An interview with:
[SIZE= 16.0pt]COACH SPURRIER[/SIZE]
[SIZE= 16.0pt]COACH SPURRIER, JR.[/SIZE]
COACH SPURRIER: Okay, appreciate you
all coming. Little more dressed up than usual. Right, Glen? Trying to act
like those big‑time ball coaches. No, just kidding. We've got a reception here
later on tonight with our booster people and so forth, so I actually got dressed
a little early tonight.
Anyway, let's talk about this 2013 class. I
believe we have ‑‑ is it 18? 21, 21, yeah, 18 fresh ones and three that were
already here. So we have 21 incoming freshmen. We believe it's a good, solid
bunch of young men that will fit in very well here at South Carolina, and help
us continue winning a whole bunch of games and hopefully a conference
championship real soon.
Really proud of a lot of these guys.
Out‑of‑state, as you can tell, we're mostly out‑of‑state this year. What is
it? Four in‑state guys, something like that? 4 out of 21. So it was a little
bit of an out‑of‑state year.
Especially proud of Jonathan Walton, young man
from the Mobile, Alabama, area that withstood a strong pull from the in‑state
school Auburn there to hang on with us. We think he's going to come in and
really help us at linebacker possibly even this year.
Obviously, we signed more defensive players
than offense because we had more seniors on last year's team there. So there is
a chance a lot of these guys could come in and play this coming year. Connor
Mitch, quarterback, he's on campus here now. I saw him out on the field
throwing as I looked out my window today and yesterday. He's out throwing about
every day.
Seems like he's grown a little bit. He's a
good 6'3", and he's a young man that really likes football and likes throwing it
around. So we'll see how he develops as he goes through his career here.
Other than that, I'll turn it over to Steve,
Jr. But are there any questions for me, first? Let's do that first.
Q. In terms of Connor being here, Connor Mitch
being here this spring, how much of an advantage is that for a quarterback to
have a spring in the system where he can just kind of focus on learning it?
COACH SPURRIER: Yeah, Connor Shaw was actually
here early also. It may have helped him a bit. We didn't red shirt Connor
shell. There is a chance Connor Mitch may be red shirted, it just depends on
how it goes. But he's fine with that. He's ready to contribute anyway he can.
Brendan Nosovitch now is a player we red
shirted lasted year that we believe is going to be a very good player also. So
you have Dylan and Brendan Nosovitch and Connor Mitch probably pitching it
around most of the spring.
Q. Five offensive linemen? Is that part of the
plan, and how do you feel about that group?
COACH SPURRIER: Yeah, I think it just sort of
worked out that way. T.J. Johnson was the only senior last year, and we were
able to red shirt a few of the freshmen from last year's class. But, next year
we'll probably be a little light on O‑linemen. I think it was the year we were
able to get four or five guys, and they looked pretty good. So, next year,
we'll probably be a little lighter on the O‑line. But Coach Elliott is fired up
about these guys.
Q. You obviously got plenty of depth at running
back. Can you bring in another guy in David Williams who is a big recruit
coming in? And also, one defensive tackle, Kelsey Griffin, also a big four‑star
guy? Kind of talk about both of those?
COACH SPURRIER: David Williams from the Philly
area. Yeah, we're high on him. He's going to come in and have a chance to
compete right away. We like Brandon wilds, Mike Davis, and some other backs
that are here. But David should be able to come in and compete for playing time
and see how it goes.
The other player you were talking about?
Q. Kelsey.
COACH SPURRIER: Kelsey, yeah. Kelsey's a big
defensive lineman, and you've always got to have those guys. So we'll see how
he develops.
Q. Your class is ranked anywhere from 16 to
22nd. I don't know if you pay much attention to that. But today sort of
illustrates how tough it is to keep up in the SEC, so many SEC teams ranked
highly in recruiting. Does that make it more difficult to do what you want to
do, which is win a conference title?
