Normally, the Georgia-South Carolina game impacts the SEC East race. This year, it's the national title race. Gamecocks coach Steve Spurrier discusses Saturday's showdown between the two top ten teams. Said Spurrier,"We're looking forward to the game. Should be a huge crowd. I know our fans are fired up."
And South Carolina may have been looking ahead to this big game last week against Kentucky. They fell behind 17-7 before winning 38-17. Said Spurrier, "That was a good wake-up call last week. It was a wake-up for us coaches too. We were too nice to the team last week."
At least the ole ball coach was nice in talking about Georgia. "They've got a rich history of football over there. It's fun competing against them. It's fun competing against teams that know how to win also."
Spurrier even defended Georgia's defense which gave up 44 points last week. "They score so much and quickly that their defense has been out there maybe a lot more than other teams. They've stopped people in the fourth quarter. They remind me a little bit of Auburn two years ago when their defense wasn't ranked very good. But in the fourth quarter, they stopped people. And they won every game somehow doing that."
Spurrier hopes quarterback Conner Shaw can make those fourth quarter plays against the Bulldogs. "I was watching that pro game last night.(Dallas-Chicago) Saw the interceptions and the quarterback get hit. I was thinking, our guy doesn't do that. That's why we have won so much with Conner. Not necessarily the brilliant plays, but the lack of those real bad plays that can really hurt you."
South Carolina saw what an impact a freshman running back can make a couple of years ago with Marcus Lattimore. And now Spurrier says it's happening at Georgia with freshmen Todd Gurley and Keith Marshall.
"That Tennessee game, I think two or three of their runs, I don't know if a Tennessee player touched them a couple of times. Seemed like they just zip on through there. So we've got to make sure we plug the gaps."
