Thompson temporarily safe as backup quarterback after spring
After the Garnet & Black spring game Saturday, head coach Steve Spurrier expressed something he hasn’t all spring: Praise for his offense.
Following weeks of frustration regarding his signal callers and wide receivers, it seemed Spurrier had finally been impressed after the game Saturday afternoon, which the Black won 38-24 over the Garnet in an offensive showcase.
“We definitely threw the ball better than we have in any spring game,” Spurrier said. “We probably had more (passing) yards and completions than we have ever had. The receivers caught about everything and ran good routes.”
Quarterbacks Connor Shaw, Dylan Thompson, Tanner McEvoy, Seth Strickland, Andrew Clifford and Austin Hails combined to go 39-for-54 with 511 yards and six touchdowns, while throwing just two interceptions. Thompson led all the quarterbacks with 168 yards passing.
The offensive output began with the first play of the game, as Connor Shaw hit a wide open Damiere Byrd in stride for a 70-yard touchdown. According to Spurrier, Byrd needs to “catch lots and lots of passes” to have a breakout year since he can “obviously get behind some guys.”
The touchdown was Byrd’s only catch of the game.
Byrd, who also runs track for the university, attributed his spring success to hard work and dedication, voicing how important it was to have an impact on the spring game.
“It has been rough,” Byrd said. “Whenever we don’t have football practice, I’m usually out at the track so I pretty much don’t have any days off. I feel like I’m very close (to making an impact). I’m continuing to work hard, stay after practice and do whatever I have to do to make every play I can. I felt like I had to have a good game today to make it known that I can accomplish goals in both sports.”
In addition to Byrd, McEvoy made a positive impression on Spurrier with his play on Saturday, putting himself into contention for the backup spot with Thompson and Strickland. McEvoy finished 8-12 for 132 yards and two touchdowns to lead the Black team.
Though Spurrier said Thompson has done enough to temporarily be considered the No. 2 quarterback, he said McEvoy played the “best he has all spring,” and will continue to get a lot of work in the summer and fall.
Along with Byrd, senior D.L. Moore ended the spring on a high note with three catches for 82 yards and a 63-yard touchdown pass to lead the Black. For the Garnet team, tight end Corey Simmons had a team-high 41 yards with a touchdown. Tight end Drew Owens caught a touchdown pass, but was injured on the play. The initial diagnosis was a sprained knee.
After struggling for most of the spring, the stable of quarterbacks hope to carry the momentum to summer workouts and preseason camp.
“You definitely want to end strong, so today I felt like we did that,” Thompson said. “As a whole, each quarterback, I thought, played well. All in all, I thought it was a very good spring and we all got better.”
The “Off-the-Sideline” play: This years recipient of the annual off the sideline tradition at the spring game was freshman walk-on wide receiver Riley Gallaher. In the second quarter, Shaw rolled out to his left and found a wide-open Gallaher for a 39-yard touchdown strike. Gallaher, who hails from Apex, N.C., was so open because he had just walked off the sideline before the catch.
Spurrier said that he got the tradition from his days at Florida and has made it a spring game tradition at South Carolina, expressing his desire to be a little more deceptive next year, as one of the officials Saturday noticed Gallaher coming off of the sideline.
“The only guy that saw it was the guy on our sideline,” Spurrier said. “Maybe if I had sneaked him out the other door; I’m going to try that next year. I’m going to sneak him out from behind somehow because the head ref was like, ‘What happened?’ He didn’t notice it.”
Spurrier not a fan of kicker superstition: At the end of the game, Spurrier ran Adam Yates on to the field to attempt a 51-yard field goal as time expired. Yates made the kick, but it appeared that the clock had already hit zeroes. While the kick counted, Spurrier wished Yates would have forgone all of the pre-kick preparation.
“You know how those kickers have to walk around before they kick,” Spurrier said. “I wanted to see if he could run out there and get set and kick the thing, and he couldn’t. He made it, but I tell you, sometimes you don’t have time to do all those steps and walking around the way those kickers do.”