Notebook: Wilds want the ball more, and Spurrier is OK with that

Brandon Wilds was not shy in the week leading up to South Carolina’s SEC opener in saying that he wanted to run the ball a lot. He carried it 16 times for 107 yards Saturday night in a 26-22 loss to Kentucky, and after the game he said that wasn’t enough.

“Uh, no. Not at all,” he said.

Asked why the Gamecocks struggled to score touchdowns in the red zone in the second half, Wilds responded, “I didn’t get the ball.”

South Carolina, which kicked three field goals from inside the 20-yard line in the second half, ran 14 plays inside the Wildcats’ red zone in the second half — seven passes and seven runs. The seven passes resulted in 9 yards, while the seven runs combined for 31 yards. None of the plays led to a touchdown.

Wilds got three carries in the red zone in the second half, carrying the ball three straight times for back-to-back 4-yard gains and then a loss of 1.

Wilds and backup running back David Williams “both had a couple runs we didn’t block a guy down there,” Spurrier said. “Of course, when you run the ball and you don’t make any yards, you should have thrown it. When you throw incomplete, you should have run it.”

Spurrier did not seem upset that Wilds had taken his opinions public.

“I don’t have too many problems with Brandon wanting the ball. Running backs want the ball,” Spurrier said. “Offensive linemen, a lot of them, like to run block. We messed up a few assignments in our run blocking that hurt us yesterday. We didn’t run it real well around the 2 or 3 yard line. Other than that, we ran it pretty decent at times.”

South Carolina rushed for 195 and threw for 222 against the Wildcats. The Gamecocks are sixth in the SEC in rushing (224.5 yards per game) and 11th in passing (181 yards per game) after two games.

Even wide receiver Pharoh Cooper chimed in about the running game.

“We probably should have ran the ball looking back at it,” he said. “We were running the ball pretty decently all night.”

Second thoughts

The option play that was led to the fumble that led to Connor Mitch’s separated shoulder was “ill-advised,” Spurrier said after the game.

“That’s a play that had been pretty good for us, and we didn’t block it correctly,” he said Sunday. “One of our wide receivers blocked the guy we were trying to option off of, and then when we pitched it, we didn’t catch it.”

More picks

Skai Moore is tied with six other players for the NCAA lead with three interceptions. He is the only player in the SEC with that many so far. Moore intercepted Patrick Towles in the first half Saturday night for his 10th interception. The junior middle linebacker is four away from the school’s career record.

Takeaways

The Gamecocks are tied for second in the SEC in turnover margin at plus 1.5 per game. South Carolina’s first official turnover of the season came on Perry Orth’s fourth quarter interception against Kentucky. Wide receiver Pharoh Cooper’s fumble on a two-point conversion does not count as an official statistic.

“On the fumble, I don’t know what happened,” Cooper said Saturday night. “I don’t know how I lost it. It shouldn’t have happened that way, and it did.”

This story was originally published September 13, 2015 at 7:30 PM.