Steve Spurrier met with the media Tuesday to preview South Carolina’s home game against UCF on Saturday (noon, ESPNU). Here’s some of the highlights from what he said including his revelation of a new starting quarterback:
Opening comments:
“Lorenzo Nunez is going to start the game. We’re going to let him go play. We believe the other quarterbacks will play. Lorenzo gives us maybe a little spark in there that we need offensively. I think we’ll have three or four new starters on defense. It’s the first freshman quarterback as a coach I’ve ever started, but it’s just where we are right now.”
On UCF:
“Central Florida is a team that has lost two consecutive one-point games. Their defense is good, but they’ve struggled offensively. Their defensive line is one of the best we’ll play. They’ll be fired up to knock us off.”
On Jon Hoke’s defensive scheme:
“We need to do a little bit more than just line up and say here we are, what are you going to do? We want to disguise more.”
Why Nunez?
“He made some nice runs as we know (against Georgia). And he hit a couple nice passes. He gives us a spark in there running the bal. We need to probably spread out a little bit and run and get him out of the pocket and throw. Let’s give Lorenzo a chance to go out there and let him play the game. He’s very capable of throwing the ball, he just hasn’t done it yet. We’ve got to find out when there’s 22 guys on the field, how we all play.”
On Connor Mitch’s health:
“His health is much better. He was out watching practice last night. Still got his arm in a sling. I’m sure he’s out several more weeks. But health-wise, he’s doing well. The bad bruise he had seems to be doing well.”
On Brandon Wilds:
“Brandon has a bruised rib. Whether or not he’ll play, I guess we’ll find out Friday or Saturday. Shon’s (Carson) probably the starter. We’re not giving up on David (Williams). He has struggled. He’s a good back, we just can’t get him going.”
On improving vs. UCF:
“We don’t assume anything. We’re not assuming we’re going to make a lot of yards on offense. We’re hoping to really play our best game. It should be a huge challenge to our players to see if we can go out there and look like a good team.”
On team psyche:
“I don’t think I’ve screamed and yelled at too many of them too much. Hopefully they get mad at themselves. We’ll encourage. I think they need encouragement. I thought we’d play better. I think most our players thought we’d play better. At times, we look pretty good in practice and we just haven’t put it together consistently. This will be a week that we’ve got a chance to play well defensively.
On being positive:
“You can’t be positive until you’ve done something. You’ve got to go do it.
On South Carolina fans panicking:
“We’re not where we thought we’d be that’s for sure. After three games, we’re not where we thought we’d be. We’ll find out where we’re going to be after four games on Saturday. Late Saturday we’ll find out where we are and go from there. We’ve played three of 12 games and we’ll see if we can get something going this week.”
