Oct. 20, 2012

Recap | Final Stats | Notes | Photo Gallery

Head Coach Steve Spurrier

Opening statement
The only thing you can hope is that your guys give it their best shot and not just lay the ball down and basically say `Here Florida, we don’t want to win. You guys take this fumble and this fumble and this fumble.’ So it was sad, and on the other side, their defense stuffed us. They stopped our running game and passing game. We didn’t make much, had a few chances here and there. Dylan (Thompson) didn’t have a lot of opportunities there at the end. I thought we had some early in the first quarter. We just over threw, we under threw, it just didn’t work, so we thought we would give Dylan and opportunity, but what we do next week – I’m not sure yet. One thing we must do is find the guys that really want to play for South Carolina. If we have to cover on kickoff (using) D.J. Swearinger, (Jadeveon) Clowney, Chaz Sutton, (we will because) we can’t watch the guys that are playing right now. We can’t watch these guys that are laying on the ground. It could have been a heck of a game for everybody. It was embarrassing for us, very embarrassing the way we played.

On decision to switch from Connor Shaw to Dylan Thompson
We will go back and watch the tape. I thought some guys were open that he wasn’t hitting and he was still running all over the place. Maybe the protection was bad and maybe he had to, I don’t know. When I am watching on the sidelines I am focused downfield to see if he has anywhere to throw it or not. Again, I thought we should give Dylan a chance and he didn’t really have much of an opportunity until a couple of drives. He got careless on the last interception.

On Marcus (Lattimore) only carrying the ball three times
Well, we got way behind and were hoping to try to get into the game some. As it turned out it was not a good plan and the score got out of hand because of the fumbles.

On the fumble to start the game
That’s just one play. Two years ago they ran the kickoff back for a touchdown and we won 36-14. One play does not determine an entire game. The other three, we recovered one of them – inexcusable. On punt return and two kickoff return, that shouldn’t happen. The Florida kids, they don’t fumble. They cover kickoffs. That is why we don’t deserve to top-15. I don’t know what we deserve to be right now. Joe Robinson is as good of a special teams coach as I have ever been around and they recover an onside kick and almost return it for a touchdown. We have to re-evaluate a lot of our personnel and get guys out there that really want to play for South Carolina.

On not expecting this two weeks ago out of this team
Two weeks ago was two weeks ago. Right now we had a bad one today. LSU was bad, this one was worse. We have to regroup somehow.

On T.J. Gurley injury
He may have torn a knee ligament, may have to have surgery. Give Florida credit, they had no turnovers and played smart. They struggled offensively early but got it together. They had to throw it on first and goal at the one and the three. Our defensive kids stood them up pretty good but they hit their pass on third down. It was a sad performance by a lot of us.

Junior QB Connor Shaw

On when he found out he wasn’t playing second half
He told me at halftime. I guess I wasn’t getting the job done.

On what happened the last 2 weeks, if it was tougher competition
You could say that. Also, going on the road. Bottom line, we just didn’t execute, and we’ve got to find a way to execute better going forth.

On running game
It hurts when you don’t establish a running game early, especially for us since we’ve relied on that so much in the past. I think it’s important that we start doing that in the future.

On rest of season and confidence turning it around
Absolutely, we have a lot to play for. We want to find out a lot about the character on this team. I feel like we have a lot of leaders on this team. We’ll step up and get ready for Tennessee.

On the defense
They played lights out in the first half, and we couldn’t step up and help them out and that’s happened last week as well. In the second half, I thought both sides played poorly.

Sophomore QB Dylan Thompson

On if there will be competition for quarterback
I don’t really know. I have complete confidence in Connor as well as Coach Spurrier, so I know the best decision will be made.

On what’s going wrong
Confidence is a big thing. When we have it we’re really good, and when we don’t we’re not very good. So I feel like we should do whatever we’ve got to do to get our confidence back and that mojo back.

Sophomore DE Jadeveon Clowney

On his foot
They just keep doing treatment on it and hope it will stop….I just keep practicing.

On how to stay focused rest of season
Keep our heads up. We know SEC is probably gone, but we’ve still got to keep playing.

Junior WR Ace Sanders

On what to do next
We’ve just got to go back and watch film and see what the problem is.

On now being hunted team and getting the best from teams they play
Every SEC game is going to be the best game. No SEC team is just going to lay down against another SEC opponent, so we knew what to expect going into the game, we just really fell short.