COACH SPURRIER: Yeah, when you're watching
that TV today, you're saying, man, I'm glad I'm in the eastern side instead of
in the western side. But, yeah, that recruiting can be a little deceiving at
times. You never know what you've got until you really, really play it out and
so forth.
The only thing I know, back in 2008, I think
Florida had the No. 1 class, and two years later that No. 1 class drove Urban
Meyer to retirement.
Of course, he came back a year later and he's
an excellent coach, but I know later there were comments that that No. 1 class
just didn't pan out.
Of course, it usually pans out at Alabama every
year. But, again, recruiting is extremely important, but after they get there
is really what's most important.
Q. When you lost your two deep at middle
linebacker and your weak‑side linebacker and also your spur, I see you bring in
four linebackers. How quickly will these guys get in the mix?
COACH SPURRIER: They'll compete with the
players that we have here, and we'll see where we are. Obviously, a lot of them
will have a chance to play.
Q. We see a team, we, the media and fan base,
see a team like Ole Miss, an upstart that had such a good recruiting year, and
people start to wonder how they do it. Do coaches think the same way? Do you
say wow, what is Hugh Freeze doing over there?
COACH SPURRIER: They did have an excellent
year, it appears, and they did an excellent job, their coaches, getting out and
as they say, and developing relationships. Ole Miss won their bowl game, went
7‑6. They had some momentum, but basically, they got out and hustled and
convinced players you can win, win big at Ole Miss.
I think it was helpful to have the No. 1
recruit, his brother already on the team. That had to be helpful too. So they
had a lot of good things going. But give Hugh Freeze and his staff credit for
doing an excellent recruiting job this year.
Q. Can you just talk about the state of the SEC
and how strong it is when you just look at the recruiting classes - how many are
just in the top 20 alone and just the strength of your conference in the league
right now.
COACH SPURRIER: Well, the national media
boards were talking about that, that a whole bunch of schools down here are
ranked. Again, the rankings are not everything. So I heard Lou Holtz, in fact,
he was on there later saying that you're never going to see TCU or Boise State
or Stanford, and they didn't talk much about Oregon either all day. And those
guys are winning 10, 11 games year after year.
It's important, don't get me wrong, but after
they get there I believe it's most important.
Q. In the past, I know you've been proud of
guys hanging with their commitment. That didn't happen all the way through for
this year's class. Any particular reason?
COACH SPURRIER: Well, most of them did, I
think. Some of them maybe left early. But, overall, it was a pretty good
group. Our coaches did an excellent job all recruiting season again. We missed
a few guys here and there, but overall we're in pretty good shape.
Steve and the staff and our players ‑‑ our
players do a good job too. So wherever we were ranked, we maybe weren't on a
whole bunch of real top‑notch, high, five‑star guys this year. Hopefully, next
year maybe we'll be on some of those kind of guys, huh?
COACH SPURRIER JR.: Yes, sir.
COACH SPURRIER: Hopefully. Yeah, ask Steve a
few questions. He can tell you a little bit more about these guys.
Q. We've seen these pictures on TV and
whatever, and all these staff sitting around the big conference table all day.
I don't envision you doing that?
COACH SPURRIER: No.
Q. How do you spend the day recruiting? What
do you do on this day?
COACH SPURRIER: Well, I have my usual workout
at about 10:30 to 11:30, quarter to 12:00, something like that. Then came back
and checked on the faxes. I think all of them were in, except maybe one that we
weren't sure of. That was about it. Made a few calls here and there, called a
few of the guys that came with us, so that's about what I do.
You're not going to see me doing a whole bunch
of rah‑rah'ing on signing day. I don't think I ever have too much. But it's an
important day. I'm not trying to sound like it's not important. But we'd
rather make our noise out here in Williams‑Brice on game day. That's where we
prefer making our noise rather than on signing day. But we're fired up about
these guys. Don't get me wrong. It's a good, solid class. But the real noise,
I think, is on game days.
