For South Carolina fans, what happened on the field between the Gamecocks and Texas A&M Aggies Thursday night was not the way to begin the 2014 season. All the hype, all the hoopla and all the anticipation was quickly dowsed with a taste of Kenny Hill reality. Hill, the Aggies new quarterback and Johnny Manziel’s heir-apparent, completed 44 of 60 attempts while throwing for 511 yards and three touchdowns.
Final score: Aggies 52, Gamecocks 28
And quite honestly, the game wasn’t even that close. Just ask Gamecocks head coach Steve Spurrier.
Even though most of the fireworks occurred on the field via the Texas A&M offense, the fireworks finale concluded at the end of the night with Spurrier’s post-game news conference.
Photo source: Instagram
The old ball coach did admit that his players are better than what they showed on the field… or are they?
“I think our players are better than what they showed, but I don’t know,” Spurrier said.
From start to finish in Thursday night’s game, which was the first live telecast for the new SEC Network, the Aggies had total control.
“That team was so much better than us, it wasn’t funny,” said Spurrier. “They out-coached us, out-played us, they were better prepared and they knew what they were doing.”
With All-American defensive lineman Jadeveon Clowney in the lineup for the past three seasons, the Gamecocks were one of the NCAA’s best defensive teams. But Clowney has gone to the NFL and the Gamecocks have switched to a 3-4 defense. Spurrier, needless to say, was not impressed.
“I thought we would play a lot better,” Spurrier said, referring to his defense. “I have been reading like you guys have about our new 3-4 defense. Did anybody like that 3-4 defense? But I don’t know if it would have mattered if we’d have played a 6-6 defense. I don’t know if 12 out there would have helped that much.”
Entering Thursday night’s game, South Carolina was favored by as much as 10.5 points. Spurrier questioned if the oddsmakers knew what they were doing.
“It was obvious the odds-makers didn’t know what they were doing,” Spurrier quipped. “That team out there was much better than us. Shoot, they knew what they were doing. I don’t know what you can say. If we played them again, they’d be a three-touchdown favorite.”
It doesn’t get any easier defensively in the Gamecocks next outing. On Sept. 6, South Carolina will host East Carolina — a team that finished 25th a season ago in total offense.
“We won’t get much favorable press and that’s probably good for us,” Steve Spurrier said. “We don’t have to worry about any more win streaks. It was a good one while it lasted, and now we can go back to trying to be a decent team and not read the paper too much hopefully.”