Here’s some of the highlights from what the South Carolina Gamecocks had to say inside — and outside — the main ballroom Monday at the Wynfrey Hotel at SEC Media Days in Hoover, Alabama:

Steve Spurrier

This is your 26th year as a college head coach, how have you kept your sanity?

“Same way you sports writers do it, I think (laughs). Yeah, I really think the program I own helps to hang around a long time. Somebody said, why are you still coaching? I said, well, I forgot to get fired, and I’m not going to cheat. That’s about the only way you lose your job. You get fired for losing or you cheat, and then they get somebody else. So I’ve not done any of those to any extent big time, I guess, but I do get away probably more in the offseason than a lot of coaches.”

How close did you come to retiring:

“I don’t know how close I cam to walking away, but when you lose four out of five, and three of them we had a two-touchdown lead with four minutes to play, 13 points against Missouri and Kentucky and Tennessee, 14-point leads. We didn’t stay on the field offensively, and then, of course, we didn’t stop them on defense. Those were some tough losses.”

How did the murders in Charleston affect you?

“Well, it was a tragedy, obviously, nine innocent people to be killed like that. I applaud our Governor for setting the initiative to remove the flag, and obviously it was received very well by just about everyone in our state and around the country. All of us in college sports, we know the importance of equality, race relations, everybody getting along.”

On the quarterback competition:

“We don’t have a starter going into preseason practice. (Connor Mitch) may go out there with the first bunch, but it’s pretty much wide open. If Connor Mitch is the best, and he easily could be, he’ll be the starter. We believe in letting every player earn it and go from there.

At 70 years old, do you have an exit strategy?

“Well, like I told people, I breezed right through age 60, breezed right through 65, and I’m going to try my best to breeze right on through 70. I can still remember just about everything. So mentally, I think I’m the same as I was. We got two people running for President, I think Hillary (Clinton) and Donald Trump are both 69, I believe. Coach K at Duke, he’s still doing pretty good at, I think 69 also.

Pharoh Cooper, WR

On if he should be considered the best at his position:

“Yes, I should be looked at as one of the nation’s elite at my position. As an athlete, I feel like I am one of the more versatile players in the nation. What I can do with the ball, on offense, that’s my mentality to go out there and score every time I touch the ball.”

On momentum from winning the bowl game:

“It’s always a good feeling coming into the season on a winning note, rather than a losing note. We’ve got confidence coming into the first game. Like I said, we are a different team this year.”

Skai Moore, LB

On improving as a defense this season:

“Just trusting in Jon Hoke’s new scheme that is in place and being able to run to the ball and be the first person to the ball … have that intensity. Intensity and just trusting in coach’s scheme is probably going to be the biggest thing this year.

On the new 4-3 scheme effecting his play at LB:

“I have two great linebackers with me on the field, Jonathan Walton and Bryson Allen (Williams). Being able to run an anchor in the middle of the field is going to help me a lot as well.”

Elliott Fry, K

On Spurrier saying he could be the Gamecocks’ best kicker ever:

“It’s definitely a big honor coming from coach Spurrier. He’s been around a lot of kickers. A lot of kickers are now pros, like Ryan Succop and Spencer Lanning, but yeah, it’s pretty cool. This year I’m going in with a good attitude and as a kicker, you try to make everything and you go into everything with the attitude that you’re going to make everything.”