South Carolina Runs Past Furman 41-10

Game #1

Oct. 18, 2014

SCORE BY QUARTERS
Team	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Total
Furman	7	0	3	0	10
South Carolina	14	14	10	3	41

VIDEO COVERAGE

Sights & Sounds

Military Family Surprise

Coach Spurrier

Coach Ward

Dylan Thompson	M. Davis, D. Williams

M. Washington, C. Mitch	S. Carson, P. Orth

TEAM STAT COMPARISON

1st Downs	16	26
Total Yards	302	548
Passing	91	281
Rushing	211	267
Penalties-Yards	6-55	7-53
3rd Down Conversions	1-9	4-12
4th Down Conversions	0-0	2-2
Turnovers	3	2
Time of Possession	30:23	29:37

PASSING LEADERS
Furman	COM	ATT	YDS	TD	INT
P.J. Blazejowski	10	15	85	0	0
Dillon Woodruff	1	3	6	0	0
South Carolina	COM	ATT	YDS	TD	INT
Dylan Thompson	14	22	262	2	0
Connor Mitch	2	4	19	0	0

RUSHING LEADERS
Furman	CAR	YDS	AVG	TD	LG
Hank McCloud	13	106	8.2	1	60
Issac Garcia	4	31	7.8	0	15
South Carolina	CAR	YDS	AVG	TD	LG
Mike Davis	18	111	6.2	2	25
David Williams	11	110	10.0	0	37

RECEIVING LEADERS
Furman	REC	YDS	AVG	TD	LG
Duncan Fletcher	4	55	13.8	0	24
Andrej Suttles	4	19	4.8	0	10
South Carolina	REC	YDS	AVG	TD	LG
Pharoh Cooper	4	51	12.8	0	26
Jerell Adams	3	91	30.3	1	45

SCORING SUMMARY
1st Quarter				FU	SC
	TD	09:14	Shaq Roland 14 yd PASS from Dylan Thompson PAT KICK by Elliott Fry (GOOD)	0	7
	TD	07:29	Hank McCloud 60 yd RUSH PAT KICK by Hunter Townes (GOOD)	7	7
	TD	05:29	Mike Davis 5 yd RUSH PAT KICK by Elliott Fry (GOOD)	7	14
2nd Quarter				FU	SC
	TD	13:41	Jerell Adams 45 yd PASS from Dylan Thompson PAT KICK by Elliott Fry (GOOD)	7	21
	TD	02:32	Mike Davis 2 yd RUSH PAT KICK by Elliott Fry (GOOD)	7	28
3rd Quarter				FU	SC
	FG	09:53	Hunter Townes 29 yd	10	28
	TD	07:17	Shon Carson 1 yd RUSH PAT KICK by Elliott Fry (GOOD)	10	35
	FG	05:17	Elliott Fry 27 yd	10	38
4th Quarter				FU	SC
	FG	12:41	Elliott Fry 23 yd	10	41

COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina’s ground attack produced 267 yards and three touchdowns on the day as the Gamecocks defeated Furman 41-10 on Homecoming this afternoon at Williams-Brice Stadium.

Redshirt senior quarterback Dylan Thompson opened up the game by going four-of-five on Carolina’s opening drive, culminating in a 15-yard fade route to junior wide receiver Shaq Roland in the back of the end zone. It didn’t take Furman long to respond, as Hank McCloud, on the Paladins’ fourth play of their drive, found an opening on the right side and took the ball 60 yards down the sideline to the end zone to equalize the game.

Starting on their own 25-yard line on their next possession, Thompson led the Gamecocks back down the field before an 11-yard rush from junior tailback Shon Carson and a five-yard touchdown run from junior running back Mike Davis finished off the drive to give South Carolina a 14-7 lead with 5:29 left in the first quarter.

After the teams traded fumbles, the Gamecocks began their next drive with a 25-yard rush to the left side from Davis. The tailback accounted for 19 more yards before Thompson lofted a pass down field to junior Jerrell Adams, which the tight end took into the end zone for a career-long 45-yard reception, his first touchdown of the season.

With 3:22 left in the second quarter, sophomore linebacker Skai Moore came up with a fumble recovery at the Furman 28-yard line. A two-yard run by Davis was followed by the tailback catching a 24-yard pass that moved the ball down to the Paladins’ two-yard line. Davis punched it in for his second score of the game to extend Carolina’s lead to 28-7 with 2:32 left in the half.

