South Carolina’s offense reversed its recent fortunes Saturday during the Gamecocks’ first official scrimmage of the spring, but head coach Steve Spurrier isn’t giving much of the credit to his quarterbacks.
“I wish one of them would just hit them all and take his steps and throw them where he’s supposed to, but that doesn’t happen,” Spurrier said. “That’s why we’ll probably run the ball about 50 times a game hopefully with Marcus (Lattimore). Kenny Miles is doing well and Eric Baker.”
Spurrier shook his head in frustration as his top two quarterbacks' statistics were read aloud.
Stephen Garcia: 5-for-13 for 51 yards, one touchdown, no interceptions.
Connor Shaw: 4-for-11 for 47 yards, no touchdowns, one interception.
“We’ve got guys wide open and the quarterback won’t throw it, throws it late, throws it over his head,” Spurrier said. “I don’t know, we just can’t quite get it taught up. Maybe if one of these quarterbacks will work all summer taking his steps and throwing it, maybe we will be able to throw the ball around a lot better, but we’ll see how that works out.”
Despite the struggles of the quarterbacks, the offense won the scoring portion of the scrimmage on a final-play field goal from Jay Wooten.
“The offense did a lot better than last week,” Spurrier said. “Defense wasn’t quite as good as they have been.”
Nothing is riding on the outcome of the scrimmages other than pride, spur DeVonte Holloman said.
“We’ve got to go in (the locker room) and hear it from them now just like they heard it from us last week,” said Holloman, who gave both sides a C-plus for their performance.
Miles led all rushers with 36 yards on four carries. Lattimore had 28 yards on four carries, and Baker added 34 yards and two touchdowns on 10 carries. The offense also got scores from D.L. Moore on a 46-yard pass from Andrew Clifford and DeAngelo Smith on a 27-yard pass from Garcia.
The offense “had a much better day” than on Friday, Miles said. “We accomplished some things we wanted to accomplish today. We had a pretty good running day for the most part.”
If the Gamecocks’ offense does turn into a 50 carry a game unit, Miles and Baker both said they are ready to do their part to back up Lattimore. Baker, a junior who missed all of 2010 due to a knee injury, has had two good weekend practices in a row.
“Whenever my number is called, I’m going to try to make plays, and I’m going to be ready,” he said.
TOUCHDOWN PLAYS
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Eric Baker 1-yard run
D.L. Moore 46-yard pass from Andrew Clifford
DeAngelo Smith 27-yard pass from Stephen Garcia
Eric Baker 6-yard run
PASSING: Dylan Thompson 7-12-0-86; Andrew Clifford 5-7-0-83, 1 TD; Stephen Garcia 5-13-0-51 1 TD; Connor Shaw 4-11-1-47. TOTALS: 21-43-1-267, 2 TD.
RUSHING: Kenny Miles 4-36; Eric Baker 10-34 2 TD; Marcus Lattimore 4-28; Joshua Blue 6-24; Connor Shaw 5-9; Jacob Baker 3-5; Stephen Garcia 1-5; Dylan Thompson 2-1; Josh Hinch 1-0. TOTALS: 36-142, 2 TD.
RECEIVING: DeAngelo Smith 4-58, 1 TD; Ace Sanders 4-46; Lamar Scruggs 3-41; D.L. Moore 2-56, 1 TD; Nick Jones 2-16; Jason Barnes 1-18; Billy Byrne 1-9; Bryce Sherman 1-7; Chaun Gresham 1-6; Matt Coffee 1-5; Kenny Miles 1-5. TOTALS: 21-267, 2 TD.
Steve Spurrier
Scrimmage highlights
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