Notebook: Chick-fil-A Bowl press conference
A sign urging the Gamecocks to put their 56-17 loss to Auburn behind them sits outside the players' weight room.
The sign hung just outside the doors of South Carolina’s weight room.
“Let’s get back on the horse and back to [Atlanta] on a mission to get 10 wins.”
The sign – complete with a picture of the famous racehorse Secretariat – is a fitting one for the Gamecocks.
They’ll go back to the Georgia Dome in less than four weeks in the hopes of ending their season on a positive note. It was in that same city just six days ago that South Carolina was dominated 56-17 at the hands of the Auburn Tigers in the SEC Championship Game.
“We’re excited. We didn’t play our best last time in the Georgia Dome,” coach Steve Spurrier said Tuesday at the Chick-fil-A Bowl press conference. “We’re going to try and compete and look like a first class team.”
Thankfully for Spurrier, the Gamecocks’ latest challenge in the Georgia Dome will be a team not nearly as talented as the club he faced Dec. 4. The Tigers are preparing for their first BCS National Championship Game against Oregon in Glendale, Ariz.
It’s Florida State this time around, a team that’s had an eerily similar season compared to the Gamecocks.
The Seminoles went 9-4 (like USC), went 5-3 in conference play (like USC), and lost in their conference championship game (like USC).
“They are a good team. I also read where they lead the nation in sacks. I think we’re third our fourth,” Spurrier said. “Good defensive line; a lot of good athletes on that Florida State team. I don’t know the status of their quarterback. [Christian] Ponder had some fluid in his elbow that bothered him.”
The matchup – set for a primetime kickoff on New Year’s Eve on ESPN – is one Chick-fil-A Bowl officials are thrilled to have.
“Because the players at South Carolina played so well this year, won the division in the [SEC] East, we thought they deserved to be in our game and that’s why we protected them to play Florida State,” President Gary Stokan said.
It marks South Carolina first appearance in the bowl since it won the ACC Championship in 1969.
“That was our second bowl game ever. And we’re glad to have them back this year,” Stokan said. “We hope it’s not another 30 years before we get them back next time.”
It’s a matchup embraced by South Carolina’s athletics department as well, as the Gamecocks’ ticket allotment is nearly gone.
“We’ve got less than 1500 tickets left. We’ve been selling 400-500 per day,” athletics director Eric Hyman said. “There’s not going to be any tickets left over.
“Our fans have really embraced the tickets and we’ll have Gamecock Nation down there. We’ll paint the town garnet.”
Players file draft inquiries: Spurrier confirmed that two South Carolina football players – wide receiver Tori Gurley and offensive lineman Rokevious Watkins – have filed paperwork to find out where they might be drafted in the 2011 NFL Draft.
“They know how we feel. If you’re not projected as a first rounder, you shouldn’t go out,” Spurrier said. “But some of our players in the past think, ‘I’m going to be a first or second rounder.’”
Spurrier called out former defensive tackle Clifton Geathers for making that mistake last season. Geathers was a mid-round selection and has bounced around with several teams in his short time in the NFL. He was picked up by Dallas earlier this week.
“When they get drafted in the seventh round [they’re surprised], like Clifton Geathers,” Spurrier said. “He should have come back. But he wanted to go. If they want to go, we can’t stop them.”
Despite that, Spurrier remained staunch in his opinion that should a player want to leave, he’ll gladly show them the door.
“A lot of times, players don’t listen to coaches. They think, ‘I’m going to be an early pick,’” Spurrier said. “There’s nothing we can do to keep them here. We just try to educate them. But if they don’t want to stay, that’s okay with us, too.”
Spurrier reacts to Meyer: Spurrier, Florida’s all-time coaching wins leader, wasn’t surprised when he heard the news that Gator coach Urban Meyer had announced his retirement for the second consecutive year.
“He did it last year. He was sort of stressed out a bit,” Spurrier said. “He’s ready to take a few years off. I really think he’ll come in in three to four years. I think he will. He just needed to hang it up.”
Spurrier still took the time, however, to share a funny anecdote about Meyer and the lucrative contract he was walking away from.
“It was funny, I was sitting there watching it. I told my wife Jerri, ‘It’s hard to walk away from four million bucks a year, isn’t it?’ Know what she said? She said, ‘You walked away from five [million].”
As for him? Spurrier was asked how long he plans on coaching and gave his usual explanation: four to five more years.
“I always say four or five. Three, four or five,” he said. “Marcus [Lattimore] is a freshman. We’ve got some good recruits coming in we think. And we think we’re going to get some others. We believe we’ve got an up-and-coming team here.
“Like I said all this year, I don’t think this is the best team we’re going to field. I think we can field a stronger team in the future.”
New bowl preparations: While Spurrier wouldn’t get into specifics, South Carolina’s football coach said the Gamecocks would prepare differently for this year’s Chick-fil-A Bowl than they have in previous seasons.
For good reason. The Gamecocks have been basic no-shows in each of their last two bowl games.
USC was blasted 31-14 by Iowa in the 2008 Outback Bowl before stumbling in a head-scratching 20-7 loss to Connecticut in last season’s PapaJohns.com Bowl.
“You can’t practice too much and you don’t want to practice too little. You want to try and find the right balance,” Spurrier said. “We’ll practice on and off…and do it a little like I’ve done in the past. But we’ll do things a little bit different as far as bowl preparations.
“Obviously whatever we’ve done hasn’t worked too well over the last two years. I think I know why but we’ll do some things differently.”
But he remained mum on what exactly the Gamecocks would do different.
“It will just be different. Let’s put it that way,” Spurrier said. “There will be some different stuff.”
By the numbers: Some interesting figures to chew on when it comes to the 2010 Chick-fil-A Bowl:
-The bowl, now in its 43rd year, will pay out 6.7 million dollars this year, breaking 100 million in total for the Chick-fil-A Bowl.
-The bowl is expected to have its 14th consecutive sellout. President Gary Stoken said that as of Friday afternoon, only about 50 tickets remained. He expected those to be gone by the end of the day. It’s the third longest streak of bowl sellouts, behind only the Rose and Fiesta Bowls.
-The Chick-fil-A Bowl, largely due to being the sole game in primetime on New Year’s Eve, has three of the top 10 broadcasts ever on ESPN for college football. Over 7.5 million viewers tuned in for last season’s game between Tennessee and Virginia Tech.
-The ACC and SEC have competed in the bowl for 18 consecutive years. The tell-tale sign of a competitive game? This year’s winner will break a nine-all tie between the two conferences in the Chick-fil-A Bowl.