Q. With the new rules the NCAA is putting in,
will you keep Steve Jr. as recruiting coordinator or will you look at if they're
going to allow you to bring in somebody that's not a full‑time staff member to
be a recruiting coordinator, if you choose?
COACH SPURRIER: Well, he's going to be the
staff recruiting coordinator. Robbie Liles is sort of director of recruiting,
which Robbie does a lot now making sure seven guys are on the road, where we
are, travel, scholarship numbers, and all that kind of stuff.
So Robbie Liles is sort of our on‑campus, and
off‑campus recruiting director. We gave him the term director. We gave him the
name coordinator.
Q. Steve Jr., the linebackers you guys got, if
you could just run down real quick where at this early juncture you see each of
those guys in terms of whether it's going to be spur or inside?
COACH SPURRIER JR.: Yeah, it's hard to say.
We have to wait till they get here. I tell you Gerald Turner and David Johnson
are two big guys. Those guys weigh 250, and 260‑something, I believe. So their
position will be a little different than Larenz Bryant who weighs 215 right
now. Those guys will start a little more outside and move their way in.
But they all get here. They get here in the
summer. They all train. They kind of fit into their position. Then you kind
of find out how smart they are and who can learn the most, and who is the most
ready to play, and I would presume that the defensive coaches would get them on
the field with whoever is most prepared to play.
Q. To follow up on the linebackers. When you
have such an obvious need at a position, does it make for a pressure‑filled
recruiting season, or does it make it easy to go to these guys and say look at
all the spots we've got?
COACH SPURRIER JR.: I'd like to think it makes
it a little easier. Your opportunity to come play and play right now is as good
as it's going to get. I think we've got four or five guys really on that
position that are ready and hungry to go play. The guys you recruit are guys
that want to play. I want that opportunity to go play right now.
So certainly when you have a lot of
opportunities and you can sign a lot of guys at that position, I think it helps
you.
Q. Kind of following up on having a quarterback
in particular on campus for the spring before, from your experience, what is the
value in that and how much more can a guy pick up?
COACH SPURRIER JR.: In my opinion, I hate to
defer, but I think being here helps a lot at any position to go through a spring
or winter conditioning. Sometimes it's tough, too. We've had some guys come
early and didn't like it very much and they struggled with it.
But if you get a guy that's mature and tough
and ready to go to work and absorb a lot of information, he gets a lot these
next few months. To be able to go through all of these meetings and to go
through spring football gives him a leg up down the road, whether it's this year
or two, three years down the road. I'd like to hope that that helps him.
COACH SPURRIER: We don't really advocate that
they come early. It's really an individual decision. If a young man certainly
wants to stay and enjoy his senior year of high school, if he plays another
sport, especially, he should stay back and play.
But some young men, they're ready to go.
They're ready to go to college. So Connor Mitch was that way. He's ready to
get in there and start learning the playbook, and I think he's out there
throwing maybe ‑‑ he may be out there right now.
Have you looked out on the game field? I tell
you what, with this sunshine and 75°, that grass is as green on February 6th as
it was during the season.
Q. Ten from neighboring states, six from
Georgia, four from North Carolina. Are those the numbers that you're happy
with?
COACH SPURRIER JR.: I think every year it's
different. In our state this year, the numbers weren't as high as they've been
in the past, and I think they're going to be higher next year. When that
happens, you kind of move on to one of your next closest states.
Georgia, again, just the numbers they have. We
have a bunch of coaches at a high school banquet yesterday, and they talked
about all players from the state of Georgia that are playing in the SEC and just
the large numbers that there are.
So we'll continue to recruit, Georgia, Florida,
North Carolina pretty hard, and then continue to stress how well we can do
in‑state.
Q. I don't know whether Skai Moore let you guys
know before he let everyone else know where he was going to pick? But where
were you guys when he was sort of the guy that was the news of the day? Can you
talk about where you were or maybe he told you before he told everyone else?
COACH SPURRIER JR.: I know he talked to Coach
Grady Brown, and Coach Botkin a good bit.
