Nov. 8, 2011

Head Coach Steve Spurrier met with the media Tuesday afternoon to preview Saturday’s SEC East home matchup with Florida. The Gamecocks and Gators will kick off at 12 p.m. on CBS.

South Carolina Head Coach Steve Spurrier
Opening Statement
It’s going to be good to get back home again. Hopefully our guys will play much better than the last time we played. Again, we’re fortunate to be in the position we’re in. We’re 7-2 and have our last conference game and last game against an (SEC) Eastern opponent. Hopefully we’ll play well. We wall know what’s at stake. We all know what’s out there. We’ll try our best to play football. That’s what we need to concentrate on. We weren’t good in any area last game. Sometimes it’s hard to figure out what happened to a bunch of guys who have been playing well and then it went bad. As bad as it went, we were within two points in the fourth quarter, but that game’s history now. We’re trying to regroup and learn how to block better on offense and tackle and cover on defense. Florida is probably the best in the country in special teams play. We have to be careful that that doesn’t cost us the game. They haven’t been real great offensively. They had some injuries to their quarterback. For us to win our defense needs to play well. Offensively if we can get two to three touchdowns driving the ball, that’s about what we’re good for. That’s just where we are, as most people know. We’re 7-2. We beat every team in the (SEC) East thus far. We have an opportunity to go back-to-back against Georgia, Tennessee and Florida. (It’s a) huge game for us to put us in good shape for a lot of things to happen. We’ll need our fans out there screaming and yelling Saturday at high noon. In the past we’ve played pretty well at high noon. Hopefully that will help us. We’re looking forward to this game. Hopefully our fans are also. It’s not often South Carolina has the chance to achieve things we have the chance to do in the last conference game of the year.

On injuries
We think Connor (Shaw) will be alright by the middle of the week. Clint Haggard, our athletic trainer, gave him the test to see how he’s doing, and he’s doing pretty well. DeVonte Holloman is still hurt. Antonio Allen should be back. He was running around last night for the first time in a week. Hopefully he’ll be able to play the entire game for us.

On Connor Shaw
He’s going to pitch around a bit today. He’ll be out there. I don’t know if he’ll be in full gear or not, but he’ll be able to throw it around. He felt fine last night and they held him out, but today he should be able to throw.

On D.J. Swearinger
He has a sprained foot that’s nagging him. He won’t practice too much during the week, but they think he should be able to play. That’s one of the reasons he wasn’t on kickoff coverage.

On the defensive line
Arkansas just blocked us. It’s hard to say. The same thing as last year, I admire the way those Arkansas guys pass block. They have a good offensive line and seem to know what they’re doing. They took it as a challenge to block our guys. Our guys weren’t as productive as they were earlier. We talked about it. We need to get back playing. For us to win they have to play well upfront.

On the injuries accumulated this year
It’s a little unusual. Again we’re 7-2 and 5-2 in the conference with the chance to win more conf games than ever around here in 20 years of ball. We can’t sit here and feel sorry for ourselves. Even though we haven’t played spectacular, we have won a bunch of games. We’ll try to play our best this week with the players we have. That’s what we’ll try to do.

On the pass game
It will be like we’ve been doing most of the year. If we can run more than we throw, that’s the best way to go about it. We’ll see how the game progresses. Hopefully we can throw it around better than we have lately. We were sad the other night trying to throw it around. Hopefully we can get better.

On Florida’s close game against Vanderbilt
Vandy may be one of the best teams in our division right now. They almost beat Georgia, they had Arkansas on the ropes, and almost beat Florida. Other than that, Florida had to play LSU and Alabama. We didn’t have to play those two, and Georgia didn’t have to play them. That’s why we’ve got such a good record and why Georgia has such a good record. Scheduling is important. We and Georgia benefitted from that, but Florida is a good team. You watch them on tape and nobody hits much on them. Nobody goes up and down the field very well at all.

On special teams personnel
We probably have to change personnel again. We’re going round and round with our personnel. Prior to last week we had Antonio Allen and Melvin Ingram ready to cover. Of course Antonio was out so we went back to guys that had some problems (earlier this season). We were close on a couple of returns. Had one to midfield by Vic Hampton. There’s nothing wrong with our schemes. The same thing happened to our special teams that happened to the offense and defense. They got run over, (Arkansas) outplayed us and out-executed us.

On if Saturday is a “must-win”
We’ll try our best to win. I don’t like to use the word `must’. Sometimes your guys get too uptight if you say we have to do this or do that. The only thing we say is play your best. When you look at the way our team has played this year, you have to say those guys are 7-2 and in position to achieve some things this year. We’re not moping around that we’re 7-2. We have to play the game and fire up some emotion.

On the team’s having similar offensive numbers
Unless special teams or turnovers kick in (a low scoring game is possible). If you watch both offenses you’ll say there won’t be much 80-yard drives for touchdowns. Well you don’t think there would be, but there could be … You come to the game and don’t know what’s going to happen. The big plays and turnovers, you hope they go your way. We have to be careful on special teams. Florida blocks, punts and runs kickoffs back. They’re the best in the country at it. They play their starters. I think Chris Rainey is supposed to play this week. He does it all. We’ll have to be our best on special teams.

On Brison Williams in the secondary
Hopefully he’ll play solidly back there. Sharrod Golightly is another candidate. He’s practiced a bunch back there. He’s been here all year. We’ll go with what we’ve got if Devonte (Holloman) can’t go.

On if there’s frustration that the team can get a school-record for SEC wins and still finish second in the East
If Georgia wins seven straight conference games, they probably deserve to be the Eastern Division champion. But we can’t worry about that. We have to worry about trying to beat Florida. That’s what we’re trying to do.

On Dylan Thompson and Connor Shaw
They rotate in practice a bit, although Connor probably gets 75 or 80 percent. Dylan will get a few snaps here and there.

On right tackle
I think we’ll go back with Cody Gibson and Mike Matulis. We have to give Mike a chance to play. He played a bit against Kentucky. We thought about redshirting him, but we have too much at stake right now. It’s not every year we go into the last game in the conference at 5-2. If Matulis can help us at right tackle, we need to take a good look at him this week.