South Carolina Coach & Player Quotes Dec 28

Head Coach Steve Spurrier Opening statement at the DeBartolo Team Luncheon: “We’re thrilled to be here. We’ve had a good year. We had a year where we didn’t dominate a bunch of teams. We had some bumps in the road at LSU and at Florida, but other than that our guys would make the play to win the game. As you know, most games come down to the third or fourth quarter or something like that. It seemed like D.J. Swearinger would make an interception or Clowney would make a sack, Akeem Auguste would pick up a fumble. Offensively Ace (Sanders) or Bruce (Ellington) would hit a big pass, or our quarterbacks Dylan (Thompson) and Connor (Shaw) would do something good, and our kicker Adam Yates made all those kicks coming down the stretch. We’re really proud of the way our team has played, especially the second half, so that enabled us to win 10 games.”

Free Safety D.J. Swearinger On the South Carolina defense and changing schemes for a particular match-up: “Our defense is set in stone. We’re going to play our defense; we believe and trust in our defense. We believe our defense can shut down any team in the country.”

On the goal of an SEC championship and refocusing after losses to LSU and Florida: “It was very difficult. Setting those goals early in the season, we put a lot into it. Falling short, it was tough. As seniors, you’ve got to bounce back from adversity. We bounced back after the Florida game and got things going.”

On overcoming a lot of obstacles to finish with 10 wins: “Losing those games back-to-back and losing Marcus (Lattimore) was tough. But as a group of seniors, the leaders that we’ve got, all 27 seniors, we stuck together and got everything going. It’s been a great season for us.”

Linebacker Shaq Wilson On the Michigan offense: “They’ve going to try to run the ball a lot like LSU does. In the SEC a lot of teams try to get the game started with a good running game. Michigan has good play action and they throw the ball deep, so they’ve got a really balanced offense. They do everything really well. So we’ve got to limit what they do best and do what we do best, and that’s play hard.”

On the Outback Bowl being his last game at South Carolina: “It hasn’t hit me, but my main thing is taking it one day at a time, focus on the positives, and just have fun and enjoy it. My teammates would definitely say that I’m always trying to put a smile on everybody’s faces and have fun. I’m just trying to go out in the last game with a bang.”

Receiver Ace Sanders On the Michigan defense: “They play their assignments. They try not to get beat and keep everything in front of them. They make secure tackles after the catch. When you take away runs after the catch that will help you rank high on defense. They just play their roles.”

On the similarities between Michigan’s defense and an SEC defense: “I think they compare to a lot of teams. They fly around just like everybody in the SEC does. That’s really just basically like an SEC team; big and fast, fly around and play football. That’s exactly what Michigan does.”

Tight End Justice Cunningham On practicing against South Carolina defensive end Jadeveon Clowney: “He’s the hardest player I’ve had to block in my life. He’s a very athletic dude, so I’ve got to be smart about it sometimes. I’ve got to do things to slow him down and make him think.”

On his increased role in the South Carolina offense: “I just feel like the coaches just year by year gave me new opportunities to prove myself, and as they gave me those opportunities I had to do the best with them.”