, but scored 17 first-quarter points and held on for the win. The South Carolina offense was limited to just 282 yards. Starting quarterback Chris Smelley threw two interceptions and was sacked seven times.

THE POLLS

The South Carolina Gamecocks opened the 2008 season just outside the nation’s top 25 in the two national polls. They were 26th in the Preseason Associated Press poll with 84 points, just one point behind Pittsburgh, and were 27th in the USA Today/Coaches Preseason Poll with 64 points. The Gamecocks opened as the seventh-highest ranked SEC school in both preseason polls behind Georgia (1st in AP, 1st in USA Today), Florida (5/5), LSU (7/6), Auburn (10/11), Tennessee (18/18) and Alabama (24/26).

FOR STARTERS

The Gamecocks officially return 18 starters from the 2007 squad (six on offense, 10 on defense and one specialist). The returning offensive starters are OG Seaver Brown, OG Lemuel Jeanpierre, WR Dion Lecorn, WR Kenny McKinley, OT Jamon Meredith and OT Justin Sorensen. The returning defensive starters include DT Ladi Ajiboye, S Emanuel Cook, DT Marque Hall, LB Cliff Matthews, CB Captain Munnerlyn, DE Eric Norwood, LB Rodney Paulk, LB Marvin Sapp, FS Darian Stewart, and CB Carlos Thomas. Senior Ryan Succop is the returning punter and placekicker. The list does not include middle linebacker Jasper Brinkley, who started all 13 games in 2006 and the first four games of the 2007 season before suffering a season-ending knee injury, or defensive tackle Nathan Pepper, who started 12 games in 2006 and each of the first three games in 2007 before suffering a season-ending knee injury.

NEW STARTERS

Two Gamecocks made their first collegiate start in the win over NC State. Redshirt junior quarterback Tommy Beecher made his first start under center, while sophomore fullback Patrick DiMarco also earned his first career start.

RECAPPING 2007

South Carolina won six of its first seven games, including an impressive win at then-No. 11 Georgia and a win over No. 8 Kentucky, to climb to No. 7 in the Associated Press poll and sixth in the BCS standings, before dropping each of their last five games to finish the season at 6-6, 3-5 in the Southeastern Conference. Four of the six losses came to teams ranked in the top-25 in the country at the time of the contest. The Gamecocks were 4-3 in the friendly confines of Williams-Brice Stadium and were 2-3 in road contests.

BOWL ELIGIBLE

Gamecocks finished the 2007 campaign with a 6-6 record, making them bowl-eligible. Unfortunately, 10 SEC teams had the minimum number of six wins for bowl eligibility to fill nine bowl slots and the Gamecocks were left standing on the outside of the bowl merry-go-round when the music stopped playing. It marked the fourth straight year in which the Gamecocks were bowl-eligible, accomplishing that feat for just the second time in the modern era (also from 1987-90).

TOUGH TIMES

The Gamecocks had one of the nation’s toughest schedules in 2007, facing five ranked opponents during the regular season. According to the NCAA, Carolina’s schedule was ranked as the ninth-toughest in Division I football. Eight of South Carolina’s 12 opponents in 2007 played in a bowl game, with five of those teams posting victories.

DID YOU KNOW?

The Gamecocks defeated three teams in 2007 that went on to win its bowl games. Carolina knocked off Georgia by a 16-12 score, Mississippi State by a 38-21 margin and Kentucky by a 38-23 advantage. Georgia routed Hawaii 41-10 in the Sugar Bowl, Mississippi State defeated UCF, 10-3 in the Liberty Bowl, and Kentucky defeated Florida State, 35-28 in the Music City Bowl.

MORE TOUGH TIMES AHEAD

The Gamecocks will face four of the top nine teams in the country in 2008, according to the preseason polls. Georgia is the top-ranked team in both polls. The Bulldogs will make their way to Columbia on Sept. 13 in a nationally-televised CBS contest. Florida enters the season ranked fifth in both polls. Carolina will travel to The Swamp on Nov. 15. LSU is seventh in the AP poll and sixth in the USA Today poll. The Bayou Bengals will visit Columbia on Oct. 18. Clemson begins the season ranked ninth in both polls. The Tigers will host the Gamecocks in the final regular-season game of the `08 campaign on Nov. 29. In addition, the Gamecocks will play Tennessee, ranked 18th in both preseason polls. The Vols come to Williams-Brice Stadium on Nov. 1.

UNDER COACH SPURRIER

Head coach Steve Spurrier is 22-16 in his fourth season in Columbia. He recorded the most wins by a Carolina head coach in his first three seasons (21), topping Joe Morrison’s mark of 20 from 1983-85.

WINNING MORE OFTEN

The Gamecocks have posted four consecutive seasons of at least a .500 record, going 6-5 in 2004, 7-5 in 2005, 8-5 in 2006 and 6-6 in 2007. It’s the first time they have accomplished that feat since 1987-90 (8-4, 8-4, 6-4-1, 6-5). The last time they went five or more consecutive seasons with a .500 record or better was from 1928-34.

COACHING CHANGES

Steve Spurrier made a pair of changes to his coaching staff in the off-season, bringing in Ellis Johnson to be the new defensive coordinator and Ray Rychleski to coordinate the special teams. Johnson has spent the past four seasons as the defensive coordinator at Mississippi State under Sylvester Croom. He actually comes to Carolina following a very brief stint on Bobby Petrino’s staff at Arkansas. Rychleski takes over as special teams coordinator and tight ends coach, a role similar to what he held for the past seven years at the University of Maryland.

GAME CAPTAIN

The Gamecocks select captains for each game: NC State: PK Ryan Succop, LB Eric Norwood, RT Justin Sorensen, DT Nathan Pepper.

WORKING OVERTIME

The Gamecocks have played just two overtime games in their history, both at Tennessee. They dropped a 23-20 decision in Knoxville on Sept. 27, 2003, then fell by a 27-24 score on Oct. 27, 2007, also at Neyland Stadium. Every other SEC team has played at least three overtime games since the rule was established in 1996.