Nov. 28, 2009
Recap | Final Stats | Notes | Photo Gallery 
South Carolina
Head Coach Steve Spurrier
Opening Statement
“Obviously it’s a good day for the Gamecocks. Like I told (Bob) on the field, we caught Clemson at the right time. They have a big game next week and we haven’t done much lately. We were ready to play, but you still have to go play. We didn’t play perfectly. We had mess-ups here and there but it worked out for us. I don’t know why (but) for some reason when a team runs back the opening kickoff, bad things happen to those teams historically.”
On the running game
“We ran the ball and that’s obviously what we need to do to win. A lot of people advised us to do that and we took heed to that. We took heed that we need to put the ball on the ground and not ask our offensive line to pass block much.”
On the team effort
“I’m proud of our guys. We have good spirit on this team and outstanding senior leadership with Eric Norwood and Moe Brown, two senior captains. It was a wonderful win. We threw 22 times, hit 11 of them and ran 58 times. That’s how you win ballgames. Hopefully we can get a little bit better in pass blocking and so forth so we can score a lot more points.”
On Stephon Gilmore running the Wildcat formation on the second possession
“We planned it (for the second possession). He said, “Coach you’ve been saying that all year and I haven’t been in yet.” But we told him second possession to be ready. The thing about Stephon is he can make guys miss. He needs to get the ball. On the punt return he’s good there too. We need to block better for him. Stephon is exciting with the ball.”
On beating Clemson
“I told our guys we haven’t beaten these guys a lot. I think sometimes we celebrate too much. We’ll try to enjoy the win and understand it. I think when Clemson beats us they don’t celebrate it wildly. We’ll try to enjoy the victory tonight and celebrate that, but after today we’ll go to the next game.”
On not putting pressure on the team
“You don’t want to put all the pressure on your guys to have to win for so many people. Let’s go play the game and have fun. I think our fans understand that. They’ve been super. There wasn’t a lot of pressure on our guys.”
On the defense
“The defense was outstanding. We stopped them so many times. Spiller had nine rushes for 18 yards. We had some good tackles on him.”
On going for the 4th-and-1 in the fourth quarter
“That was an easy call. The clock stops on fourth down anyway so if we didn’t make it we’d leave it down there. We had a 10-point lead. Thirteen isn’t much better than 10. We needed to try to get a touchdown or see if (Clemson) could go 99 yards. That was an easy call. We thought they would be up there for the run, which they were, so Stephen got it out. It was good to get that touchdown.”
Stephen Garcia
On beating Clemson with the run game
“We just wanted to make a statement. Send the seniors out right. We have two seniors that start on the offensive line with Garrett Anderson and Lemuel Jeanpierre. They wanted to run the ball and it worked out for us.”
On the offensive line
“It was phenomenal blocking. A few plays here and there we had some mental breakdowns – as far as I know, I’d have to watch the film – but overall it was a good day for us running the football.”
“(The win) was huge for us. It carries the momentum going into the bowl game. It’s huge for the teams moral and motivation. It was a huge win for us.”
On the option run
“We’ve had it in the playbook all year. We finally got to it this week. We’ve been practicing the past two weeks and just working on my pitch with Brian (Maddox) and the other backs. It worked. It was a great call.”
Tori Gurley
Thoughts on the game
“(My parents) told me to just continue to work hard and to just be a team player. I’ve learned a lot from Alshon (Jeffery). He’s been very vocal, not on the practice field, but off the field he’s always talking about things I’m doing right and wrong. He told me that this one play was going to be open. He told me to be ready. I really want to give him thanks. Stephen (Garcia) made a great throw, and we were able to execute to help us win.”
On a first down reception in the 2nd half
“I just wanted to be determined and go out and make a play for the team. We were in our territory and just wanted to get out and give Spencer (Lanning) a better punt, or we were going to try to get another touchdown. I’m ready to do anything to help the team.”
On the Rock Hill connection between Tori Gurley, DeVonte Holloman, and Stephon Gilmore
“We’re all from Rock Hill, and we grew up with a rivalry; so when we all committed to South Carolina, it was a new beginning, a new Carolina. We wanted to start this rivalry off and finish it the right way.”
