South Carolina’s Tanner, Elliott deny report of halting recruiting

Less than an hour after losing a heartbreaker to Florida, South Carolina coach Shawn Elliott and his boss found themselves disputing a national report.

FoxSports’ Alex Marvez reported South Carolina’s assistant coaches were told to “stop pursuing commitments from high school players” in the aim of leaving them open for the next coaching staff. The report used anonymous sources and did not name who ordered the assistants to not take any pledges.

Elliott said he has not told his staff to slow recruiting efforts.

“I don’t think anybody has called up and tried to commit in the last week,” Elliott said. “So that’s not accurate.”

After the team’s postgame press conference, Gamecocks athletics director Ray Tanner also said he did not give any such order when pressed by reporters.

USC expected to host around 100 recruits Saturday and will have another large prospect turnout Nov. 28 against Clemson.

New look

South Carolina’s players came out for warmups and their helmets looked relatively normal. But they’d been fed a suspicious story in the locker room and found something waiting when they returned.

“I’d asked one of the equipment managers, and he said that something happened to the helmets where they were left outside and we have to use our practice helmets,” quarterback Perry Orth said. “We came in and we had the new helmets and it was pretty cool. The new helmets, the black jerseys, it was awesome.”

The white helmets had a large, stylized outline of a Gamecock tailfeather.

The spins

Orth nabbed his first career receiving touchdown in the fourth quarter Saturday, catching a throwback pass from wide receiver Pharoh Cooper. But the quarterback also picked up something else he rarely, if ever, gets — an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.

“They said that I went to spin the ball, and I may have. I just kind of dropped it,” Orth said. “But I can’t be having any kind of gray area to let them flag me. I’ve just got to toss the ball to the ref.”

First pickings

The South Carolina defense has spent all season looking for more turnovers and Saturday, it got one from an unlikely set of hands.

Defensive end Gerald Dixon got his first career interception off a deflection. Defensive end Marquavius Lewis hit Florida quarterback Treon Harris as he threw, causing the pass to bounce off the back of a lineman and into the hands of Dixon.

Cornerback T.J. Gurley also got his first interception of the season and the third of his career. He had not picked off a pass since Sept. 6, 2014, against East Carolina.

Longball

Punter Sean Kelly has been called upon a lot with the way South Carolina’s offense has struggled this season. Saturday he did something he’s never done before.

With the ball on South Carolina 31, the junior blasted a punt 69 yards, one more than his career best. The ball rolled through the end zone, leaving a net of 49 and giving him his only touchback of the day.

He also put three of six punts inside the 20 and had a 53-yarder. One of his kicks was a low, rugby-style boot that didn’t looked great, but kept rolling and ended up going 45 yards.

This story was originally published November 14, 2015 at 5:09 PM.