Less Than A Day Away From Season Opener

Columbia, S.C. (WOLO) – Less than 24 hours away from kicking off his 8th season as the Head Ball Coach at South Carolina, Steve Spurrier is a changed man. The coach who revolutionized college football in the 1990s by dominating the SEC with his Fun N’ Gun Florida offense now tries to win games relying on a stifling defense and ball-control, run-first offense. “Hopefully we’ll be a better passing team, but we have to find out,” Spurrier said on Monday at his weekly press conference. “We’re still running the ball with Marcus (Lattimore) and Kenny Miles.” Spurrier says Lattimore is back to full strength after a season-ending knee injury in the 8th game of the season in 2011. The Ball Coach has made it clear that he will be looking to Lattimore and Miles to carry most of the offensive load when the #9 Gamecocks kick it off at Vanderbilt at 7 p.m. on ESPN Thursday night. “Marcus is ready to carry 25 or 30 times. Again I think Kenny is such a good back (that) he should play a bit here and there,” Spurrier said. “That’s where I think we need to go through the season also, but Marcus could carry 30 to 40 if we needed to.” Spurrier hopes junior quarterback Connor Shaw will be able to stretch the field to allow for more running lanes for his corps of backs. “Hopefully we’ll have more balance and not quite get to that (30+ carries for Lattimore), Spurrier said. “Again we have to wait and see how the game progresses.”