September 8, 2008
Spurrier Faces Decisions
GamecockCentral.com Staff Writer
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With Saturday's border battle with Georgia still five days away, South Carolina head coach Steve Spurrier faces two important questions as he prepares the Gamecocks for the No. 2 ranked Bulldogs.
Should Kenny McKinley play despite a strained hamstring?
Where will Jamon Meredith line up on the offensive line now that he's eligible to return to the active roster?
Spurrier didn't have definite answers to either question when he met the media following Monday night's two-hour session on the Bluff Road practice fields.
McKinley sat out the final three quarters of Thursday's 24-17 loss to Vanderbilt with the hamstring injury after collecting three receptions during the first quarter. He is officially listed a "doubtful" for Saturday's game.
"We didn't expect (Kenny) to do anything," Spurrier said. "If he makes any progress, it will be later in the week. He's very doubtful."
If McKinley is unable to play, Spurrier indicated several young receivers could be asked to step up. Joe Hills, Jason Barnes and C.C. Whitlock took a lot of reps Monday night and "they all did pretty well," Spurrier said.
Barnes has one reception this season, the only one of the three to have a catch so far in 2008.
After watching Jared Cook collect a career-high eight receptions for 111 yards in the loss to Vanderbilt, Spurrier added that USC should throw the ball more to tight end Weslye Saunders, who has zero receptions in the first two games.
"It's hard to play them all when you're not completing many passes," Spurrier said. "We've been struggling, but hopefully we can get better.
"We threw just about every pass last week to Jared (after McKinley's injury). We need to throw it to other guys. We need to run our offense and try to throw it at somebody other than Kenny or Jared and see if they can play. Hopefully, that's what we'll do for the rest of the year."
McKinley, a native of Mableton, Ga., described his status as "day to day" when he spoke with the media following practice. He wore a yellow non-contact jersey and did not participate in drills.
"Hopefully, I'll be ready to go, but if I'm not, I'll just have to root the team on," McKinley said. "Hopefully, it's not too bad and I can recover fast. I certainly want to play. It's my last time against Georgia. I hope to rehab and be ready to go Saturday. But if I'm going to hurt my team and not help, then I've got to let these other guys go out there and prove themselves."
McKinley said he sustained the injury running a route over the middle when he was hit from behind and "my leg just whipped up real quick." Can USC beat Georgia without its top receiver? It will be difficult, but McKinley insisted it wasn't impossible.
"I have full confidence in my teammates," McKinley said. "For some of the young guys like C.C., Jason, (Matt) Clements, Joe Hills, it's going to be crazy but I know they can do it, they can step up. I talked to the young guys and told them that if I'm not playing, they had to step up.
"I have confidence they will step up, because the coach (Spurrier, Jr.) has been giving them hands on help to get them ready for this game. It's time to put them out there under fire and see what they can do. It's time for them to go out there and become men. It will be a test against Georgia and I can't wait to see what they do."
Wide receiver Moe Brown also didn't practice Monday night with a strained right knee, but is expected back at practice as early as Tuesday.
"Moe will practice tomorrow," Spurrier said. "He's OK. He'll be all right."
Meredith, a fifth-year senior, has started 29 games over the last three seasons, including all 25 games in 2006 and 2007, before sitting out the first two games this year under a NCAA ruling two years ago that retroactively granted him a medical hardship for the 2004 season when he stepped on the field for just a few plays in the season opener against Vanderbilt.
Meredith entered the year as the incumbent at left tackle (18 consecutive starts), but he could be plugged into the lineup at another position along the offensive front. Spurrier said Meredith, an honor student and one of the strongest players on the team, worked out at both guard and tackle on Monday night.
"We'll wait until later in the week to see where we'll place him," Spurrier said.
Jarriel King, who committed a couple of false start penalties last Thursday night, said Meredith worked at left tackle with the first-team offensive line and at left guard with the second-team offensive line.
"I played well, but not well enough the way coaches want me to," King said. "I had some mental errors. I went hard on every play, but obviously it wasn't enough to get things clicking and get the job done. It was the first time I played in a stadium with that much noise. Man, I couldn't hear anything. I was frustrated. I couldn't hear the next guy next to me. Since I couldn't hear the snap, I thought it was an audible."
Since suffering the 16-12 setback to USC last year in Week 2, Georgia has won 12 of its last 13 games, including Saturday's 56-17 dismantling of Central Michigan in which the offense rolled up 552 yards of total offense behind quarterback Matthew Stafford and running back Knowshon Moreno. Both players entered the new season as Heisman Trophy candidates.
"They're a very good team, but of course we're going to play a bunch of good teams this year," Spurrier said. "This will be one of the best. We're looking forward to seeing if we can't play a lot better this week."
One of Spurrier's goals over the past three days has been to get the players to put the stinging loss to Vanderbilt in the closest as quickly as possible. He believes he has accomplished that.