COACH SPURRIER: Yeah, he talked to me before.
I think most of the time, without going into great detail on that, that the
players that keep it quiet, I think they tell the school they're going to. I
think. I don't know. Most all of them have told me when they're coming with
me. Sometimes they say they're coming and they don't (laughing).
But I don't know if I've ever gotten one that
didn't tell me he was coming. So, yeah. We had a good idea about him. We had
a real good idea, yeah.
COACH SPURRIER JR.: But that was nice to have
him come today. It was good. It was a good way to close out the day.
COACH SPURRIER: Yeah, it was. We think he's a
very good player that could play that sort of outside linebacker, spur position,
and so forth.
Q. I know this time last year you all talked
about how much having Lattimore helped in recruiting. How much does it help now
to have a guy like Clowney that gets so much public attention and to let the
guys come meet him on campus, too?
COACH SPURRIER JR.: Certainly, like all great
players, people know who he is. Anytime you're on campus or at a basketball
game with recruits and they all just see his presence, you kind of recognize how
important he is. How important football is here, and how much of an impact you
can make coming into the SEC and being a great player. So I know he's a special
guy to have around.
COACH SPURRIER: I think he does help, and
Marcus certainly helped. But I sort of believe your freshmen guys should be the
ones ‑‑ because they're going to be here hopefully another three years. So
Jadeveon is going to play one more season, as we know, so incoming freshman, he
may want to play one year with him. But he knows he's not going to play his
career or three years or so with a player that's only got one more season.
But, again, Jadaveon does a super job meeting
all the guys on their visits and shaking hands and so forth. He's good in
recruiting. Very good.
Q. No wide receivers?
COACH SPURRIER JR.: No wide receivers. Can
you believe that? Yeah, we went after ‑‑ we targeted a couple early, but said
we weren't going to take an average player. If we had a chance to take a great
one, we were going to do that. If not, we didn't feel we needed one.
At the time we weren't sure if Ace was going to
leave or not. That may have changed it a little bit. But we feel pretty good
about the group we have. Again, going into next year, we think we can sign two
or three great ones, and we look forward to that.
COACH SPURRIER: Yeah, this spring will be a
wonderful opportunity for those young receivers that haven't done much here
yet. Shaq Roland, Kwinton Smith, Shamier Jeffery. Shamier's had a change in
attitude. He's been going to everything on time, hustling. He looks like he
wants to play. So it will be an interesting spring for all those receivers.
Damiere Byrd, saw him in the weight room today,
and he's still running track. I think he goes to Arkansas this week to run the
60. But he needs to catch a whole bunch of passes this spring also. See if we
can get him ready to be a full‑time wide receiver.
Q. ESPN was at 13 schools today, including
Clemson and many around the SEC with the entire college nation kind of watching
all day. You see the coaches and you talk about the war room and that sort of
stuff. Is that a bonus for those schools to get that kind of coverage? Did
they approach you guys about coming to Columbia?
COACH SPURRIER: Did they call and ask this
year? Some years they ask. A couple of them ask to call me. Yeah, I didn't do
any of those, did I? Yeah, it wasn't that big a deal. But I know what you mean
though. It was interesting because obviously we're sitting in there most of the
day watching everything. Finally they did stroll through there, had us number
17 or something. So I said at least they know we're still around somewhere.
But, yeah, we didn't get a lot of PR today, but
that's okay. That's okay. It's a good, solid bunch of guys. It really is,
excellent group. May turn out to be one of our best groups. Who knows. Who
knows until we kick it off and start playing.
COACH SPURRIER JR.: I think some schools like
to celebrate this day a lot, too. And I don't think it necessarily that's our
ultimate objective to make this one of the most important days of the year.
COACH SPURRIER: If you don't have a very good
season, you need something to get the fans excited for next year, as you know,
Glen. But I've never tried to overhype it. I hope I haven't. But this is a
good, solid group of guys here. A lot of them are going to be very good players
here.
