Davis rushes for three TDs in win over Central Florida Knights
At halftime of South Carolina’s game at Central Florida, the Gamecocks were trailing 10-0 and had 45 rushing yards. Sophomore tailback Mike Davis had 17 yards on five attempts.
On the first drive of the second half, Davis had 70 yards on three carries, including a 53-yard touchdown run that woke the Gamecocks up.
It would be all about the run game from there on out, and South Carolina hung on for the 28-25 win, despite an injury to starting quarterback Connor Shaw.
On a second-and-five at the UCF 48, Shaw ran for 12 yards before being ripped down and fumbling the ball over to the Knights. Shaw would leave the field with a shoulder sprain and would not return.
Coach Steve Spurrier said after the game that Shaw would likely be out for “maybe a week or two.”
The Shaw injury threw a wrench into the Gamecock’s plan, but after halftime, Spurrier and co-offensive coordinator Shawn Elliot decided to put the game in the hands of Davis.
“We had to try something different,” Spurrier said. “Coach Elliot said, ‘Coach, let’s get into ‘I (formation) right’ and ‘I-left’ and play the way we used to 20 years ago.”
That turned out to be a good move, as Davis, who said he was sick during the game, would rush for 150 yards and three touchdowns on 21 carries in the second half.
“I guess I showed up the second half,” Davis said. “My teammates; they count on me. I think I would have had a better game if I wasn’t so sick, tired and weak out there, but I’m all for it. I’m a team player.”
Davis also gave credit to his offensive line, saying that they were the ones who got the win on Saturday.
Through the first 30 minutes of play, it appeared that South Carolina would not get the win. Down 10-0 late in the second quarter and facing a third-and-10, quarterback Dylan Thompson dropped back and launched a pass to a wide open Nick Jones near the five-yard line. However, the pass hit Jones in the belly and bounced harmlessly to the ground.
On the ensuing fourth down punt play, the snap was over Tyler Hull’s head. Hull managed to get the ball and quickly get off a punt, but it only went four yards. It was caught by 302-pound UCF defensive tackle E.J. Dunston, who returned it for 13 yards to the Gamecock 36-yard line.
It wasn’t just fumbles, dropped passes and high snaps that were hurting the Gamecocks on Saturday. Safety Brison Williams was ejected for targeting a receiver in the second quarter. After review, officials decided Williams wouldn’t be ejected, but would receive a 15-yard penalty. That helped the Knights get a field goal to go up by 10 points.
For cornerback Victor Hampton, it’s hard to watch calls like that.
“I was on my knees when they called that,” Hampton said. “That stuff hurts me. It’s like ‘How can we play football?’ He was clearly throwing his shoulder. But it’s definitely frustrating me, because it’s putting us in a lose-lose situation. Do we let them catch the ball and then hit them? How are we supposed to play?”
Despite the first-half frustrations, South Carolina was able to rattle off 28 straight points in the second half.
Thompson gave the Gamecocks the lead for good when he took a read option into the endzone from two yards out to give his team a 14-10 lead with just under four minutes left in the third quarter.
It was the first time that UCF had trailed during the 2013 season.
Davis added a couple of 13-yard touchdown runs in the fourth quarter to give South Carolina a comfortable lead.
But that wasn’t the end of the drama.
With a little over three minutes left in the game and South Carolina clinging to a 10-point lead, the Gamecocks were facing a first-and-goal and looked like they were about to seal the win. However, Davis fumbled the ball back over to the Knights for South Carolina’s fourth turnover of the day.
The Knights turned that into a touchdown that trimmed the lead to three. A T.J. Holloman interception late in the game effectively sealed the win for the Gamecocks.
However, Spurrier was frustrated with the ample amount of turnovers, particularly the one by Davis late in the game.
“I told Dylan, ‘If I had any daggum sense, I would’ve taken a knee to prevent something stupid like that,’” Spurrier said. “So we’ve got some work to do.”