Junior TB Marcus Lattimore

On the offense
The offensive line did a great job today, and that’s overlooked.

On what happened last two weeks
We played two great teams, and we just haven’t played up to our potential. That’s the main thing. We’ve just got to stay positive throughout the rest of the season, and we’ll be fine.

Head Coach Will Muschamp

Opening statement
Kyle Christy had seven punts over 50 yards, what a game changer and field position changer it is to have a guy like that; our coverage units were outstanding. Offensively we were 7-of-16 on third-down and we definitely needed to maintain possession especially after the first half. You have to give South Carolina’s defense a lot of credit, Lorenzo Ward and his staff did an outstanding job against us tonight. The third quarter was critical, they had zero first-downs and we had 133 yards and we were able to move the ball and we saw some things during halftime that we thought we could take advantage of offensively. It’s another team win and we don’t have a lot of margin for error here, we are a team that is playing defense pretty consistent at times and on offense we are doing what we have to do to take advantage of other teams. I am very proud of our football team and the effort we had.

On creating turnovers
I don’t know if anyone does it better than Dan Quinn and our defensive staff. In every meeting we spend a lot of time talking about stripping the ball when they don’t have it high and tight and most of our defensive guys are on special team,s so that is constantly pounded into their heads especially after last season when we emphasized it, but didn’t do a good job. That was a point of emphasis for us in the offseason and I think we have done a pretty good job of that.

On the key to the special teams play
I think DJ Durkin does a fantastic job. We put a lot of emphasis on that and we spend a minimum of 25 minutes on special teams every practice. What you emphasize is what is important and going into this season I knew we had good team speed, good team specialists, and good returners. We need to play very well on special teams, it is coached up very well and our entire staff is involved in coaching special teams.

On what needs to be done to get better
We are very hard self-evaluators and I said if from the beginning that we watch the film and say what do we need to do better. I stand in front of the team on Mondays and tell the team what I need to do better as far as managing the game and how we practice and how we approach the week. I tell them each week what we need to do to be successful and we self-reflect on what we need to do.

Sophomore QB Jeff Driskel

On the need to get better on offense
I mean we scored 44 tonight, we ran the ball effectively, we hit some passes where we needed to. Obviously there’s room for improvement, but I thought we played well on offense tonight.

On how far along the team is
We’re definitely mentally stronger. You’re not going to score touchdowns on every drive, you’re not going to run for 200 yards on every team, but when we have to have big runs, we’re going to be able to get them. We did that tonight, and we hit some big pass plays in the red zone when we needed to. We’ve gotten a lot better each and every game.

On confidence in offensive coordinator Brent Pease
He’s definitely going to get us in the right play call and in the right situations, and we’re going to make adjustments just like the defense is going to make adjustments. He’s going to put us in a good situation, and we’re going to have to execute.

Redshirt Senior WR Frankie Hammond Jr.

On how fast they have to move on from the win and focus on Georgia
When we wake up tomorrow. We’ll probably enjoy it tonight, think about it, but tomorrow it’s on to the Georgia game and getting ourselves ready. It was a great team win, but you’ve got to move on and we’ve got another one next week.

On the difference in emotions from last year
Going through what we went through in October last year and then coming back this year and doing what we’re doing, it’s definitely a better feeling and it’s a positive thing for our team. Our team has matured, some guys grew up and right now we’re finishing out ball games and doing it together as a team.

Redshirt Junior OL Jonotthan Harrison

On the team’s mentality coming out of halftime
Coming out strong in the second half shows that we’re here for all 60 minutes of the game, it’s not just a first half show and then we come out lackadaisical in the second half. We’re just trying to completely wear down the defense by still being in great shape with great conditioning when we come out in the second half.

On what it’s like going against Florida’s defensive line in practice all week
They work so hard. They get us better by their great work ethic. They fire off the ball every single play and on top of that, going against them so many times, they know each lineman’s different blocking style and so they use that to work against us and it just makes us better. It helps us realize that we really need to focus on our footwork and technique and it helps us develop as offensive lineman.

Sophomore P Kyle Christy

On how he’s feeling after the game
I’m pretty stoked right now. I feel great.

On if he’d checked his phone yet to see a large amount of congratulatory texts
I’ve gotten quite a few. I haven’t really gotten this much attention after a game before.