[SIZE= 16.0pt]COACH SPURRIER[/SIZE]
[SIZE= 16.0pt]COACH SPURRIER, JR.[/SIZE]
COACH SPURRIER: Okay, appreciate you
all coming. Little more dressed up than usual. Right, Glen? Trying to act
like those big‑time ball coaches. No, just kidding. We've got a reception here
later on tonight with our booster people and so forth, so I actually got dressed
a little early tonight.
Anyway, let's talk about this 2013 class. I
believe we have ‑‑ is it 18? 21, 21, yeah, 18 fresh ones and three that were
already here. So we have 21 incoming freshmen. We believe it's a good, solid
bunch of young men that will fit in very well here at South Carolina, and help
us continue winning a whole bunch of games and hopefully a conference
championship real soon.
Really proud of a lot of these guys.
Out‑of‑state, as you can tell, we're mostly out‑of‑state this year. What is
it? Four in‑state guys, something like that? 4 out of 21. So it was a little
bit of an out‑of‑state year.
Especially proud of Jonathan Walton, young man
from the Mobile, Alabama, area that withstood a strong pull from the in‑state
school Auburn there to hang on with us. We think he's going to come in and
really help us at linebacker possibly even this year.
Obviously, we signed more defensive players
than offense because we had more seniors on last year's team there. So there is
a chance a lot of these guys could come in and play this coming year. Connor
Mitch, quarterback, he's on campus here now. I saw him out on the field
throwing as I looked out my window today and yesterday. He's out throwing about
every day.
Seems like he's grown a little bit. He's a
good 6'3", and he's a young man that really likes football and likes throwing it
around. So we'll see how he develops as he goes through his career here.
Other than that, I'll turn it over to Steve,
Jr. But are there any questions for me, first? Let's do that first.
Q. In terms of Connor being here, Connor Mitch
being here this spring, how much of an advantage is that for a quarterback to
have a spring in the system where he can just kind of focus on learning it?
COACH SPURRIER: Yeah, Connor Shaw was actually
here early also. It may have helped him a bit. We didn't red shirt Connor
shell. There is a chance Connor Mitch may be red shirted, it just depends on
how it goes. But he's fine with that. He's ready to contribute anyway he can.
Brendan Nosovitch now is a player we red
shirted lasted year that we believe is going to be a very good player also. So
you have Dylan and Brendan Nosovitch and Connor Mitch probably pitching it
around most of the spring.
Q. Five offensive linemen? Is that part of the
plan, and how do you feel about that group?
COACH SPURRIER: Yeah, I think it just sort of
worked out that way. T.J. Johnson was the only senior last year, and we were
able to red shirt a few of the freshmen from last year's class. But, next year
we'll probably be a little light on O‑linemen. I think it was the year we were
able to get four or five guys, and they looked pretty good. So, next year,
we'll probably be a little lighter on the O‑line. But Coach Elliott is fired up
about these guys.
Q. You obviously got plenty of depth at running
back. Can you bring in another guy in David Williams who is a big recruit
coming in? And also, one defensive tackle, Kelsey Griffin, also a big four‑star
guy? Kind of talk about both of those?
COACH SPURRIER: David Williams from the Philly
area. Yeah, we're high on him. He's going to come in and have a chance to
compete right away. We like Brandon wilds, Mike Davis, and some other backs
that are here. But David should be able to come in and compete for playing time
and see how it goes.
The other player you were talking about?
Q. Kelsey.
COACH SPURRIER: Kelsey, yeah. Kelsey's a big
defensive lineman, and you've always got to have those guys. So we'll see how
he develops.
Q. Your class is ranked anywhere from 16 to
22nd. I don't know if you pay much attention to that. But today sort of
illustrates how tough it is to keep up in the SEC, so many SEC teams ranked
highly in recruiting. Does that make it more difficult to do what you want to
do, which is win a conference title?