Weslye Saunders
On touchdown receptions
“I’m just glad the coaches put it in the game plan in place. I think I had two catches for about 10 yards and two touchdowns. That’s all I can ask for. I just want to go out and help the team, especially to put the nail in the coffin at the end. I’m just happy with the outcome, not just my personal play.”
On what the game means to the program
“It means a lot. It does wonders for the offseason as far as recruiting and morale go. We’re just so glad to beat them. It was my first time beating them since I’ve been here, so I feel really good now.”
On the morale of the team
“The main word that I would use is motivation. We’ve tried to motivate ourselves. Anybody can go into a hole after three losses, especially when we felt like we were so close and just making tiny mistakes. All we did was go out there and played hard and practiced hard. The underclassmen, we really tried to go out there and send the seniors off in a good way.”
Moe Brown
On getting a win over Clemson in his senior year
“To be honest, I don’t think it’s hit me yet. I’m a pretty emotional guy. I usually get choked up over stuff like this, and it really hasn’t gotten here yet. I’m just having fun and going with the flow right now. Right now, I just feel great. It was a great win, not only for the seniors, not only for the Gamecock Nation, but a great win for our program and where we’re trying to go with it. The seniors, we were trying to show the underclassmen how to go out the right way after a three-game skid. We didn’t let it affect us. We played outstanding.”
On the offensive production
“Coach (Spurrier) told us coming into today that we were going to run the ball. He said it could be 30, 40 times, but we had to do it. We were one-dimensional in the Florida game, but we felt like if we would’ve run the ball a little more, it could’ve been different. We had a mindset to run it. The first drive, we had a few good plays here and there, and so we stuck with it. A win is a win. I said earlier that if we have to run it 50 times, than let’s do it to get a W.”
Kenny Miles
“It felt good that Coach (Spurrier) definitely established throughout the week that we needed to go in rushing the ball, and we were able to run the ball all four quarters. It was great.”
“I remember the first thing that they told me when I got here from recruiting was if we beat Clemson that’s all that matters. We went out there and got the win today, and that definitely motivates the team and gets (us in) a good mood to go into the bowl game.”
Stephon Gilmore
On the Wildcat and his offensive play
“It was Coach Spurrier’s call all year. He wanted to run it, so I ran it. The offensive line blocked, and I was able to find some holes to run in. There weren’t any butterflies. It was just instincts. I was having fun back there.”
On his excitement from the game
“It’s the biggest game all season against a team that I wanted to beat. I’m very excited about this win.”
Eric Norwood
“This is one of the more important wins we’ve ever had since I’ve been here just for the simple fact that it’s Clemson. The way things have been going this last part of the season, it was a great win for us and the Carolina fans.”
On forcing turnovers
“It feels great. We saw what happens when we do force turnovers. I think we scored on almost all of the turnovers that we forced.”
“We played ball and came and did what we were supposed to do. We didn’t try to do another man’s job. Everybody did what they were supposed to do, and if you look at the stat sheets it shows that it’s equal and spread out across the board.”
“It’s been crazy, just some of the wins we have. I’m glad I did come back to help win this game. Just to come back and win this game was great and makes everything a whole lot better.”
DeVonte Holloman
On the interception
“I had been watching film all week, and they had certain tendencies. It happened just like it always happens. I ended up jumping in front of it and making a good play.”
On Stephon Gilmore’s completion
“I’ve been on them all season. They’re practicing all the time. I’ve been on him about when he was going to do it. He finally did it, and he did good. Stephon and I came into this game saying we were going to make big plays, and we did.”
“It’s added to the rivalry. Being committed there and knowing some of those guys and getting to go out there and beat them, that was big and that was fun.”
Darian Stewart
“One thing Coach Johnson talked about this whole week was that we haven’t been forcing too many turnovers. This week we really wanted to concentrate on that and be a tougher defense. It’s been frustrating (not to get the turnovers), but we knew what we had to do and we were able to do it today.”
“We just wanted to be a tougher defense, and we all just played relentless today. That’s one thing we’ve been trying to focus on all week, and we were able to do it this week.”