"I think it's out of our system," Spurrier said. "We've all lost games before. It was a tough loss, but it's history. At the beginning of the year, we always say that whatever happens we're going to get ready for the next one, whether we win or lose. So, we're going to get ready for the next one. When this one is over, we're going to get ready for the next one. We'll try to do that for the entire year. When the year is over we'll see what our record is and hopefully it will be good enough."
BRINKLEY STILL ADJUSTING TO NEW ROLE: Jasper Brinkley has struggled in the early going, collecting just one tackle and dropping a potential interception in the loss at Vanderbilt. Overall, he has three tackles heading into the Georgia game. Brinkley said he's still adjusting to his revamped role in Ellis Johnson's 4-2-5 scheme.
"It's something new after playing in a 4-3 for so many years," Brinkley said. "It's very different from the 4-3. I think it's just a matter of getting comfortable with it. Right now, I'm just not playing with the right technique. In the 4-3, the middle linebacker runs inside out to the ball but in the 4-2-5, the middle linebacker boxes the ball a lot and keeps it on the inside."
Brinkley, who missed a portion of pre-season camp with an injury, led USC with 107 tackles in 2006 before suffering a season-ending knee injury in the fourth game last year. He decided to return to school rather than declare for the NFL Draft.
RYCHLESKI LAMENTS 'TWO LOUSY PLAYS': USC's special teams performed decently in Thursday night's loss to Vanderbilt, but 'two lousy' plays tainted the overall grade. First, a punt hit the leg of Addison Williams, allowing Vanderbilt to take possession at the USC 31. They scored a touchdown on the next play. USC responded by driving 12 plays to the VU 25, but Ryan Succop's 42-yard field goal was blocked by the Commodores, scooped up at the 27 and returned out to the VU 42. Vanderbilt took advantage of the good field possession by driving for a touchdown in five plays.
"Two bad plays, it just shows you," USC special teams coordinator Ray Rychleski said recently. "We played pretty darn good special teams except for two lousy plays, and those two plays were pretty darned important. It's like the left tackle can play a 100 plays and 99 can be great but if he misses the guy one time and gets the quarterback knocked out, he's had a bad game. That's just the way it is. Just like Coach (Spurrier) said, offense, defense, special teams, we all could have been a lot better."
Rychleski attributed the Williams muff to bad luck, as in being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The miscue won't cause him to alter USC's punt return scheme.
"The only other way is to let the gunners run down there free," Rychleski said. "That's not very smart, is it? It's frustrating because it was a big play in the game. It's 10-3 and our ball and all of a sudden it's 10-10 and we're on our heels."
Succop also missed a 48-yarder, making him 1-for-3 on the night. He's 3-for-5 in field goal attempts this year, 2-for-4 from beyond 39 yards. Succop had a strong night on kickoffs, averaging 70 yards on three kicks with one touchback.
"I'm not disappointed because a lot of NFL guys miss 48-yarders with a gusting wind," Rychleski said. "On the blocked field goal, all I saw was a low kick. He tried to drive it through the wind. When we kicked off, they never got past the 20-yard line. Our returns were out to the 50, 45 and 33. We had one bad return, I understand that. We didn't block on that play. We made more plays (on special teams) than they made. We were just unlucky. That's all it was."
COOK BECOMING A FORCE ON OFFENSE: With wide receiver Kenny McKinley possibly sidelined for Saturday's clash with Georgia, tight end Jared Cook may take on a larger role within the USC offense. Last Thursday, he had a career-high eight receptions for 111 yards against Vanderbilt, earning him an Honorable mention from the SEC in the Player of the Week balloting.
Cook now leads USC with 10 receptions – one-third of his total from last season - for 130 yards through the first two games of the year, pushing his career total to 46 receptions for 664 yards. But Cook said he would trade his statistics for a win over the Commodores.
Spurrier, meanwhile, said Monday night that he will make sure the USC quarterbacks throw to different receivers on Saturday rather than locking in on McKinley, if he plays, and Cook.
USC TOPS IN TOTAL DEFENSE: USC leads the SEC in total defense through the first two weekends of the regular season with an average yield of 181.5 yards per game. The Gamecocks have surrendered 363 yards on 111 plays, a scant 3.3 yards per play. Kentucky is second in the conference at 184.5 yards per game. The Wildcats still haven't allowed a touchdown through two games. Here is where the USC defense ranks within the SEC in the various defensive categories:
Total Defense – First (181.5 ypg)
Scoring Defense – Fifth (12.0 ppg)
Rushing Defense – Tenth (112.0 ypg)
Passing Defense – First (69.5 ypg)
Pass Defense Effic. – Second (72.7 rating)
RICHT STILL CONCERNED WITH USC OFFENSE: Mark Richt understands USC has struggled on offense in the first two weeks of the season with two different quarterbacks, but he has too much respect for Steve Spurrier to take anything for granted when the two teams collide Saturday afternoon.
