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Gamecocks bowl over Vols
Tennessee turnovers help USC build a big lead as the Gamecocks register their most lopsided league victory since 2005
USC's Eric Norwood (40) and friends bring down Tennessee running back Arian Foster. USC held the Vols to 34 yards rushing in the game.
C. Aluka Berry/caberry@thestate.com
Written by JOSEPH PERSON
jperson@thestate.com
Posted on 11.02.08
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What the win means
- Guarantees USC at least a .500 season for the fifth season in a row, the first time that has happened since 1928-34.
- Makes USC .500 in the SEC with two league games remaining; it has finished .500 or better only five times since joining in 1992.
- Moves Steve Spurrier into eighth on USC’s all-time wins list with 27.
Fewest Points Allowed| Team | Season | Pts. |
| Mississippi St. | 2006 | 0 |
| N.C. State | 2008 | 0 |
| S.C. State | 2007 | 3 |
| Florida Atlantic | 2006 | 6 |
| Tennessee | 2008 | 6 |
If this was Phillip Fulmer’s final trip to Columbia as Tennessee coach, one of Fulmer’s old rivals helped send him packing.
But after his team’s 27-6 win Saturday before a Williams-Brice Stadium crowd noticeably lacking orange-clad fans, South Carolina’s Steve Spurrier was more interested in celebrating the joy of six than discussing what the loss might mean to the so-called dean of SEC coaches.
USC (6-3, 3-3 SEC) became bowl eligible for the fourth time in four years under Spurrier, who wanted his players to relish the moment. The Gamecocks reached six wins after seven games last year, then lost their last five games and were passed over for the SEC’s final bowl slot.
“It was nice to get bowl eligible, very nice. And we ain’t taking it for granted. We (did) last year and it was a huge mistake,” Spurrier said. “We’re going to enjoy it a little bit and not act like we’re hot stuff around here and we don’t have to enjoy clinching a bowl.
“I know a lot of teams out there wish they had six wins right now.”
Count Tennessee among them.
USC beat Tennessee (3-6, 1-5) in Columbia for the first time since 1992, a win that helped get Johnny Majors fired as the Vols’ coach. Fulmer could face the same fate.
The 58-year-old Fulmer is 150-51 in his 17th full season at his alma mater. But Saturday’s loss assured the Volunteers their second non-winning season in four years, and their second losing SEC record in the same span.
The 21-point win was USC’s most lopsided SEC victory under Spurrier since a 44-16 win against Kentucky in 2005. But there were no offensive fireworks from either team.
With a three-score lead and starting quarterback Stephen Garcia on the bench with a knee injury, Spurrier was content to run the clock and leave the heavy lifting to the Gamecocks’ nationally ranked defense.
The defense responded by forcing two turnovers against a Tennessee team that had not had a giveaway since a win against Northern Illinois on Oct. 4. The Gamecocks’ special teams also had a takeaway; the three turnovers led to 17 points.
USC rushed a season-high 44 times for 101 yards — a 2.3-yard average that was a yard better than Tennessee’s rushing average.
“We said we were going to run the ball. We didn’t say we were going to run it real far,” Spurrier said. “But when the defense is playing like this, you try not to mess up, and you try to win the ball game.”
USC had only one turnover. But it was a costly one as it knocked Garcia out of the game near the end of the third quarter. Garcia, who was 9-of-19 passing for 139 yards with two touchdowns, will undergo an MRI today on his hyperextended knee.
Spurrier did not think the injury was serious and said Garcia could have returned to the game.
Garcia was hurt after Eric Berry intercepted the right-hander late in the third quarter. As Garcia ran toward Berry, USC tackle Jarriel King knocked Garcia down trying to tackle Berry, the SEC’s career leader in interception return yardage. Guard Lemuel Jeanpierre sustained a season-ending knee injury on the same play.
“That was a bad play,” Spurrier said. “We had a nice little lead there and lobbed one down the middle late.”
Berry returned his SEC-leading sixth interception 45 yards into USC territory, but the Gamecocks again held on downs.
Tennessee converted 3-of-14 third downs and was 0-for-2 on fourth downs. The Vols rushed for just 34 yards, the fewest allowed by USC under Spurrier, and finished with 207 total yards and 11 first downs.
The Vols avoided their first shutout since 1994 — which came against Spurrier’s Florida team — when Arian Foster leaped in for a 1-yard touchdown with 4:09 left in the third quarter.
Fulmer, who fell to 5-9 against Spurrier, described the proceedings as “two not very good offenses playing against each other — and ours was worse than theirs at times.”
In a season where little has gone right for the Vols, they self-destructed in one of their few strong areas — protecting the ball.
Tennessee had not lost a turnover in a month. But USC cornerbacks came up with two takeaways in a span of four Tennessee offensive plays to take a 21-0 lead in the second quarter.
Stoney Woodson’s 68-yard interception return for a touchdown was the first career pick thrown by Nick Stephens, ending a streak of 106 consecutive passes for the redshirt sophomore. It was the Vols’ first turnover in 193 plays.
But the Gamecocks weren’t done.
After Jonathan Crompton replaced Stephens, he flipped a swing pass to tailback Lennon Creer. Travian Robertson tackled Creer and stripped him of the ball, which Captain Munnerlyn picked up and returned 38 yards to the Tennessee 4-yard line.
On the next play, Garcia found Kenny McKinley for a touchdown strike and a three-touchdown lead with 10:17 left before halftime.
It was all over but the crying for the few Tennessee fans who made the trip. Meanwhile, USC players followed Spurrier’s cue and talked confidently about a 9-3 finish and a New Year’s Day bowl game.
After Garcia walked stiffly up the steps into the postgame interview area, his face brightened when asked about going to the Outback Bowl in his Tampa, Fla., hometown.
“That’d be pretty exciting. I’d have a lot of people asking me for tickets, I would imagine. That’d be awesome,” he said. “That’s a pretty big bowl for an SEC team. We’d definitely like to play in it. And we should.”
Reach Person at (803) 771-8496.
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