A fumble on the Gamecocks’ opening possession of the second half was turned into three points for the Paladins as Hunter Townes converted on a 29-yard field goal to cut the deficit to 28-10 just over five minutes into the half. Eight plays and 84 yards later, including a 56-yard scamper by Carson down to the one-yard line, set up his second touchdown of the season to extend South Carolina’s lead to 35-10.

Two plays later, sophomore safety Chris Moody made his first-career interception and returned it 26 yards down to the Furman 36-yard line. Sophomore kicker Elliott Fry gave the Gamecocks a 38-10 advantage with a 27-yard field goal with 5:17 remaining in the quarter. Fry pushed the lead to 31 on Carolina’s next possession with a 23-yard field goal as redshirt freshman tailback David Williams accounted for 51 yards on four carries on the nine-play, 62-yard drive.

GAME CHANGER Junior tailback Mike Davis scored his second touchdown of the day with 2:32 on the clock to give the Gamecocks a 21-point lead heading into halftime.

KEY STAT The 548 yards of total offense was the highest for the Gamecocks this season. The 281 yards passing and 267 yards rushing both rank as the second most in each category for the season.

NOTABLES

The Gamecocks have won 35 straight games against teams from outside the Power 5 conferences and 17th straight against a non-conference foe.
In regular season play, South Carolina has taken 22-consecutive contests against a non-conference foe and 20 at home against non-SEC opponents.
The Gamecocks posted 548 yards of total offense, the 13th time South Carolina has tallied over 500 yards of offense under head coach Steve Spurrier.
Senior quarterback Dylan Thompson moved into 10th in Gamecock history in passing yards with his 24-yard pass to Rory Anderson in the first drive. He now has 3,666 career passing yards after throwing for 262 in a 14-for-22 day. He also added two TD passes.
Junior tailback Mike Davis moved into 15th on the career rushing charts with his first run before getting to 14th. He now has 2,120 career yards, needing 111 to pass Mike Davis (2005-08). In the game, he passed Brent Hagood (1981-85) and Derek Watson (1999-2001).
Davis, with 111 yards on 18 carries, recorded the 11th 100-yard rushing game of his career, tying three others for second in Gamecock history.
Redshirt freshman tailback David Williams rushed for 110 yards on 11 carries, both career bests.
Davis and Williams became the first Gamecocks to both run for 100 yards in a game since Cory Boyd (132) and Mike Davis (102) both hit the century mark against South Carolina State on Sept. 15, 2007.
The Gamecocks held Furman’s offense to only one field goal in three red-zone possessions.
Sophomore placekicker Elliot Fry hit two field goals in the second half, his 11th and 12th consecutive makes. He’s now three shy of tying the Gamecocks’ program record of 15-straight field goals by Collin Mackie (1987-88).

QUOTABLE South Carolina Head Coach Steve Spurrier

Opening Statement
“It feels good to win a ball game. I told our guys to enjoy it, and we’ll start getting ready for Auburn on Monday. Furman, they made a few yards on us, they had about 300. I thought our defense played pretty well, in the second half especially, and [Furman] only ended up with 10 points. We had some good fortune – they missed a short field goal and a guy fumbled [in the end zone] after we turned it over twice. We had two fumbles from our quarterback and our receiver that put them [Furman] in position, but I guess it only cost us three points there. Again, we had some good plays here and there and a lot of sorry plays. Our pass protection was as good as I thought it was going to be. You have to give Furman credit; they have some nice pass rushers that came through unexpectedly. It was a good win for us. We tried to get cute there at the end, and we should have just run the ball. We thought we might get a touchdown pass off one of our young quarterbacks, but we couldn’t get it off. Overall I’m proud of the team. It wasn’t a real pretty game, but we got us a win. The running backs played pretty well. It was a win for us, and we’re happy to get it.”

Redshirt Senior Quarterback Dylan Thompson

On the balance between rushing and passing on offense
“It was good. I think we’re at our best offensively when we’re pretty close to balanced as far as [rushing and passing] attempts. We probably ran it more today, which is how I think the game went but I thought we had pretty good balance. We still made some mistakes that we can improve on. But overall I thought it was a pretty good day.”

UP NEXT South Carolina will hit the road next weekend for a clash with No. 6 Auburn, who is coming off of a bye this week. Kickoff is scheduled for either 7:15 p.m., ET on ESPN, or 7:30 on ESPN2 or the SEC Network. Game time and network will be determined following the conclusion of all games on Oct. 18.

TWEETS OF THE GAME