COACH SPURRIER: Yeah, when you're watching
that TV today, you're saying, man, I'm glad I'm in the eastern side instead of
in the western side. But, yeah, that recruiting can be a little deceiving at
times. You never know what you've got until you really, really play it out and
so forth.
The only thing I know, back in 2008, I think
Florida had the No. 1 class, and two years later that No. 1 class drove Urban
Meyer to retirement.
Of course, he came back a year later and he's
an excellent coach, but I know later there were comments that that No. 1 class
just didn't pan out.
Of course, it usually pans out at Alabama every
year. But, again, recruiting is extremely important, but after they get there
is really what's most important.
Q. When you lost your two deep at middle
linebacker and your weak‑side linebacker and also your spur, I see you bring in
four linebackers. How quickly will these guys get in the mix?
COACH SPURRIER: They'll compete with the
players that we have here, and we'll see where we are. Obviously, a lot of them
will have a chance to play.
Q. We see a team, we, the media and fan base,
see a team like Ole Miss, an upstart that had such a good recruiting year, and
people start to wonder how they do it. Do coaches think the same way? Do you
say wow, what is Hugh Freeze doing over there?
COACH SPURRIER: They did have an excellent
year, it appears, and they did an excellent job, their coaches, getting out and
as they say, and developing relationships. Ole Miss won their bowl game, went
7‑6. They had some momentum, but basically, they got out and hustled and
convinced players you can win, win big at Ole Miss.
I think it was helpful to have the No. 1
recruit, his brother already on the team. That had to be helpful too. So they
had a lot of good things going. But give Hugh Freeze and his staff credit for
doing an excellent recruiting job this year.
Q. Can you just talk about the state of the SEC
and how strong it is when you just look at the recruiting classes - how many are
just in the top 20 alone and just the strength of your conference in the league
right now.
COACH SPURRIER: Well, the national media
boards were talking about that, that a whole bunch of schools down here are
ranked. Again, the rankings are not everything. So I heard Lou Holtz, in fact,
he was on there later saying that you're never going to see TCU or Boise State
or Stanford, and they didn't talk much about Oregon either all day. And those
guys are winning 10, 11 games year after year.
It's important, don't get me wrong, but after
they get there I believe it's most important.
Q. In the past, I know you've been proud of
guys hanging with their commitment. That didn't happen all the way through for
this year's class. Any particular reason?
COACH SPURRIER: Well, most of them did, I
think. Some of them maybe left early. But, overall, it was a pretty good
group. Our coaches did an excellent job all recruiting season again. We missed
a few guys here and there, but overall we're in pretty good shape.
Steve and the staff and our players ‑‑ our
players do a good job too. So wherever we were ranked, we maybe weren't on a
whole bunch of real top‑notch, high, five‑star guys this year. Hopefully, next
year maybe we'll be on some of those kind of guys, huh?
COACH SPURRIER JR.: Yes, sir.
COACH SPURRIER: Hopefully. Yeah, ask Steve a
few questions. He can tell you a little bit more about these guys.
Q. We've seen these pictures on TV and
whatever, and all these staff sitting around the big conference table all day.
I don't envision you doing that?
COACH SPURRIER: No.
Q. How do you spend the day recruiting? What
do you do on this day?
COACH SPURRIER: Well, I have my usual workout
at about 10:30 to 11:30, quarter to 12:00, something like that. Then came back
and checked on the faxes. I think all of them were in, except maybe one that we
weren't sure of. That was about it. Made a few calls here and there, called a
few of the guys that came with us, so that's about what I do.
You're not going to see me doing a whole bunch
of rah‑rah'ing on signing day. I don't think I ever have too much. But it's an
important day. I'm not trying to sound like it's not important. But we'd
rather make our noise out here in Williams‑Brice on game day. That's where we
prefer making our noise rather than on signing day. But we're fired up about
these guys. Don't get me wrong. It's a good, solid class. But the real noise,
I think, is on game days.