"It seems like Coach Spurrier has always had a consistent trigger man and I still think they're looking for that right now," Richt said. "But I can promise you that we're concerned about Coach Spurrier's offense. We always have been. We have the ultimate respect for him. When we play those guys, it's just a battle royale. They've been relatively low-scoring games when we've played against them. We haven't done much on offense and they haven't either."
Georgia has averaged 16.3 points in the last eight meetings with the Gamecocks. Take away the 31-7 win by the Bulldogs in 2003 and the average dips to 14.1 points. USC limited Georgia to four field goals in last season's 16-12 victory in Athens.
"There have been some defensive struggles," Richt said. "Special team plays have made the difference. I'm not really going to prepare our team for anything different than that. That's the frame of mind we have to get in and we must know it's going to be a close ballgame. We also know it could go into overtime, and that we might have to use the one-minute drill to get it done. Special teams and field position will be huge. Those kind of games seem boring sometimes, but that's what it may come down to in order to win the game."
RICHT MATCHES WITS WITH JOHNSON AGAIN: Saturday's meeting at Williams-Brice Stadium will mark the third time USC defensive coordinator Ellis Johnson and Georgia head coach Mark Richt have locked horns on the gridiron. Johnson, of course, was the defensive coordinator for Mississippi State from 2004-07. Georgia won the "Battle of the Bulldogs" in 2005 and 2006 by the scores of 23-10 and 27-24, respectively.
"Defensive coordinators are very much like offensive coordinators. They have to look at their players and see what they do best," Richt said. "They try to play the type of coverages and schemes that will accentuate the skill level of their players. I think he's learned his personnel and what's best for his team while also looking at matchups every single week. If he feels good about matchups, he might play more man coverage. If he doesn't, he might play more zone. You have to do it on a weekly basis and (Johnson) is outstanding at that."
The 56 points scored by Georgia against Central Michigan was the second highest single game total under Richt, and the most scored at home since he became the head coach in 2001. The Bulldogs rolled up 552 yards of total offense on 69 plays.
NOTES:
-- USC announced that the kickoff for the Sept. 20 home game against Wofford has been set for 7 p.m. The contest will be available throughout the Palmetto State on a pay-per-view basis. Mike Morgan will serve as the play-by-play announcer and Brad Muller will be the color analyst. Former Gamecock great George Rogers will be the sideline reporter. The teams last met in 2006 with USC holding on for a hard-fought 27-20 win.
-- In the Still Waiting Dept: Spurrier said fullback Yvan Banag hopes to have his student visa problem resolved this week. If it is, Spurrier said he will be able to dress for Saturday's game against Georgia.
-- After Georgia dominated the rivalry with USC throughout the 1960's and most of the 1970's, a large reason the Bulldogs lead the all-time series by a wide margin (44-14-2), USC has rebounded over the last 20 years. Beginning in 1988, USC is 7-11 against Georgia with consecutive victories in 1988-89 and 2000-01. If USC wins Saturday, it will mark the fourth time since 1979 that the Gamecocks have won in consecutive years over the Bulldogs. USC has never beaten Georgia three years in a row.
-- Besides defense, USC is excelling on kickoffs. The Gamecocks are second in the SEC in kickoff returns (27.6 yards per return) behind Tennessee and second on kickoff coverage (50.5 net avg.), trailing only Kentucky.
-- USC is one of six SEC schools perfect in red zone so far, converting all seven of their opportunities inside the 20-yard line. The Gamecocks have six touchdowns and one field goal after penetrating the red zone.
-- Georgia running back Knowshon Moreno was honored as the SEC Offensive Player of the Week on Monday after rushing for 168 yards and three touchdowns on 18 carries in the Bulldogs' convincing 56-17 victory over Central Michigan Saturday. One of the TD runs went for 52 yards. He also hurdled a Chippewa defender in a highlight reel play. Moreno added three receptions for 30 yards.
-- The broadcasting crew for CBS on Saturday afternoon will be Verne Lundquist (play-by-play) and Gary Danielson (color analyst). Kickoff is set for 3:30 p.m. ET. The contest can also be heard on WKNT 107.5 FM "The Game."
-- Besides USC-Georgia, the following games involving SEC teams will be televised this Saturday: UAB at Tennessee, 12:30 p.m. (Raycom), Arkansas at Texas, 3:30 p.m. (ABC) and Auburn at Mississippi State, 7 p.m. (ESPN2).
-- The SEC announced on Monday the football broadcast schedule for Sat., Sept. 20. USC is hosting Wofford at 7 p.m. on that date. Here are the SEC games that will be available on that date on the various network and cable partners:
Alabama at Arkansas, 12:30 p.m. (Raycom)
Florida at Tennessee, 3:30 p.m. (CBS)
LSU at Auburn, 7:45 p.m. (ESPN)
Georgia at Arizona State, 8:10 p.m. (ABC)
