COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Coach Steve Spurrier is saying something this week he hasn’t said often at South Carolina — his team is better than its Southeastern Conference opponent. Specifically, Kentucky. And the ingredients do seem to be in place for a rout for No. 6 South Carolina.
The Wildcats don’t appear any better than the team that South Carolina beat 54-3 last season, marking the only time the Gamecocks have scored 50 points on an SEC opponent in Spurrier’s eight years at the school.
“I think we are better than them,” Spurrier said. “But if we don’t play better than them, they can certainly beat us.”
The admission is a milestone of sorts for Spurrier, who has slowly built South Carolina from a middle of the SEC team that might occasionally pull a surprise or lose to someone it should beat into a contender for the league title. The Gamecocks have won 15 of their past 17 games, an unprecedented streak in team history. A win Saturday over the Wildcats will match South Carolina’s longest ever win streak at nine games. And the Gamecocks have been ranked higher just once, rising to No. 2 after winning their first nine games in 1984.
After Kentucky on Saturday, the schedule gets much harder for the Gamecocks, with No. 5 Georgia, No. 3 LSU and No. 11 Florida in the first three weeks of October.
“We know that the meat of the schedule is down the road, but this is a game this week that’s one of 12, and we’re going to try to play our best,” Spurrier said.
If anything brought Spurrier’s Florida swagger back at South Carolina, it was the 51-point win over Kentucky in 2011. The Gamecocks gained 639 yards, the best output ever under Spurrier. The coach never stopped, scoring 21 points in the fourth quarter, including a 10-play drive at the end of the game that had three passes and finished with an 8-yard touchdown scramble by backup quarterback Dylan Thompson with nine seconds to go.
Spurrier suggested his team could have scored 70 or 80, then dropped in one of his patented backhanded compliments, delivered with a grin.
“Kentucky has a heck of a punter,” he said.
Wildcats coach Joker Phillips was asked about that comment this week. He laughed, saying Kentucky still has a good punter and also said there was no need to put the comment on a bulletin board to fire up his players.
“Steve’s going to say things like that. If I put everything that Steve said up there, we wouldn’t have any space on our board,” Phillips said.
And if Kentucky needs any inspiration, it should come from two years ago, when the Wildcat team beat a Spurrier team for the only time in the Head Ball Coach’s career. South Carolina led 28-10 at halftime in 2010, but Gamecocks running back Marcus Lattimore missed the second half with an injured ankle and Kentucky scored three touchdowns in the final two quarters to win 31-28. The loss stung even more because it came the week after South Carolina beat No. 1 Alabama.
“We were ready to play, but they completely out-played us the second half, out-coached us completely the second half. We ended up losing the game,” Spurrier said Tuesday. “But that game’s history, just as our game with them last year is history, and the team that plays the best this week has the best chance of being the winner.”
16 Responses to Spurrier knows South Carolina is better than Kentucky and hopes to build on swagger gained last year
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Sad to say,but i would bet every team UK plays feel that they can beat the Cats,and i wonder if there is any team on UKs’ schedule they feel that way about.
I really would like for someone who knows anything at all about football to write a poast about UKs’ football program,and explain what is astually wrong.Is it the coaches,or is it lack of quality players,or is it a malaise that sets in every season?One thing that is a given,UK seems to always live up to the prognisticators predictions on their season .I really wish someone could explain “why.”
Yes…………
Sorry Johnl. I was trying to had a little humor to a sad situation with my previous reply.
I know something about football since I played high school ball and have followed UK football for darn near 45 years. This all means that I know a little bit about football. I know a whole lot more about organizations in that I managed a very large one for 35 of 65 years.
It’s about people, motivation and expectations. 1st People. You have to have good one that are developable and then you have to make them better. If Joker was a Director in my company I would be out hiring is replacement right about now. KY has not recruited well and they have not developed well. Mostly this is the fault of Joker’s bosses. For too long, football at UK has been used as a cash generator. After all, UK filled its stands no matter how bad the teams were. But now the rules have changed. Now you have to pay for the privledge of buying seasons tickets then you have to buy the tickets. All of a sudden the fans are getting the feeling that they have been had. Funny things happen when you force fans to pay a premium. They expect premium results.
