Sept. 15, 2009

Head Coach Steve Spurrier met with the media Tuesday afternoon to preview the Gamecocks’ Saturday night home opener against Florida Atlantic. That contest will kickoff at 7:0 p.m. ET at Williams Brice.

Opening Statement
“We’re getting ready for Florida Atlantic, a team we played a couple of years ago. They’ve improved tremendously. The last two years they’ve been to a bowl game (and had) winning seasons. They won the Motor City Bowl last year. They’re a quality team. They’re a very good, solid team, and we have to really play well to hope to have a chance to beat these guys. Their quarterback Rusty Smith has thrown for a lot of yards. He’s a really good player a lot of people think will be an NFL draft pick.”

“We’re looking forward to our first home game. I know our fans will be here screaming and yelling. The first home game brings extra excitement. Our players are looking forward to playing for the crowd Saturday at 7 o’clock. We’re looking forward to playing at home in front of our crowd Saturday night.”

On the Georgia game
“That game is history. A lot of guys played well; a lot did not play very well. We’re trying to get it behind us, that’s all we can do now. We lost as a team. We were a play short. Wherever it was, it didn’t work out. We’re trying to correct a lot of mistakes we had in that game. We had a lot of mistakes in the first game. I still believe we have a pretty good team here. We’re trying to put it all together.”

On turnovers
“Taking care of the ball has certainly improved. Stephen Garcia hasn’t tossed it into a crowd as much as our guys did in the past. The running backs are holding onto the ball and doing a good job. We have to continue that. There are a lot of areas we have to get better, but hopefully we’ll show some improvement this week in our offense, our defense and our special team play.”

On close games
“We hope in the future to win those close games. We hope to make a play somehow at the end of the game. We have yet to do it yet, but hopefully it will happen soon.”

On the running game
“We’re going to keep working on the running game. We didn’t go very far the other night. Stephen Garcia was our leading rusher. We’ll keep plugging away at it and see what happens here down the road. We still need to block better at times and the running backs need to pick their holes, but we’ll continue to work on it.”

On the running backs
“Jarvis has played a bit like a freshman. He’s done good things here and there … he’s done ok. Kenny Miles deserves a chance now to play. Brian Maddox and Jarvis had several carries and played a bit. Brian’s been solid, no question, but Kenny deserves a chance. We’ll try to get Alshon Jeffery out there and throw the ball some. We’re still trying to find out who our best players are. You find out in games, not in practice. We’re trying to give them all a chance and trying to win the game at the same time.”

On Stephen Garcia
“Stephen is improving. He had a lot of good plays the other night and not so good plays. In the final analysis of the whole thing, we weren’t good enough as a team, simple as that. He’s improving and we hope he’ll improve this week. He’s got potential … we need a mobile quarterback. He can bounce out of there.”