Garcia Carries Gamecocks
USC head coach Steve Spurrier called it a “real good win over a tough Vandy team.”
Riiight … and there were 75,600 fans watching it, there really, really were.
Still, a big night from Gamecock quarterback Stephen Garcia and his new favorite target, freshman wideout Alshon Jeffery, was enough to give a lackluster No. 23 South Carolina team a 14-10 victory over the Vanderbilt Commodores – who narrowly missed upsetting USC for the third consecutive year.
As it was two weeks ago against Kentucky, this Saturday night at Williams-Brice Stadium featured another episode of the “Stephen and Alshon” show.
In fact, when it came time to call the play that propelled the Gamecocks (6-2, 3-2 SEC) to its victory over Vanderbilt (2-6, 0-5 SEC), that responsibility fell to Jeffery as well.
Early in the fourth quarter, with South Carolina trailing 10-7, Jeffery told Spurrier to call his number on a third down and twenty play that appeared to mark the end of another unsatisfying drive for the inconsistent, penalty-plagued Gamecock offense.
Spurrier did call his number, and Jeffery brilliantly executed a nifty double move to not only pick up the first down, but the game-winning touchdown as well. It was Jeffery’s fifth touchdown reception in the last four games, and another career night for the true freshman.
Garcia finished the night hitting on 22 of 33 passes for 312 yards and two touchdowns. Jeffery caught eight of those passes for 161 yards.
For a team with a glaring lack of offensive heroes (its only touchdown game on a kickoff return), Vanderbilt’s MVP was its senior punter Brett Upson.
The pot-bellied Upson hemmed the Gamecocks in all night, sending one kick soaring 65-yards through the October sky and depositing two punts inside the USC 1-yard line.
Of course Carolina went 99 yards (well, 109 yards with the penalties included) to score the decisive touchdown after one of those punts, a drive that began with a dazzling one-armed catch from another true freshman star, Tori Gurley, on a pass from the USC end zone.
Credit to Spurrier – or whoever called that play – for a gutsy move.
Pics: Travis Bell, Sideline Carolina
Comments
By john on October 25th, 2009 at 9:20 am
ha, no story on the tigers huh? lol
By Conner on October 25th, 2009 at 11:37 am
Tori Gurley is actually a RS Freshman. That pass to Gurley was actually intended for Jeffrey, who happened to be out of the offense to take a breather. Spurrier didn’t know this when he called the play. But nevertheless, he was happy he called it. Gurley is a fantastic receiver who has had some bad breaks with penalties this season.
By JR on October 25th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
When Clemson does something worthy of a story they will get it. For now, Clemson is a middle of the road ACC team who can’t even beat Maryland. Heck, Duke and Middle Tennessee State beat Maryland.
By HammerheadSC on October 25th, 2009 at 9:55 pm
actually JR, clemson is #1 in their ACC division,so again they control their destiny. they did upset Miami and spiller had another great game so a story wouldn’t be that out of the question. ESPN actually clocked him at 25/26 mph on the kick return. The truth is, the acc just tortures the football world by being very unpredictable and undependable.
Also i seriously doubt Sic would do a story on Clemson except for another exposing of Clemson executives.
By OhNoNotAgain on October 25th, 2009 at 11:03 pm
Clemson seems to get into trouble when it controls its own destiny.
I still think the head coaching experiment will reveal a circus clown, but they have performed well enough, at times, for me to not put any money on it yet.
Gosh, the man can just talk your ears off.
By Jeffy on October 26th, 2009 at 9:01 am
noone else on the planet is discussing ACC football. Why should we.
Cocks 7-5, book it!
By JR on October 26th, 2009 at 9:19 am
Hammerhead the only thing that Clemson’s “control of their destiny” in their division means is that the ACC is a terrible conference. CJ Spiller is a fine player but Clemson has virtually nothing else. If Clemson wins a division of a BCS conference with a loss to Maryland on their resume then the ACC is forever a joke.
By Joseph Reynolds on October 26th, 2009 at 10:40 am
Win ugly..win pretty..does it really matter when all is said and done?
Thsi team is doing (just) enough to win. If we win an ugly game on Saturday, I will be just as happy. No one is really screwing around with Alabama, but when it comes to style points..they have to be doing even worse than USC is…yet there they sit…ranked #2.
By joe morrison on October 26th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
i’ll take EVERY UGLY WIN the gamecocks can get. this is an offensive team with freshman and sophmores leading the way at all skill positions…and theyre winning games. 2 points against kentucky, 4 points against vandy: to me those are beautiful and i really don’t care what they look like. with the law of averages, we’ll play great against tennessee this week and we can RUIN loudmouth lane’s season, the same way we ruined phil fulmer’s career last year LOL! spurrier always gets a great effort against the vols, and tennessee has a history of major letdowns after the bama game. if we can knock hardesty out of the game early (the way we did ingram, but keep him out for good) we will win the game for sure. remember we smoked the vols last year with an inferior team and as far as i’m concerned, tennessee is really no better this year. they lost to auburn, who lost to kentucky. as for clemson, ill give them their due. they beat a top 10 team on the road. it was worth it just to watch brad scott hopping up and down in ecstasy.
By CNSYD on October 26th, 2009 at 5:33 pm
Clemson is just so historically poor in football yet they beat the cocks on a very regular basis. How can this be? You guys say you have the best team, the best recruiting, the best fans, the best coach, the best stadium, etc. Dabo may be a circus clown but as he has already shown, a circus clown as a coach can whip the old ball coach.
By Skidmarks on October 26th, 2009 at 7:05 pm
ACC = All Cupcake Conference.
I see 9 wins for Carolina this year.
(Godawful-looking wins, but wins)
- USC Class of ‘66
By CNSYD on October 26th, 2009 at 8:07 pm
Skidmarks, how have those ACC cupcakes tasted in the last 10 games of the lamecocks vs Clemson? I bet 8 of the ten didn’t taste so good.
By Richard on October 26th, 2009 at 10:58 pm
When the mighty Gamecocks struggle at home to defeat the worst team in the SEC the fans say Carolina is going to the SEC championship (LOL). But when the Gators and Bama win close games Gamecock fans say they are beatable. Why the hypocrisy? BTW, Clemson will win more games than the NEW CAROLINA and I am not even a Clemson fan!
By Not Sayin', Just Sayin' on October 29th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
Spurrier also said, “We didn’t play all that great , but we hung in there.”