Q. With the new rules the NCAA is putting in,
will you keep Steve Jr. as recruiting coordinator or will you look at if they're
going to allow you to bring in somebody that's not a full‑time staff member to
be a recruiting coordinator, if you choose?
COACH SPURRIER: Well, he's going to be the
staff recruiting coordinator. Robbie Liles is sort of director of recruiting,
which Robbie does a lot now making sure seven guys are on the road, where we
are, travel, scholarship numbers, and all that kind of stuff.
So Robbie Liles is sort of our on‑campus, and
off‑campus recruiting director. We gave him the term director. We gave him the
name coordinator.
Q. Steve Jr., the linebackers you guys got, if
you could just run down real quick where at this early juncture you see each of
those guys in terms of whether it's going to be spur or inside?
COACH SPURRIER JR.: Yeah, it's hard to say.
We have to wait till they get here. I tell you Gerald Turner and David Johnson
are two big guys. Those guys weigh 250, and 260‑something, I believe. So their
position will be a little different than Larenz Bryant who weighs 215 right
now. Those guys will start a little more outside and move their way in.
But they all get here. They get here in the
summer. They all train. They kind of fit into their position. Then you kind
of find out how smart they are and who can learn the most, and who is the most
ready to play, and I would presume that the defensive coaches would get them on
the field with whoever is most prepared to play.
Q. To follow up on the linebackers. When you
have such an obvious need at a position, does it make for a pressure‑filled
recruiting season, or does it make it easy to go to these guys and say look at
all the spots we've got?
COACH SPURRIER JR.: I'd like to think it makes
it a little easier. Your opportunity to come play and play right now is as good
as it's going to get. I think we've got four or five guys really on that
position that are ready and hungry to go play. The guys you recruit are guys
that want to play. I want that opportunity to go play right now.
So certainly when you have a lot of
opportunities and you can sign a lot of guys at that position, I think it helps
you.
Q. Kind of following up on having a quarterback
in particular on campus for the spring before, from your experience, what is the
value in that and how much more can a guy pick up?
COACH SPURRIER JR.: In my opinion, I hate to
defer, but I think being here helps a lot at any position to go through a spring
or winter conditioning. Sometimes it's tough, too. We've had some guys come
early and didn't like it very much and they struggled with it.
But if you get a guy that's mature and tough
and ready to go to work and absorb a lot of information, he gets a lot these
next few months. To be able to go through all of these meetings and to go
through spring football gives him a leg up down the road, whether it's this year
or two, three years down the road. I'd like to hope that that helps him.
COACH SPURRIER: We don't really advocate that
they come early. It's really an individual decision. If a young man certainly
wants to stay and enjoy his senior year of high school, if he plays another
sport, especially, he should stay back and play.
But some young men, they're ready to go.
They're ready to go to college. So Connor Mitch was that way. He's ready to
get in there and start learning the playbook, and I think he's out there
throwing maybe ‑‑ he may be out there right now.
Have you looked out on the game field? I tell
you what, with this sunshine and 75°, that grass is as green on February 6th as
it was during the season.
Q. Ten from neighboring states, six from
Georgia, four from North Carolina. Are those the numbers that you're happy
with?
COACH SPURRIER JR.: I think every year it's
different. In our state this year, the numbers weren't as high as they've been
in the past, and I think they're going to be higher next year. When that
happens, you kind of move on to one of your next closest states.
Georgia, again, just the numbers they have. We
have a bunch of coaches at a high school banquet yesterday, and they talked
about all players from the state of Georgia that are playing in the SEC and just
the large numbers that there are.
So we'll continue to recruit, Georgia, Florida,
North Carolina pretty hard, and then continue to stress how well we can do
in‑state.
Q. I don't know whether Skai Moore let you guys
know before he let everyone else know where he was going to pick? But where
were you guys when he was sort of the guy that was the news of the day? Can you
talk about where you were or maybe he told you before he told everyone else?
COACH SPURRIER JR.: I know he talked to Coach
Grady Brown, and Coach Botkin a good bit.
