Spurrier Tuesday Press Conference: ECU

South Carolina head coach Steve Spurrier spoke with the media Tuesday to preview East Carolina. Find out what Spurrier had to say on a variety of topics in this update from Gamecock Anthem.

South Carolina's head coach Steve Spurrier spoke to the media on Tuesday to preview this weekend's upcoming game against the East Carolina Pirates.

Both teams are 1-0 coming off of their season-openers last week and this will be the 17th meeting between both teams. South Carolina holds the edge in the series with 11-5 margin over ECU but the Pirates have won the last three games in Columbia dating back to 1994.

A hot topic today for the Gamecocks head coach was the status of Connor Shaw. Shaw is currently nursing a shoulder contusion and is questionable for this weekend's game.

"Connor (Shaw) could be ready to play. We'll see how he feels Wednesday or Thursday. If he can't pitch it around Thursday he's probably not going to play."

Coach Spurrier does not want to run the risk of getting his quarterback hurt even further but Shaw thinks he'll be ready to go this weekend.

"As a coach you don't put a player on the field that is in pain and will get hurt. Last week he said `I can play'. Doctor said he can play. Every time he fell on his back or shoulder he got up in a little pain there. I don't think anybody wants to see that. If he's in pain he doesn't need to be out there playing. From what I understand he thinks he won't have any pain, but we have to wait and see."

If Shaw is unable to play, then Dylan Thompson will get the first call at quarterback followed by Seth Strickland and Andrew Clifford.

Thompson struggled in his brief outing against Vanderbilt and Spurrier mentioned they are working to get his confidence up.

"We're trying to get his confidence up. It's a struggle. He works at it. He works hard. Sometimes too hard. We have to loosen him up a bit. He tries to hard. He's really a good passer when he does things the right way. His confidence level is what we need to pump up. He's getting a lot of snaps now. He really hasn't played much at all yet. Hopefully he'll be ready."

The Gamecocks could go to the Wildcat Formation this Saturday if there is the need for it. Bruce Ellington would be in the Wildcat for the Gamecocks and he could run one or two in there according to Coach Spurrier.

Spurrier also talked about the status of his offensive line when asked about redshirt freshman Brandon Shell.

"He's pretty healthy. We're running Mike Matulis a little bit over there and Brandon. Corey Robinson had a good day of practice. He's another big kid. I think we need to play a whole bunch of people. We need to keep giving guys chances. The game got so tight last week (that) we didn't have the opportunity to play anybody. You try to stick with the guys that are your first teamers. Plus it was a short game. It went fast. Nobody got too tired even though it was a hot, muggy night."

Steve Spurrier mentioned that the Gamecocks have played well at home in recent years for a variety of reasons. The main one is the Gamecocks are winning the close games.

Spurrier closed by asking the fans to be ready again this Saturday and that he hopes the team will play better.

"We need our fans to be super again Saturday at 12:21. Come ready to scream and yell and have a good time, and hopefully we'll play a lot better as a team. Offensive, defense and special teams, the whole bunch, we need to play better."





-quotes provided by GamecocksOnline.com