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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP GAMEDecember 3, 2010Steve SpurrierATLANTA, GEORGIA COACH SPURRIER: We're honored to be here. Excited to be one of two teams playing this week, to have a shot at our conference championship is something that we've been shooting for since last summer. And it's probably what just about all 12 teams in the conference shoot for as they go through their preseason and regular season games and so forth. We played pretty well lately. We're on a three-game winning streak. I thought that was pretty good until I notice Auburn is on a 12-game winning streak. But anyway, our guys have played well lately. And we're looking forward to the challenge tomorrow. Should be a heck of a game. THE MODERATOR: Questions? Q. There's some similarities in this game from your standpoint and the first SEC championship game you played in. I think three losses with Florida, ranked about the same as South Carolina. Do you have very vivid memories of that game playing that Alabama team? COACH SPURRIER: Of course I do. What play do you want me to recite? I'll tell you what, that was an interesting year, that first year. We talked about it at the luncheon. When Commissioner Kramer started this game I didn't even know it was legal. I didn't know you could have a playoff to determine a conference champion in college football. He said, yeah, if you divide up into divisions, you can have a championship game. One time I asked him: Why don't you do that for the national championship. He said I can't do that. I said okay. But we can do it in the conference, he said. So Florida, that third year, we didn't quite have the players we had the first two years. But we had a good bunch of guys. Our goal was to win the division and go to Birmingham. We had to go to Alabama's home field and play them. That was the goal. And we were fortunate that -- Tennessee actually beat us that year but they messed around and lost three games somehow and we only lost two and we got to the championship game with a 6-2 division record. But anyway that was the year Alabama won the national championship. And it was a game in Birmingham. We gave them a pretty good battle. Beat us 28-21. We had a pick at the end -- that wasn't really the quarterback. It wasn't really his fault. The receiver sort of went around a different way and so forth. And Antonio Langham I think is the guy that picked it off and scored to beat us in that game. But fortunately we beat them the next year. The same two teams in Birmingham the next year. But that's always a thrill for the team that wins the SEC Championship game. And it's usually the biggest thrill of the year. If you're lucky to get in the national championship game, that's obviously a tad bit bigger, not a lot. But to win your conference championship is pretty much what I've always tried to get our teams to shoot for at the beginning of the season. Q. Stephen Garcia, how is his health? Is he going to be 100 percent tomorrow? COACH SPURRIER: I think Stephen's fine. He bruised his left shoulder in the Clemson game. Didn't do too much until Wednesday. But Wednesday and Thursday he was throwing it around pretty well, and he should throw it around when we come into the dome here about 4:30 today. He should be fine. He's close to 100 percent. Q. Concern for you if this game comes down to the wire, how your team will respond, because most of your wins, if not all of them, double digits, the two close ones at Kentucky, at Auburn you guys lost; they have experience in winning close games this year? COACH SPURRIER: I've noticed that they won all their close games. They won three by three. One by one. And I think one by seven. And us by eight. Anyway, they've had a knack of making the play when the game's on the line, certainly. But we've got to believe it's going to be a close game. We never think we're going to run off and leave anybody. Although we've been fortunate to win by a couple of touchdowns, most of our wins this year. But anyway, we're worried about playing one play at a time, playing as well as we can, offense, defense, special teams, and go from there. But we also understand that this team is never out of it. And they can come back as well as anybody in the country. Q. Your experience in coaching in this game, does that give you any type of advantage preparing a team to play in the SEC's biggest game? COACH SPURRIER: I don't think so. Auburn's been here before. Coach Chizik was the defensive coordinator at Auburn when they were here about six years ago, I think. So they have some experience with the game. It's new for our players, but it was new for our players to go to Florida. It was new for them to beat Alabama. It was new to beat Clemson again. So we've got some different things that hadn't happened in a long time around there. So the big stage which we're going to be on here tomorrow afternoon is something I really believe our players look forward to. Q. Coach Chizik called Cam Newton's game against your team earlier this year eye opening, especially that first touchdown run. I think they didn't realize what they had until that game with Cam Newton. What are your impressions of that earlier meeting with Cam? COACH SPURRIER: Well, certainly, I think the first drive he had a 50-yard run or something for touchdown. And still our defensive backs sort of had him hemmed up there. He gave one a little juke, and he bumped into the other, then he outran another guy, chasing, and dove into the end zone there. So we realized, hey, this guy can run like a scat back and drop back and throw, run with power. Exceptional athlete, no question about that. And his passing I think has really improved since he started maybe down at Florida several years ago. But he's an excellent passer. And obviously they beat Alabama with his passing instead of the running. Q. Steve, you and Coach Chizik, other than both being Florida guys, do you have much background with him over the years? COACH SPURRIER: No, not too much. I think he was at Florida in the '80s. And so that was a time I was not in Gainesville at all. But his coaching cycle so forth hadn't really crossed too many paths, I don't think. He may have been a GA at Clemson when I was at Duke; did he mention that? That was probably about the only time we've faced each other until this