THE SCOOP
South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier and injured All-American defensive end Jadeveon Clowney have made up.
Spurrier said Clowney (strained rib-cage muscle) is working hard to be able to play against Arkansas on Saturday.
“Let me say this about Jadeveon, if he never plays another snap, we all should be thankful and appreciative that he came to South Carolina,” Spurrier said. “We’ve won 26 games, two 11-2 years, the greatest seasons we’ve had in 120 years. So none of us need to be upset at Jadeveon. None of us.”
Spurrier also said this: “I’m all for Jadeveon and his future. When he is ready to play, we’re going to put him out there. He has been coming to treatment, I think, twice a day and told me he is doing everything he can to try to get ready to play.”
INJURY UPDATE
No. 9 Texas A&M, already struggling on defense, will play at Ole Miss on Saturday night without senior defensive tackle Kirby Ennis, who is out for the season with a torn ACL in his left knee. Ennis, who was being counted on heavily, but was suspended for the opener, had six tackles in the four games he appeared. He had 23 tackles last season.
51-50?
When the No. 17 Gators play at No. 10 LSU on Saturday, coach Will Muschamp said as long as Florida emerges victorious, he won’t care about anything but one statistic.
“As long as we win, I don’t care,” he said. “Honestly. I got real caught up in all that stuff when I was a coordinator. When I’m a head coach, I want to win. If it takes 51-50, let’s go. … We’d watch the film on Sunday and figure out what we need to do to get better, but I can tell you right now, I used to grab those stat sheets when I was a coordinator. Not anymore. There’s one stat that matters and that’s winning.”
Florida players aren’t sure they believe it. “I mean, he’ll be happy if we won,” sophomore defensive tackle Dante Fowler said. “(But) you wouldn’t want to walk in on Sunday after giving up 50. I don’t know how he would physically handle it. I honestly don’t know what would happen.”
SURPRISE
You might be tempted to write off the fast start by Missouri as a soft-schedule mirage for a team that went 5-7 last season, its first season in the SEC. Although the Tigers have no marquee victories, they’ve played four decent teams (Toledo, Indiana, Arkansas State, Vanderbilt), two on the road, and won by a margin of 175-95.
They also have the best running game in the SEC, with three backs (Russell Hansbrough, Henry Josey and Marcus Murphy) and quarterback James Franklin all having more than 250 yards rushing each. An offensive line torn apart by injuries last season is healthy and leading the way. And the defense has playmakers in cornerback E.J. Gaines and defensive end Michael Sam. If Missouri really is a contender in the SEC East, we’ll know in three weeks. The Tigers’ next three games are at Georgia, home for Florida and home for South Carolina.
BY THE NUMBERS
21 Victories by Connor Shaw (Flowery Branch High) as South Carolina quarterback, three behind Gamecocks career leader Todd Ellis.
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