At halftime of Sunday’s South Carolina basketball loss to Clemson, football coach Steve Spurrier and several players were honored on the court for winning four straight games over Clemson – something USC had done just once before, from 1951-54.
After the ceremony, Spurrier offered some information about his team as it prepares for its bowl game, which likely will be the Outback Bowl against Michigan. The Outback Bowl has already announced that Michigan is in the game. The Southeastern Conference’s representative will be revealed Sunday at 9:30 p.m. USC’s other option is the Gator Bowl against Northwestern.
Spurrier said USC “won’t practice for another two weeks, probably” before beginning pre-bowl workouts. Final exams are Dec. 10-17.
Spurrier said Connor Shaw will go into the practices as the No. 1 quarterback, despite being sidelined for the Clemson game with a sprained left foot and Dylan Thompson performing admirably as his replacement.
“We’ll see how he is,” Spurrier said when asked about Shaw. “He had his boot on the other day. They’re treating him very gingerly right now. I would say both quarterbacks will probably play in the bowl game. And we’ll see how it goes from there.”
If USC wins the bowl game to go a program-best 11-2 for the second consecutive season, Spurrier said the football team will be honored again at the Jan. 19 basketball game against Vanderbilt.
Spurrier was asked whether tailback Marcus Lattimore has decided to turn pro after suffering a devastating right knee injury in October.
“I don’t have any exact information on that,” he said. “Marcus will address the media sometime, probably maybe even before the bowl game.”
Spurrier said he definitely would have spiked the ball at the end of the SEC title game. Georgia coach Mark Richt elected not to do it, and the clock ran out.
“We all know that’s what he should have done,” Spurrier said of spiking the ball. “Yeah, we all know that. They would have had two plays. But I don’t know. If they had hit a touchdown right there, it wouldn’t have mattered. But we all know you should do that (spike the ball).”
Finally, Spurrier had some comments about his former defensive coordinator, Ellis Johnson, being fired after just one year as Southern Mississippi’s head coach.
“Sometimes it goes like that,” Spurrier said. “Sometimes it goes bad. And it just went bad for Ellis and those guys out there and never got any better. Unfortunate part of coaching. Sometimes those things happen.”