year. Q. Coach, were you all paying any attention to all this sort of swirling around Newton the past few weeks, and do you think it has any impact on the game with him at least getting a ruling from to NCAA to release his mind maybe going into this week? COACH SPURRIER: No, we haven't paid any attention to that. That's nothing we can control. But we're glad he's playing. We really do. He's playing all year. It wouldn't have been right to not play when the championship's on the line. So I remember Joe Paterno one time said: You want to beat the other team when all their best players are playing. And hopefully it will be a game that no key players get hurt during the course of the game and both teams fight it out and the team that plays the best will win. So I'm glad he's playing. He deserves to play. And we haven't even thought about the other stuff. Q. They've done a great job making adjustments during games this year, what have you seen in their ability to do that this season? COACH SPURRIER: They certainly have. They certainly won a bunch of second halves, no question about that. Whether or not it happens every game, I don't know. But they've done a good job. So when your team wins, I've learned as coaches when we win a lot of games we're pretty smart. And when we don't, we're not as smart as we once were. But anyway, they've done well. Their coaches have done well. Their team has won every close game, like I said. So you've got to give them credit. They've done a super job. Q. Stephen Garcia's had a pretty good year, but he's usually not available to the media during the week. He's not out in front of the program, or it's hard to get interviews with him. Why isn't he out there with being able to speak for the team and what kind of year has he had? COACH SPURRIER: He's had an excellent year. Stephen's had an excellent year. Sometimes you have to limit how much people talk and so forth. We think he plays better when he doesn't talk with the media so much. How is that for an honest answer? We think he plays better. But he's learned to say all the right things. So he'll be more accessible probably in the future. But Stephen's played really well since the Auburn game. The Auburn game he had a bad habit of ducking his head. I mean straight down. And it's a wonder he hadn't been hurt seriously running that way. So we got him to keep his head up and dive in and not take hard hits. And so he's taking care of the ball extremely well. I don't think we've lost one since he's been running correctly with the ball. But he can run with it. And he runs not like Cam Newton runs but he can run with it effectively. And he's throwing the ball away, avoided a bunch of sacks he used to take. He's playing much, much better. Much better. Very seldom do we get mad at Steven anymore. He's playing much more like we coached him to play. Q. Steve, did you think going into this year this was your best South Carolina team? And also what is the South Carolina team, the success you achieved this year, what does it mean to the future of the program? COACH SPURRIER: Obviously South Carolina, to recruit some of the big-time players, we've got to prove, hey, we can win, we can win big. We can win the conference championship. We can win the Eastern Division. So we've knocked down a few firsts. We've been 6-1 last two years at home. 12-2 overall. We've done some things that hadn't been done before there. But that's helpful when we break down some barriers that, hey, this can happen at South Carolina. So we need to break one more barrier down here tomorrow afternoon if we can. Q. How much pressure does the Auburn offense put on opposing offenses in terms of taking advantage of every scoring opportunity you have? COACH SPURRIER: Their offense is good. They're first in the conference, running, passing. Running, I know they are. Passing probably not, they don't throw as much as Arkansas does and so forth. But they are good. And no defense has really shut them down completely. We thought we hadn't played very well against them, fourth team of the year, and then later on we realized they're scoring that many against everybody or more. Anyway, we've got to play well offensively, stay on the field, make some first downs and so forth and go from there. But, yeah, they're a very good offense with no weaknesses. Q. You're talking about the future of the program and what this might mean. How big is it that some of your major key players are from the state of South Carolina, how has that helped you going forward? COACH SPURRIER: I think all of us that are in states where they play excellent high school football need to try to get our best players from that state and not let them leave the state. So we've been able to get a lot of the best players the last three years, with Marcus Lattimore, Alshon Jeffrey, Stephon Gilmore, two of those guys were the Mr. Football in the state the last couple of years. Prior to that, most of the players were going to Georgia, somewhere else. Tennessee used to get a bunch of them. So we're starting to keep a lot of the good players in state. It's very helpful. Q. I know you've been in a lot of big games over the years, Coach. You still have a lot of fun in these type of challenging games for you? COACH SPURRIER: Yes. Yes, it's a challenge to try to do some things that have never done before. I do like that. When I was coming back from that two-year NFL stint, I really want to go somewhere that maybe had not won very much and had a chance to. The facilities at South Carolina now are such that we can recruit with the best of them. And like we talked about keeping the players in state there. So that's the fun part. It really is for me. It's just to try to do some things that have never been done before. So got an opportunity again tomorrow. See if we can make something happen. Q. As a former Heisman trophy winner, you get a chance to cast a ballot. Who are you going to be voting for this year? COACH SPURRIER: It is a private vote, as you know. We don't have to reveal those like the coach's poll. But I think I've already said that Cam Newton will certainly get one of my votes. You get three. I'll keep secretive what order they're in, okay? It's a secret vote. But I think he deserves the Heisman, no question. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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