THE SCOOP
South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier, often the first one to stick a knife in an opponent when his team is playing well, takes the opposite approach when his team loses and saves the barbs for his team.
He said Tuesday he didn’t like his team’s defense on third down or how the players were aligned in the loss at Georgia.
“There’s nothing embarrassing about losing as long as you play smart and play with a lot of effort. We didn’t do those two things,” he said.
The problems were particularly glaring on defense. Two South Carolina defensive assistants got into a shouting match on the sideline, linebackers coach Kirk Botkin getting into the face of ends coach Deke Adams.
Spurrier talked with them, and they understand that scene can’t happen again. “We hashed it out. They know we’re not going to have any more of that,” he said.
“We don’t have to worry about any kind of divisions, SEC championships. We’re worried about going to a bowl game right now, that’s what we need to worry about, winning seven games, eight games, if we can. We need to try to beat Vandy this week.”
RUSH WEEK
Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen expects LaDarius Perkins, who rushed for 1,024 yards last season, to return Saturday to play at Auburn. But he likes what he sees from the Auburn backfield: Corey Grant, Tre Mason and Cameron Artis-Payne have all run for at least 150 yards through two games.
“They’ve got a lot of playmakers,” Mullen said. “They’ve got three big-time running backs that all can make big plays in the open field.”
Auburn coach Gus Malzahn, when queried about which of the three is the starter: “We have three running backs that are all starters in their mind.”
RIVAL REDUX
Missouri coach Gary Pinkel said he would like to resume playing rival Kansas, with the games held early in the season at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City. The rivalry ended after Missouri moved from the Big 12 to the SEC. Missouri officials have generally favored resuming the rivalry in football and basketball, while Kansas officials have shown little interest. “For the life of me, I don’t know why would you not do it,” Pinkel said. “How long are we going to be mad at each other? … Let’s move on and get the rivalry back for our fans.”
WINGING IT
Mississippi coach Hugh Freeze did much of his homework on Texas before the season even began. Now it appears that Ole Miss will have to wing it against Texas. The Longhorns (1-1), on the other hand, are sorting through the aftermath of a disastrous loss to BYU that resulted in coach Mack Brown firing defensive coordinator Manny Diaz and replacing him with Greg Robinson.
BY THE NUMBERS
675 Yards of offense by Kentucky on Saturday, the third-highest in school history and the most since 1998 when Hal Mumme was head coach, Mike Leach was offensive coordinator and current coordinator Neal Brown was a freshman wide receiver.
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