Dec. 4, 2010

Recap | Final Stats | AP Photo Gallery

• Head Coach Steve Spurrier: Falls to 186-72-2 (.719) as a collegiate head coach, 44-32 in his sixth year at South Carolina. He falls to 10-7 all-time against Auburn, including an 0-4 mark at South Carolina. Spurrier is now 5-3 in SEC Championship Games.
• Records: South Carolina falls to 9-4 overall and finishes 5-4 in SEC play. Auburn improves to 13-0 overall, 9-0 in SEC play. The Gamecocks fall to 1-8-1 all-time against Auburn and have lost all six meetings since joining the SEC in 1992. Auburn remains the only SEC team South Carolina has not beaten since joining the league. The Gamecocks are now 0-1 in SEC Championship Games; Auburn improves to 2-2 in the SEC Championship.
• Against Number One: South Carolina falls to 1-5 all-time against the nation’s No. 1-ranked team. It was the first time in school history for the Gamecocks to play two No. 1 teams in the same season; Carolina defeated then-No. 1 Alabama 35-21 on Oct. 9 for the first win over a top-ranked team in school history.
• As a Ranked Team: The Gamecocks are 14-13 when ranked in the top 25 under Spurrier, falling to 8-4 this year. This was Carolina’s first neutral-site game as a ranked team since the 2002 Outback Bowl vs. Ohio State.
• We Prefer Playing Outdoors: South Carolina has only played two indoor games in its 117-year history, both ending in losses. The Gamecocks lost 27-19 to Houston on Sept. 21, 1973, at the Astrodome in the Gamecocks’ only other indoor football contest.
• Ain’t Gonna Be No Rematch: Don’t want one. With tonight’s loss, South Carolina is 1-4 all-time when facing an opponent for the second time in the same season. The last such occurrence came in the 1945 season when the Gamecocks lost to Wake Forest in the 1946 Gator Bowl.
• Turnover Battle: South Carolina came up on the wrong end of the turnover margin for the first time in four games. The Gamecocks are 1-4 this season when committing more turnovers than the opposition; they are 12-24 under Spurrier.

OFFENSIVE NOTES

• RB Marcus Lattimore moved into third all-time in single-season rushing yards in tonight’s game as he finished with 84 yards on 16 carries. He now has 1,198 for the season, trailing only a pair of seasons by Heisman Trophy winner George Rogers, who had 1,681 yards in 1979 and 1,894 yards in the Heisman season of 1980. Lattimore also had three receptions for 36 yards, giving him 120 all-purpose yards in the game.
• FB/TE Patrick DiMarco caught his third touchdown pass in as many games as he hauled in the Gamecocks’ first score of the game in the first quarter, a 25-yard pass right down the middle of the field. It was one yard short of being a career-long reception for the senior (a 26-yarder against Tennessee earlier this year was the only longer one), and he finished the game with a career-high 38 receiving yards on 2 catches.
• WR Alshon Jeffery set the single-season Carolina record for receptions in tonight’s game, finishing the night with four receptions to get to 79 for the season. He surpassed Kenny McKinley’s mark of 77 catches during the 2007 season. He had 36 yards on four catches tonight, giving him 1,387 for the season and 2,150 for his career.
• QB Stephen Garcia was 16-for-28 for 170 yards and two touchdown passes, bringing his season total to 2,816 yards and 20 touchdowns. He is fifth in Carolina single-season passing yards (46 yards shy of his own 2,862 yards last season) and has tied Todd Ellis (1986) and Steve Taneyhill (1994) for the second-most passing touchdowns in a single-season. Taneyhill holds the single-season record with 29 TD tosses in 1995.
• QB Connor Shaw posted a season- and career-high with 49 rushing yards on six carries, including a career-long XX-yard run to set up a Gamecock field goal.
• WR D.L. Moore tied a career high with three catches; he finished with 30 yards on the night.

DEFENSIVE NOTES

• DE Cliff Matthews had a season-high 7 tackles by halftime. He finished the game with those seven stops, and also forced a Cam Newton fumble in the second quarter.
• SPUR Antonio Allen equaled a career high and led South Carolina with 8 tackles, including 0.5 tackles for loss. It is the fourth time in the last six games that Allen either held or shared the team lead in tackles.
• South Carolina gave up 500+ yards of offense to Auburn as the Tigers totaled 589 on the night. The last time South Carolina gave up 500 or more yards of offense was a 56-6 loss at Florida on Nov. 15, 2008; that game was also the last time the Gamecocks surrendered 50 or more points in a game.
• The Gamecocks held Auburn’s Cam Newton to 73 rushing yards on 14 carries, a vast improvement over the 176 yards Newton racked up against South Carolina in the season’s earlier meeting at Auburn. Carolina also gave up 96 fewer rushing yards to the Tigers in today’s game than on Sept. 25; the Tigers had 334 that night as opposed to 238 tonight.

SPECIAL TEAMS NOTES

• Spencer Lanning’s first two punts went for more than 50 yards, and he finished the night with a 50.0 average on three punts. It tied the best single-game punting average under Spurrier, equaling a 50.0-yard average against Georgia earlier this season. Lanning was also 1-of-3 on field goal tries.
• Cedrick Snead became the fifth different Gamecock to return a kickoff this season as he gained 18 yards on one return in the fourth quarter.

UP NEXT
South Carolina will play in a bowl game for the third straight season and the fifth time in six years under Steve Spurrier. The Gamecocks will learn their bowl destination on Sunday.