Though he’s trying, Steve Spurrier can’t shake last week’s ’embarrassing’ win at Vanderbilt.

‘We’ll get over it a little bit but it’s there forever that we gave up two kickoff returns for a touchdown and we’ve never had one in my 120 games here,” Spurrier said during Wednesday’s coaches teleconference. “We’ve never run one back. I was trying to explain to our players, this is an unusual event. I don’t know if they believe me or not.

“We’ll see if we can tackle somebody on kickoffs this week. I think some of our coaches just say, ‘Let’s kick that grounder down there all the time.’ And I said, ‘You may be right if we can’t cover any better than we did last week.’

With the Commodores in the rear view and Mizzou approaching on Saturday, Spurrier says the main concern for his 13th-ranked Gamecocks is improving as a team — specifically on special teams — rather than worry about the race in the Eastern Division.

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“We’re not really concerned about the East or the SEC,” Spurrier said. “We’re concerned about trying to look like a pretty good football team, which we have not looked like for most of the year. Anytime you have two kickoff returns against you, something is missing. We tied an NCAA record last week allowing that to happen. We set the SEC record allowing two kickoff returns for touchdowns.

“We’re just concerned about getting our players out there playing the game you hope that they would play.”

As it stands, South Carolina’s last in the SEC in kickoff coverage and total defense. The running game has sputtered, but the offensive line appears to have recovered after up-and-down games against Texas A&M and East Carolina.

Senior quarterback Dylan Thompson’s been one of the few constants, along with his talented core of wideouts, that has helped the Gamecocks avoid disaster with three wins thus far.

Against Vanderbilt, South Carolina needed a 70-yard run from Pharoh Cooper down to the goal line with less than five minutes to play to stave off the Commodores’ upset bid. The Gamecocks came in as three-touchdown favorites.

“We don’t look like Alabama out there, that’s for sure,” Spurrier said. “We’ve won three out of four. Most every game we play is going to go down to the wire. That’s just kind of where we are right now. We believe our players can play better. Hopefully we can get them coached up and looked like a good team the rest of the season.”