Once East Carolina elected to receive the ball after the opening coin toss, the South Carolina coaching staff knew something was up. So the Gamecocks prepared to see some kind of offensive wrinkle on one of the first few plays.

But on the first play from scrimmage, the Pirates went for an end-around-wide-receiver pass that scored on a 75-pass from Tyler Snead to Tsi Hatfield. During his weekly press conference, defensive coordinator Clayton White said there was a mistake by a player, and if it happens on the back end, it’s going to show up on the scoreboard.

“Our guys came to the sideline and they said, ‘If they got to trick us, they don’t think they can beat us,'” White recalled. “It was kind of the mindset on the defensive sideline. I was kind of shocked to hear our guys say that. So that kind of kept us calm and obviously I didn’t go crazy, because I knew we had a ton of plays left to play, and one touchdown doesn’t win football games for the most part.”