South Carolina leaps out of the frying pan and into the fire with a third consecutive matchup against a top-10 team with its ultimate goal hanging in the balance.
The Gamecocks, ranked seventh in the initial BCS standings, culminate arguably the toughest three-game stretch in all of college football this season when they travel Saturday to undefeated Florida, ranked second behind Alabama in the BCS.
One week after losing 23-21 against LSU at intimidating Death Valley, USC heads to yet another unpopular destination for visiting teams in the Gators' vaunted “Swamp” where its mettle will once again face a daunting task.
“This is the third one, and hopefully it will be four in a row (when Tennessee visits Williams-Brice next week) of sell-out crowds, loud stadiums as full as it can be,” USC coach Steve Spurrier said Tuesday during his weekly press conference. “We need to be better than last week, although I don't think it's embarrassing to lose a two-point game at LSU. It didn't work out last week and if we're going to win the division we still have to beat Florida to have a shot to do it.
“All of our goals are still out there. We're going to try to play better and try and get the ball to Marcus Lattimore more than last week (when he had 13 carries, including only three after halftime, for 35 yards). We need to block a lot better than last game. Other than that we should be pretty pleased about where we are going into the eighth game of the season. We'll see if we can't make something special happen.”
Of course snapping LSU's then 21-game home win streak (the nation's longest) would have spruced up an already impressive resume, but all of USC's goals still remain. A win at Florida, where the Gamecocks won two years ago, puts USC squarely in the driver's seat to win the SEC Eastern Division.
The Gamecocks (6-1, 4-1 SEC) would own the head-to-head tiebreakers with both the Gators and Georgia with a victory with the only conference games remaining at home against Tennessee and Arkansas. A win would likely vault USC a few notches in the BCS standings and right back into the national championship discussion.
“It's an important game in the SEC,” Spurrier said. “We're not going to fold it up if it doesn't work out. We're looking forward to seeing if we can beat these guys. We know the importance of it, but it's a long season. We have goals other than winning the Eastern Division, so if we're out of it, we'll go onto the next goal. Right now we're trying to win the division and if we go on a three-game winning streak, we're going to win it. We've got to other guys at home and we've been pretty good at home.”
Florida (6-0, 5-0 SEC) has conference games remaining against Georgia at a neutral site in Jacksonville, Fla., and at home versus Missouri. The Gators enjoy one of the nation's most difficult home stadiums for visiting teams, but USC receiver Bruce Ellington said his team has gained valuable experience on the big stage and just has to approach the trip with a light-hearted mentality.
“We've just got to go into the game and play our hearts out and just have fun,” Ellington said during Tuesday's press conference. “We just keep learning that every SEC game is a challenge, especially away from home. We know what we are getting into and the crowd is going to be into the game so we just have to do what we need to do to get a win.”
Both Spurrier and defensive end Jadeveon Clowney questioned the team's heart and effort during the loss to LSU, but linebacker Shaq Wilson believes it was more mental mistakes than a lack of fire in the belly.
“I wouldn't say (the fire) was missing (at LSU), but there were a lot of mental things we did wrong on the field that we know we can do right. When you go into a stadium like that you should be emotionally ready to play. I think everybody was emotionally charged up, just too many mental mistakes beat us.”
link: http://bleacherreport.com/tb/d8JmB?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=south-carolina-football
The Gamecocks, ranked seventh in the initial BCS standings, culminate arguably the toughest three-game stretch in all of college football this season when they travel Saturday to undefeated Florida, ranked second behind Alabama in the BCS.
One week after losing 23-21 against LSU at intimidating Death Valley, USC heads to yet another unpopular destination for visiting teams in the Gators' vaunted “Swamp” where its mettle will once again face a daunting task.
“This is the third one, and hopefully it will be four in a row (when Tennessee visits Williams-Brice next week) of sell-out crowds, loud stadiums as full as it can be,” USC coach Steve Spurrier said Tuesday during his weekly press conference. “We need to be better than last week, although I don't think it's embarrassing to lose a two-point game at LSU. It didn't work out last week and if we're going to win the division we still have to beat Florida to have a shot to do it.
“All of our goals are still out there. We're going to try to play better and try and get the ball to Marcus Lattimore more than last week (when he had 13 carries, including only three after halftime, for 35 yards). We need to block a lot better than last game. Other than that we should be pretty pleased about where we are going into the eighth game of the season. We'll see if we can't make something special happen.”
Of course snapping LSU's then 21-game home win streak (the nation's longest) would have spruced up an already impressive resume, but all of USC's goals still remain. A win at Florida, where the Gamecocks won two years ago, puts USC squarely in the driver's seat to win the SEC Eastern Division.
The Gamecocks (6-1, 4-1 SEC) would own the head-to-head tiebreakers with both the Gators and Georgia with a victory with the only conference games remaining at home against Tennessee and Arkansas. A win would likely vault USC a few notches in the BCS standings and right back into the national championship discussion.
“It's an important game in the SEC,” Spurrier said. “We're not going to fold it up if it doesn't work out. We're looking forward to seeing if we can beat these guys. We know the importance of it, but it's a long season. We have goals other than winning the Eastern Division, so if we're out of it, we'll go onto the next goal. Right now we're trying to win the division and if we go on a three-game winning streak, we're going to win it. We've got to other guys at home and we've been pretty good at home.”
Florida (6-0, 5-0 SEC) has conference games remaining against Georgia at a neutral site in Jacksonville, Fla., and at home versus Missouri. The Gators enjoy one of the nation's most difficult home stadiums for visiting teams, but USC receiver Bruce Ellington said his team has gained valuable experience on the big stage and just has to approach the trip with a light-hearted mentality.
“We've just got to go into the game and play our hearts out and just have fun,” Ellington said during Tuesday's press conference. “We just keep learning that every SEC game is a challenge, especially away from home. We know what we are getting into and the crowd is going to be into the game so we just have to do what we need to do to get a win.”
Both Spurrier and defensive end Jadeveon Clowney questioned the team's heart and effort during the loss to LSU, but linebacker Shaq Wilson believes it was more mental mistakes than a lack of fire in the belly.
“I wouldn't say (the fire) was missing (at LSU), but there were a lot of mental things we did wrong on the field that we know we can do right. When you go into a stadium like that you should be emotionally ready to play. I think everybody was emotionally charged up, just too many mental mistakes beat us.”
link: http://bleacherreport.com/tb/d8JmB?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=south-carolina-football