Motivation: Assuming you have done #1 well, the kids have to want to win. The popular euphimism is “swagger”. KY basketball players going into a game expecting to win. KY football players going into the game “wanting” to win but do seem to not know how. This is the fault of the coaching staff. Players develop trust in the coaching staff when they do what the coaches want and they win. When they lose, the coaches start to look a little less brilliant and they players start to question themselves. Lack of confidence in yourself and a lack of trust in your boss is a bad combination for David to go up against Goliath.
#3 Expectations. I’ve already spoken about the expectation of a win. Now lets talk about expectations of coaches. You recruit young people and fill them full of “you can play here” expectations. When your team loses and you do not get to play you begin to think, “Wow I must be either really bad or I’ve been had”. Either way, you start to lose your motivation. When you tell a kid that he is a high achiever, you have to expect high achievment. When you don’t get that achievment, you have to replace the kid or you will destroy his self confidence forever. Nothing worse than getting beat up and not know why.
Now having said all this, it’s only a few paragraphs of an entire management for success book. Joker’s is in a bad spot. He lost all of his super achievers, Cobb, etc and has only very young player to replace them. Maybe they are developable or maybe not. One has to ask the question however “what happened to the recruting years after Cobb&Co and before now? This is squarely on the Coaching staff. When I was in business, we were always recruiting at the best engineering schools and rading other companies. You can never have enough good people.
Football isn’t any different.
Sorry about the spelling errors. I’m in a hurry!!
Thanks RJ.
Like you i have been a UK football fan since the days of Blanton Collier.During my ealy years i used to buy the “Street And Smith Football Yearbook” and hastily turn to the football prediction page to see what they were predicting for the Cats for the upcoming season.Much to my chagrin,the predictions were always the same,3 wins and 7/8 losses,and i would look at the schedule and wonder why UK could’nt win more of those games,and even sadder,the authors of the magazine were right.
So ,i’ve quite a few games over the years,and enjoyed those few good years when the Cats had a winning gseason,and suffering when they lost.
It just seems with UK,nothing ever changes in the football program.I must say though,that i am glas fans are finally taking the position that they are mad as hell and are not going to take it anymore.I just hope Mitch will listen and as you and others have suggested,remove joker and bring in someone who can coach the players they will inherit up,and at least get UK to the point where they will not be embarrassed by the likes of Ul,WKU,and fail to score against major competition.
spurrier better keep his pride and confidence to himself. the gamecocks are not the team to blow past anyone – just look at the vanderbilt score from two to three years ago. pride goeth before a fall gentlemen, pride goeth before a fall!
Robert – Pride/confidence had nothing to do with it – Spurrier told the truth, this year the gamecocks appear to be better than Ky – BUT they have to play better than them to win – Just the simple truth -
RJ – As my English teacher used to say,” being in a hurry is no excuse”, best to slow down and get it right – not to mention – proof read the darn thing if you expect a posting to have a favorable effect -
Did your Teacher mention anything about sentence structure or punctuation?
There’s one in every crowd.
Something tells me he spends a LOT of time alone RJ.
I am afraid this is going to real ugly Saturday. Spurrier has a long memory, and he remembers being upset two years ago. He will run up the score if he gets the chance.
After the WKU game, and the train wreck at Florida, what’s the worst thing that can happen?
I hope ky has a better year one day. And John I know how u feel, I too was like that so many years ago as a Gamecock fan. But after getting better recruits and a coach that knows how to win that will change ky(jelly’s) football program. Right know the only thing that can make any Kentucky fan feel better about the program is to stand up and as loud as you can say it yell “Gooooo Cocks”. Just joking I want to win but at the same time I want ky to get better but face it like all basketball schools football and other sports come last. Good luck and hope for a good game.
What the worst can happen is 56-0
The number one issue with UK is coaching. Great coaching can take a poor team and get them to middle of the pack or poor coaching can take a talented team and turn them into a bottom feeder. If you don’t think so look at Arkansas FB this year, look at Michigan FB under Rich Rodriguez or U of L FB under Kragthorpe. U of L was in the Orange Bowl under Petrino and the next year they were in the Toliet Bowl under Kragthorpe. A lot of the players were the same; the staff including head coach were completely different. Look at WKU. When Willie Taggart came to WKU they were 0-26; some of those same players have now won 10 of their last 12 games. Similar players; different coach. Do I need to say anything about Billy G coaching Josh Harrellson vs. John Calipari coaching Josh Harrellson. Same player but much different results.