Steve Spurrier need a catchy name for his offense at South Carolina, so ‘Cock-n-Fire’ seemed like a good one to pull off the shelf as he started the ball rolling in Columbia some eight years ago.
After Saturday night’s 35-7 beat down of No. 5 Georgia, the nickname might flip readily to the defense after the Gamecocks stifled one of the nation’s most prolific offenses through the first five weeks. They used a defensive front seven, led by ends Jadeveon Clowney and Devin Taylor to frustrate Georgia quarterback Aaron Murray and make him uncomfortable in the pocket.
The defense also snuffed out a Georgia running game that was having major success behind freshmen Todd Gurley and Keith Marshall, pocketing 226 yards on the ground per game.
“We didn’t know that they would be as effective,” Spurrier said after the game, “We thought we could play with them. Coach (Lorenzo) Ward had a good feeling and thought we could slow them down. Fortunately, we were able to kill a bunch of clock for them in the fourth quarter.”
In addition to Clowney and Taylor, Chaz Sutton, and Kelcy Quarles wreaked havoc in the middle, as Gurley and Marshall were minimized to a combined 81 yards on 25 carries. Part of that production was due to a sideline-to-sideline effort by linebacker Shaq Wilson.
Murray had his lowest passing output of the year, completing just 11 of 31 passes for 109 yards. Much of the reasoning for the 20 incompletions was the pressure created by Taylor and Clowney on the outside and the middle from Sutton and Wilson. USC broke up 10 of his passes, and frustrated the junior signal-caller all night long.
“I think we did a good job tonight,” explained Clowney. “That was our goal, to come out here and put pressure on him and cause a lot of conflict with the offensive line. We came out here and did our job.”
Probably the turning point in the game came on Georgia’s fifth drive, when they methodically marched from the 19 to the South Carolina 2-yard line. Facing fourth-and-two, Murray dropped back and hit Rantavious Wooten just inside the goal line. Wilson and defensive back D.J. Swearinger swarmed Wooten and stopped him at the 1 and a goal line stand was complete.
“We’ve got good players, and I’ve got good coaches,” defensive coordinator Ward said. “Not only the front four, but our linebackers and secondary have played well too.”
From that point forward, South Carolina humbled one of the more heralded offenses that Georgia has brought to the field.
“Obviously, this is a special one,” Spurrier said. “There is no question about it after beating Georgia for our tenth in a row and beating a school for the third time in a row that used to own you. They can’t say they own us anymore.”
Celebration mode: In addition to South Carolina knocking off the Bulldogs for the third time in a row, it marked the Gamecocks’ 10th straight win and Spurrier’s 250th career victory.
“Having it against Georgia is special,” Spurrier said. “That’s a team that used to beat my alma mater very well. I’ve been fortunate as a coach against them, not so much as a player. But as a coach and that was special.”
On A Leash: The Bulldogs never looked mentally or emotionally into the game after Ace Sanders’ 69-yard punt return gave the Gamecocks a 21-0 lead with 5:19 left in the first. That’s when the defense was able to lay its ears back and use its speed, which was on the mind of Georgia coach Mark Richt after the game.
“They’ve got great speed and are very long human beings,” Richt said. “They are 6-8, 6-6, and have long arms. I think a couple of times we were blocking them halfway decent and trying to run them by the quarterback, but they are just so long and athletic that Murray was getting grabbed while he was trying to move up in the pocket.”