Players should always listen to their coaches and it doesn’t matter who the opponent might be or where the game is played.
That’s fundamental football at any level but it gets more important as you climb the ladder from high school to college and maybe the NFL; the higher you go, the more eyes are watching and when a major college team is distracted, not fully committed to that week’s game plan it makes everyone look bad.
So it was more than just a throwaway quote the other day when Steve Spurrier put this week’s game with Florida in perspective for his players.
“They clobbered us last year,” he said. “We fumbled it all over the place and got beat probably as badly as we have in the last two-three years around here.”
Everyone who played in that game will have a distinct memory of what happened and how it caved in the highest expectations for the season. The Gamecocks allowed Florida just 183 yards of total offense that day in Gainesville.
It was the best day of the season for the defense, the way it shut down the Gators from start to finish, but Florida wasn’t required to do much to get a victory that day as it took advantage of scoring drives of 4, 6, 10 and 22 yards.
Carolina fumbled away three possessions and gave up an interception, ruining its opportunity for a win.
This week Florida comes in off a loss very similar to the one the Gamecocks experienced a year ago. The Gators gave a game away to Vanderbilt last week and before you snicker, that’s the Vanderbilt team that beat Georgia this year and every Carolina fan knows what happened against the Bulldogs in September.
So this one is tinged with meaning all around. The Gators will be motivated as a loss will virtually eliminate them from a chance at a bowl game, but they have had one of those injury-plagued seasons that seem to heap bad news on top of bad news. Inexperienced issues abound at the quarterback position; confidence seems to be diminished; the fan base is unhappy with coach Will Muschamp who was probably asking his defensive line coach Brad Lawing – the former Carolina assistant – for all the insight he could get into the Connor Shaw-led offense.
If things go well in other locations, a victory could mean a spot in the conference championship game, if not, a win will help erase the memory of a very bad day in Gainesville.
That’s fundamental football at any level but it gets more important as you climb the ladder from high school to college and maybe the NFL; the higher you go, the more eyes are watching and when a major college team is distracted, not fully committed to that week’s game plan it makes everyone look bad.
So it was more than just a throwaway quote the other day when Steve Spurrier put this week’s game with Florida in perspective for his players.
“They clobbered us last year,” he said. “We fumbled it all over the place and got beat probably as badly as we have in the last two-three years around here.”
Everyone who played in that game will have a distinct memory of what happened and how it caved in the highest expectations for the season. The Gamecocks allowed Florida just 183 yards of total offense that day in Gainesville.
It was the best day of the season for the defense, the way it shut down the Gators from start to finish, but Florida wasn’t required to do much to get a victory that day as it took advantage of scoring drives of 4, 6, 10 and 22 yards.
Carolina fumbled away three possessions and gave up an interception, ruining its opportunity for a win.
This week Florida comes in off a loss very similar to the one the Gamecocks experienced a year ago. The Gators gave a game away to Vanderbilt last week and before you snicker, that’s the Vanderbilt team that beat Georgia this year and every Carolina fan knows what happened against the Bulldogs in September.
So this one is tinged with meaning all around. The Gators will be motivated as a loss will virtually eliminate them from a chance at a bowl game, but they have had one of those injury-plagued seasons that seem to heap bad news on top of bad news. Inexperienced issues abound at the quarterback position; confidence seems to be diminished; the fan base is unhappy with coach Will Muschamp who was probably asking his defensive line coach Brad Lawing – the former Carolina assistant – for all the insight he could get into the Connor Shaw-led offense.
If things go well in other locations, a victory could mean a spot in the conference championship game, if not, a win will help erase the memory of a very bad day in Gainesville.