Clemson
Head Coach Dabo Swinney
Opening statement
“No real earth shattering news here. We didn’t do what it takes to win on the road. When you go on the road and turn the ball over and then you can’t stop the run, it’s hard to win. I don’t care where you are, who you are or who you’re playing. We had the opportunity get on to a fast start and create a lot of momentum for our football team with a lot of points early and we just turned it over. It’s extremely disappointing. When you’re negative in the turnover margin, it’s hard to win. And then when you can’t stop the run, it’s really hard to win. And that’s basically what happened, it wasn’t anything earth shattering. We came out the gate, we go up 7-0 then we get a nice drive going. Then the next play we fumbled the ball and they went down and got a touchdown off of it. We get a stop. We gave up 17 points off of turnovers and that’s just a hard thing to come over on the road. You have to give them a lot of credit because they capitalized on those opportunities. And when they put the ball on the ground, we couldn’t get it. We had a chance to take the crowd out early but instead we energized them. The bottom line was that we couldn’t stop the run.”
“I didn’t think we protected the ball well today. They did a good job at getting after us. After we became one-dimensional, I thought they did a good job of affecting our rhythm on offense. But I told the team it’s still all about us. It’s been a long time since we’ve lost a game and that’s a sick feeling. It’s just not a good feeling when you fail at something and we had an opportunity to achieve one of our goals today and we failed to do it and that’s extremely disappointing. This is a very important game for our program. But it’s still all about us, we’ve got to take care of the football, play your gap, stop the run and everybody has got to do their job. We will have to improve this week but we will turn the page. You start the season with the objective to be a champion and we are division champions but we have the opportunity to win the ACC. Our next goal is to try to win the ACC. We will turn the page really quick.”
On responding to turnovers
“You have to give them credit but it’s not like we weren’t playing hard, the guys were competing out there. But those kids made some plays, they did a good job. They throw one up and their guy makes a play. They made a couple of big plays that created some momentum. They hit the flee flicker but they did a super job at capitalizing. But again we just couldn’t stop the run. We just weren’t consistent enough with stopping the run and that’s the only way you really overcome turnovers. You’ve got to get stops or you have to get turnovers back and we didn’t do a good job at that today. It’s very disappointing.”
On the mistakes made in the game
“It’s nothing earth shattering, these are two good football teams. It’s not like you’re playing a team with 85 scholarships and is talented. It’s a rival game and when you go on the road in a rival game and turn it over and you don’t get turnovers, it’s just hard to overcome it. These are certainly correctable mistakes.”
On how Clemson played against Carolina’s quarterback play
“We felt like they’d try to run it and they blocked us pretty good because we didn’t do a good job of tackling the quarterback. I don’t know what he rushed for but I know it was a good bit. It’s disappointing, we’ve got to be able to stop the run and we didn’t do a good job of that today.”
C.J. Spiller
“Their guys just came out and played hard. When you’re on the road, you can’t turn the ball over. I put the ball on the ground. You can’t do that. You have to be able to take care of the ball. Playing against a team like that, you just can’t do it or you’ll get the same results every time.”
On the first touchdown
“It gave us a little momentum. We just have to sustain that. The main thing today is that we didn’t quit. You have to keep fighting. We just came up short at the end.”
“We have to realize what our mistakes were and get them corrected and get ready for the (ACC) Championship Game.”
Michael Palmer
“They have a good defense, but we did move the ball on them. First half we had a couple of drives, moving the ball down the field, then we had a fumble and interception, then another fumble in the second half. We just have to take care of the ball. I think we had some trouble pass blocking them at times. But they are obviously a talented defense, but we just can’t turn the ball over. We have to take care of it.”
“We were moving the ball down the field and moving on their defense, and then we would kill ourselves with a fumble or an interception. We haven’t turned a ball over in the second half of the season, and we did today. It really cost us.”
Thomas Austin
On whether South Carolina wanted the win more than Clemson
“I don’t think that’s the case at all. When you don’t execute early on, it’s frustrating and I don’t think we responded to that. I don’t think we came out flat. We prepared hard this week. We knew it was going to be a tough ball game. They just had more plays than we did the first half, and I don’t think we responded well to that.”
On whether the opening kickoff return for a touchdown was a negative
“It doesn’t ever hurt to have a kickoff return. But we put a drive together and fumbled the ball, then put another drive together and threw an interception, and they scored off of both of those drives. So when that happens, when you’re down 17-7 and then they score again, you have to start passing the ball.”
“Didn’t want to go out this way. We never want to lose to South Carolina, but they are a quality opponent. If we don’t execute on offense and defense then we are not going to win.”
