Saturday Down South checked in with Ike Crofoot, who played four years at South Carolina under coaches Lou Holtz and Steve Spurrier, about tonight’s game against Southern Miss.

SDS: What’s it like playing on Thursday nights on ESPN?

Ike: Playing on Thursday night on ESPN is what you live for as a college football player.  Everything that the camera catches you doing is being seen by more fans than any other game that weekend.  The excitment and energy around campus when you arrive to the stadium is just different than it is on a Saturday.  During warm-ups it was always pretty cool to watch that sky camera fly up and down the field as we warmed up for the game. The students have already started their weekend on Thursday and are ready to party all weekend.  As a player, I used to get excited to travel to another game on Saturday around the SEC to watch my brother play.  Coach Spurrier would give us the weekend off and have us report to a walk through on Sunday.  Its a pretty good break after pre-season camp.

SDS: Why do you think Spurrier doesn’t trust QB Stephen Garcia (he expects to play two QBs tonight)?

Ike: Spurrier does trust Garcia.  If he didn’t than he wouldn’t play him.  Just like Spurrier did for a few years at Florida he likes to put pressure on the QB’s to try to get the most out of them.  I guess from looking at the past few years it doesn’t always work out the way you would like but hopefully Garcia has had another year of maturing and is ready to fill that need.   I feel that if Garcia doesn’t live up to his hype this year Spurrier will begin to look towards the future in 2011.

SDS: Are you nervous at all about South Carolina beating Southern Miss tonight?

Ike: I’m not nervous about losing the game tonight but if we did it would be an embarrassment.  You don’t want the entire country watching you on prime time television get beat by a team in Conference USA.  Not only is it a dagger to the entire year but also a downer on the SEC.