Spurrier says USC QB job ‘pretty much wide open’

The depth chart South Carolina released earlier this week has Connor Mitch at the top, but Gamecocks coach Steve Spurrier is not ready to make that call.

“All three of those quarterbacks are very similar. We are going to let it play out,” he said. “Some guy we hope will separate as we go through preseason practice. We’ll wait and see. No timetable.”

Mitch, a sophomore who threw six passes last year, is the frontrunner for the job, but junior Perry Orth and redshirt freshman Michael Scarnecchia remain firmly in the hunt, Spurrier said Tuesday during SEC Media Days.

“We’ve got a month (of practice) before the first game. So we should be able to figure out who can play the best,” Spurrier said. “(Mitch) may go out there with the first bunch, but it’s pretty much wide open.”

Freshman Lorenzo Nunez “is an excellent athlete, can really run,” Spurrier said. “There’s a spot for him to jump in there, maybe hand it to Pharoh (Cooper).”

Spurrier even hinted that he could return to his quarterback-rotating roots this season.

“You can win with two. There’s nothing in the rulebook that says you have to have one,” he said. “So if we do play more than one, it will be because both of them are about the same.”

Back at you Tennessee coach Butch Jones didn’t wait to be asked about Spurrier’s cartwheel comments. He addressed them in his opening statement Tuesday afternoon.

“There are people in Knoxville and Fayetteville still doing cartwheels over going 7-6,” Spurrier said Tuesday morning, pointing out the difference in reaction to the Gamecocks’ 7-6 record and the records of other teams.

“Contrary to reports, there were no back flips and there were no somersaults,” Jones responded. “In football you are judged on, ‘Did your team overachieve?’or ‘Did your team underachieve?’”

South Carolina was a preseason top-10 team last year.

Age-old question If 69-year-old Donald Trump and 67-year-old Hillary Clinton can run for president, Spurrier ought to be able to handle coaching in the SEC fine at 70, Spurrier said.

“Age is just a number,” Spurrier said. “I have no plans on quitting.”

Spurrier doesn’t act like a 70-year-old, linebacker Skai Moore said.

“Not at all,” Moore said. “You would think coach Spurrier is one of us when he’s in the meeting room, always cracking jokes, just a funny, lively guy. When you say 70, it just doesn’t even click with me. He seems like a young coach.”

Taking a moment When Spurrier saw Dustin Johnson skipped the U.S. Open trophy presentation after his near miss, the coach thought back to his brief news conference following a 45-42 overtime loss to Tennessee in November.

“They said, ‘Dustin, after you three-putted at Chambers Bay, you didn’t come to the trophy presentation. Why weren’t you there?’ Gee, the guy just three-putted from 12 feet,” Spurrier said. “He just said, ‘I needed to get away.’ But he’s back, and he feels good. After we sort of blew a game, or you can say Tennessee beat us, but we couldn’t hold on to a 14-point lead with a little over four minutes, yeah, I felt like getting away a minute. I was quickly at the press conference and left.”

This story was originally published July 14, 2015 at 6:21 PM with the headline "Spurrier says USC QB job ‘pretty much wide open’."