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Spurrier calls Culliver's fight 'selfish play'
Starting free safety must miss first half of upcoming game at Florida
USC players mix it up with Arkansas players late in the game. Chris Culliver was ejected as a result.
Erik Campos/ecampos@thestate.com /Erk Campos
Written by JOSEPH PERSON AND SETH EMERSON
jperson@thestate.com and semerson@thestate.com
Posted on 11.09.08
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Nearly 20 minutes after his team’s 34-21 win Saturday, South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier was still steamed about Chris Culliver’s ejection for fighting in the fourth quarter.
So much so that when Spurrier met Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps after the game, he brought up Culliver’s ejection to the man who won eight gold medals at the Beijing Games.
“I told him I was a little upset at our number 17,” Spurrier said. “I said it’d be about like you right before the big meet going for one of those gold medals to go cuss out one of the officials and get ejected.”
After Emanuel Cook recovered Arkansas’ onsides kick attempt with 1:18 remaining, several players from both teams started shoving each other. Culliver, who was on the onsides prevent team, took a few swings at the helmet of an Arkansas player.
Under NCAA rules, Culliver must sit out the first half of next week’s game at Florida, leaving the Gamecocks without their starting free safety and top kick returner.
Spurrier called it an “unbelievably selfish play” by Culliver, who was not available for comment after the game.
“I couldn’t believe it when I saw him in there swinging away. I guess he was the only one. We all know you can’t do that. You cannot swing. Unbelievable,” said Spurrier, who publicly apologized to the Razorbacks’ coaches and players.
“It’s embarrassing for me and our coaches that we got a player out there swinging. Hopefully, it won’t happen again.”
Trickeration. Spurrier broke out a couple of different formations Saturday. USC opened the game in the wide-tackle look that produced a touchdown at Kentucky, and ran several plays where both tackles were aligned wide with the receivers.
USC also tried direct snaps to the tailbacks, including one when quarterback Stephen Garcia lined up as a receiver. Garcia said he thought Spurrier might have unveiled some of the looks to give Florida something extra to prepare for this week.
“We need to come up with some new formations. We used mostly that rinky-dink formation,” Spurrier said. “So we’ll have to find some new ones for Florida next week.”
Senior send-off. The Gamecocks honored 28 seniors before their final home game. The group included four scholarship players with a year of eligibility remaining: quarterback Tommy Beecher, tailbacks Bobby Wallace and Taylor Rank and receiver Freddie Brown.
Linebacker Gerrod Sinclair, another fourth-year player with eligibility left, was listed among the departing seniors but did not participate in the pregame ceremony.
Beecher and Rank both started the season opener against N.C. State before dropping on the depth chart. Wallace was the first recruit to commit to Spurrier, while Beecher was Spurrier’s first quarterback commitment at USC.
Eight golds and a visor. Phelps was introduced to the crowd during a first-half timeout, and received a rousing ovation from the home crowd. The record-setting Olympian has been in Columbia this week visiting friends.
Several Gamecock players had a chance to meet Phelps, who spent a lot of time near their sideline.
“It looks like he’s got people rushing around him 24-7,” quarterback Chris Smelley said. “I don’t know how I’d be able to respond to that. But it looks like he handles that real well.”
Spurrier said he gave Phelps a visor.
“So if he’s out on the town tonight hopefully he’ll wear that,” Spurrier said.
A nap and a sandwich. Arkansas’ second scoring drive was so long, Spurrier thought USC athletics director Eric Hyman might have fallen asleep.
The Razorbacks held the ball for 8 minutes and 12 seconds in the third quarter. They eventually scored a touchdown to cap a 15-play, 62-yard drive.
“Eric, you probably all went to sleep, had a couple sandwiches up in the box,” Spurrier said to his boss after the game. “I said, ‘We’ve been over here 15, 20 minutes and they’ve only gained 20 yards.”
By comparison, USC’s first five scoring drives lasted 5:55. Three of those drives lasted less than a minute.
Close to Abraham. Junior linebacker Eric Norwood had three sacks, and is now within six of USC’s all-time record, held by Andrew Provence. He’s 3.5 behind second-place John Abraham.
“It is one of my goals,” Norwood said of breaking the mark. “I would rather it be this season than next season.”
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