Gamecocks prepare to face vastly-improved Wildcat team
Two weeks ago, following a win over Vanderbilt, head coach Steve Spurrier said South Carolina “had all the voters fooled.”
Well, the jig is up.
The Gamecocks were vaulted out of the top-25 after last Saturday’s stunning loss to Missouri, finding themselves unranked for the first time in four years.
And if South Carolina hopes to have even an outside shot at the SEC East title, it cannot lose another conference game.
The Gamecocks have four of those left, and their attempt to run the table and perhaps earn a trip to the SEC title game in December begins Saturday night in Lexington, Kentucky.
“We can’t just let one loss determine the rest of our season,” redshirt senior defensive tackle J.T. Surratt said. “We have to keep pushing forward.”
South Carolina’s meeting with Kentucky this weekend is the definition of a trap game.
Based on preconceived notions, developed over decades of mediocrity, the Wildcats look like the low-hanging fruit on the Gamecocks’ remaining SEC slate that also features Tennessee at home and trips to Florida and Auburn.
But Kentucky is not to be taken lightly, especially by a South Carolina team that was down 14-0 to Vanderbilt not too long ago.
The Wildcats are 3-1 for the first time since 2010, and they can hardly be faulted for their one loss, a triple-overtime instant classic in a hostile Florida “Swamp.”
“The Kentucky Wildcats are a pretty good team,” Spurrier said. “They don’t look like some of their teams 10, 15 years ago.”
There are a host of factors at work for one of the most exciting Kentucky teams since a nifty bunch of ‘Cats went 11-1 and downed Oklahoma in the 1950 Sugar Bowl.
Sophomore quarterback Patrick Towles has thrown for 1,117 yards and six touchdowns.
The Kentucky defense has allowed just six offensive touchdowns altogether.
And the Wildcats second-year head coach Mark Stoops now has a full year at the helm under his belt.
The same Mark Stoops that can, in a transitive way, be counted as a disciple of Spurrier himself.
Mark’s older brother Bob is the head coach at Oklahoma, a job that he took after serving as Spurrier’s defensive coordinator at Florida from 1996-1998.
“I’m very familiar with coach Spurrier,” Mark Stoops said. “We go back a long way. It’s pretty well documented that him and Bob are very close friends. Steve Spurrier Jr. and I work together. I know the family and have an awful lot of resect for coach Spurrier and what he’s done. So it will be fun.”
Although the Spurriers and the Stoops are personally close enough to vacation together — i.e. last summer’s trip to Ireland — they couldn’t be further apart when it comes to football philosophy.
A former Heisman-winning quarterback, Spurrier’s mind is reserved strictly for the offense. The Stoops family, Mark included, specializes in defense.
And it’s shown so far this season.
Kentucky is fifth in the SEC in total defense. The only conference teams better than the Wildcats in that category are ranked in the top-20 nationally.
But even if Kentucky was limping into Saturday’s game at 0-4, South Carolina is in no position to overlook anyone.
Through five games, the Gamecocks have proven that they have the talent to compete with anybody, but they’ve also shown that they have the inexperience to let even the most inferior competition sneak up on them.
Saturday’s meeting at Commonwealth Stadium wasn’t supposed to be a critical game on South Carolina’s schedule.
But from here on out for the Gamecocks, everything is critical.
“We’ve still got another conference game this weekend,” Surratt said. “We’re still trying to push on and have a great season. We’ve still got a lot of goals that we still can accomplish, so that’s what we’re working towards.”