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Gator ghosts linger after ugly defeat

Garcia says bye week needed to rest, turn focus to Clemson game on Nov. 29

Ryan Succop sad

USC kicker Ryan Succop looks up at the scoreboard during the fourth quarter Saturday as Florida defeated USC 56-6 at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, Fla., Nov. 15, 2008.

Rich Glickstein/rglickstein@thestate.com

Written by JOSEPH PERSON

jperson @thestate.com
Posted on 11.18.08
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How will USC fare in its final two games?

As Stephen Garcia walked into the tunnel leaving Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on Saturday evening, a South Carolina fan leaned over the concrete wall and yelled one word at the Gamecocks’ quarterback.

Clemson.

But after absorbing a 56-6 defeat to Florida that was USC’s worst loss in 13 years, Garcia said it might take players a while to put the Gator ghosts behind them and start focusing on their instate rival.

Perhaps the only good news about the 50-point shellacking in Gainesville is that USC will have a week to heal its bruised psyche before preparing for the regular-season finale Nov. 29 at Clemson.

“It’s going to take a few days to get rid of this. Like coach (Steve Spurrier) said after the game, he came up to me and said, ‘You’ve just got to learn what to do and how to beat teams like this.’ We’re still learning,” Garcia said.

“I think having a bye week this week is pretty beneficial for us. I don’t know if there is anybody hurt, but they’ll heal up and we can get this bad taste out of our mouth.”

The Gamecocks were scheduled to watch video of the Florida game and do conditioning drills Monday before resuming practice today. This is USC’s second open date in the past five weeks.

“I think it’s real good we have an off week coming up,” left tackle Jarriel King said. “We can really study this film and see what we did wrong.”

Spurrier is 3-1 following open dates in four seasons at USC. After a week off following a 24-17 loss to LSU last month, the Gamecocks beat Tennessee 27-6 on Nov. 1.

Spurrier’s lone loss after a bye at USC came last year when Clemson knocked off the Gamecocks 23-21 on Mark Buchholz’s game-winning, 35-yard field goal as time expired.

USC allowed a season-high 519 yards against Florida to drop from first to fourth in total defense among SEC teams. The Gamecocks mustered just 120 passing yards, the fewest under Spurrier, committed four turnovers that resulted in 28 points and were just 1-of-15 on third-down conversions.

After the platoon of Chris Smelley and Garcia resulted in lackluster performances from both players, Spurrier is considering ditching the rotation and going with one passer.

“I guess one way to look at it, I’m glad these bad things didn’t happen in some of the close games we’ve had this year,” Spurrier said. “Hopefully, we got a lot of it out of our system and we can get ready to play a solid game in two weeks.”

Cook, Johnson up for awards. USC tight end Jared Cook and defensive coordinator Ellis Johnson made the cut for a pair of national awards.

Cook, a redshirt junior from Suwanee, Ga., is one of eight semifinalists for the Mackey Award, given annually to the nation’s top tight end.

The 6-foot-5, 240-pound Cook has 34 catches for a team-leading 548 yards and two touchdowns. Cook has the Gamecocks’ two longest receptions — a 66-yard touchdown against Arkansas and a 63-yard catch at Ole Miss.

Johnson, the Winnsboro native in his first year at USC, is among five finalists for defensive coordinator of the year, as selected by FootballScoop.com. The other finalists are Penn State’s Tom Bradley, Southern Cal’s Nick Holt, Alabama’s Kirby Smart and Boise State’s Justin Wilcox.

Reach Person at (803) 771-8496.

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