COACH SPURRIER: Yeah, he talked to me before.
I think most of the time, without going into great detail on that, that the
players that keep it quiet, I think they tell the school they're going to. I
think. I don't know. Most all of them have told me when they're coming with
me. Sometimes they say they're coming and they don't (laughing).
But I don't know if I've ever gotten one that
didn't tell me he was coming. So, yeah. We had a good idea about him. We had
a real good idea, yeah.
COACH SPURRIER JR.: But that was nice to have
him come today. It was good. It was a good way to close out the day.
COACH SPURRIER: Yeah, it was. We think he's a
very good player that could play that sort of outside linebacker, spur position,
and so forth.
Q. I know this time last year you all talked
about how much having Lattimore helped in recruiting. How much does it help now
to have a guy like Clowney that gets so much public attention and to let the
guys come meet him on campus, too?
COACH SPURRIER JR.: Certainly, like all great
players, people know who he is. Anytime you're on campus or at a basketball
game with recruits and they all just see his presence, you kind of recognize how
important he is. How important football is here, and how much of an impact you
can make coming into the SEC and being a great player. So I know he's a special
guy to have around.
COACH SPURRIER: I think he does help, and
Marcus certainly helped. But I sort of believe your freshmen guys should be the
ones ‑‑ because they're going to be here hopefully another three years. So
Jadeveon is going to play one more season, as we know, so incoming freshman, he
may want to play one year with him. But he knows he's not going to play his
career or three years or so with a player that's only got one more season.
But, again, Jadaveon does a super job meeting
all the guys on their visits and shaking hands and so forth. He's good in
recruiting. Very good.
Q. No wide receivers?
COACH SPURRIER JR.: No wide receivers. Can
you believe that? Yeah, we went after ‑‑ we targeted a couple early, but said
we weren't going to take an average player. If we had a chance to take a great
one, we were going to do that. If not, we didn't feel we needed one.
At the time we weren't sure if Ace was going to
leave or not. That may have changed it a little bit. But we feel pretty good
about the group we have. Again, going into next year, we think we can sign two
or three great ones, and we look forward to that.
COACH SPURRIER: Yeah, this spring will be a
wonderful opportunity for those young receivers that haven't done much here
yet. Shaq Roland, Kwinton Smith, Shamier Jeffery. Shamier's had a change in
attitude. He's been going to everything on time, hustling. He looks like he
wants to play. So it will be an interesting spring for all those receivers.
Damiere Byrd, saw him in the weight room today,
and he's still running track. I think he goes to Arkansas this week to run the
60. But he needs to catch a whole bunch of passes this spring also. See if we
can get him ready to be a full‑time wide receiver.
Q. ESPN was at 13 schools today, including
Clemson and many around the SEC with the entire college nation kind of watching
all day. You see the coaches and you talk about the war room and that sort of
stuff. Is that a bonus for those schools to get that kind of coverage? Did
they approach you guys about coming to Columbia?
COACH SPURRIER: Did they call and ask this
year? Some years they ask. A couple of them ask to call me. Yeah, I didn't do
any of those, did I? Yeah, it wasn't that big a deal. But I know what you mean
though. It was interesting because obviously we're sitting in there most of the
day watching everything. Finally they did stroll through there, had us number
17 or something. So I said at least they know we're still around somewhere.
But, yeah, we didn't get a lot of PR today, but
that's okay. That's okay. It's a good, solid bunch of guys. It really is,
excellent group. May turn out to be one of our best groups. Who knows. Who
knows until we kick it off and start playing.
COACH SPURRIER JR.: I think some schools like
to celebrate this day a lot, too. And I don't think it necessarily that's our
ultimate objective to make this one of the most important days of the year.
COACH SPURRIER: If you don't have a very good
season, you need something to get the fans excited for next year, as you know,
Glen. But I've never tried to overhype it. I hope I haven't. But this is a
good, solid group of guys here. A lot of them are going to be very good players
here.
