Steve Spurrier, the “Head Ball Coach,” is in his ninth year at South Carolina. When he came to Columbia, the talent was thin and there was very little to fill out 22 starting positions. Now almost a decade later, the South Carolina Gamecocks proved on Saturday what happens when a legend takes over a football program and is given time to build it from the foundation up.
Heralded quarterback Connor Shaw was sidelined with a bruised shoulder and, just before the game, it was announced that he would not play. That would not be a problem for the Gamecocks as Dylan Thompson, a sophomore, who looks more like a Spurrier quarterback, was inserted in the game and didn’t disappoint.
Thompson, a more conventional drop-back passer, completed 21 of 37 passes for 330 yards and three touchdowns as the Gamecocks’ defense took advantage of five turnovers on six drives to rout East Carolina, 48-10, in Columbia.
“We had a lot of good plays here and there,” Spurrier said. “We felt we had a chance to get the ball of and get in in the air and see what happens.”
Thompson looked confident from the beginning as he hit Damiere Byrd on the game’s fourth play for a 53-yard fly pattern that set up Marcus Lattimore’s 6-yard touchdown run just 1:13 into the game.
“Dylan was ready to play,” Spurrier said. “His confidence was the best I ever saw it. He was in command and hopefully he had some things out there today he could learn from.”
Spurrier noted that the differences of defenses from Vanderbilt last week to ECU this week may have played a role in Thompson being able to start strong, expand his confidence and then take over the game on offense.
“You explain it by watching the game,” Spurrier commented. “Vanderbilt’s defense is a little different than East Carolina’s. ECU was tough against the run today. We had a lot per pass attempts. I like it when your line coach says keep throwing.”
If there was one critique of Thompson, it was that he held the ball a little too long. Freshman Shaq Roland dropped three passes, but Thompson took the blame for those as he said he held the ball a little too long. Thompson lauded his receiving corps for their actions at the hotel on Saturday morning.
“The coolest thing is the receivers came to my room and said, ‘We got your back,’ noted Thompson, “Ace, Bruce, Nick, Justice, and D.L. are all leaders and that was big for me.”
Spurrier was pleased with the idea of Thompson’s emergence considering the Gamecocks now have two quarterbacks that can contribute.
“We will get Dylan ready (for UAB) and if Connor is 100 percent at practice, he will be a starter,” explained Spurrier. “We have two quarterbacks that can play and a lot of you folks didn’t think we had 2 that could play.”