South Carolina (2009 Statistics)
- Current Head Coach Steve Spurrier, also known as the Head Ball Coach (not the ‘Ol Ball Coach as he is often called much to his dismay). In his previous jobs, he won a National Championship for Florida in 1996 and an ACC Championship for Duke in 1989. But unfortunately for the Gamecocks they’ve had two legendary coaches in the past 10 years between Lou Holtz and Spurrier and have averaged just 6.8 wins per year over that time period.
- This is Steve Spurrier’s 6th year with the team and he has yet to produce a single 1,000 yard rusher. The Head Ball Coach has Running Backs Brian Maddox, Kenny Miles and Jarvis Giles all returning this year as well as newcomer true freshman Marcus Lattimore who is expected to start. A key component of this offense is that the Offensive Line is experienced this year as even the new starters have some starting experience (72 career starts).
- Quarterback Stephen Garcia is a Junior. He is mobile and actually had more rushing attempts (120) than any of the starting Running Backs on this team in 2009. And while he had plenty of passing attempts last year as well too (432), his completion percentage was just 55.3%. His accuracy problem was further highlighted by his 17 Touchdown to 10 Interception ratio. Spurrier has been giving Garcia a lot of praise and hype entering the 2010 season and we’ll see how well it’s deserved.
- Defensively they were solid last year, but could use some work on creating opportunities with turnovers. South Carolina ranked 111th in turnovers gained. And this year they lose their only two players who had multiple interceptions last year. The positive for the defense is that Defensive End Cliff Matthews chose to stay rather than leave early for the NFL Draft. Furthermore, 7 of the top 8 defensive backs return, which is significant considering South Carolina finished 2009 with the 8th best (2nd in SEC) passing defense in the nation and 15th best (3rd in SEC) total defense.
