Bowl loss still irks Spurrier

Steve Spurrier still isn’t over the Papajohns.com Bowl.

If you thought six months would be sufficient for Spurrier to get over his team’s lackluster 20-7 loss to UConn in Birmingham, think again.

“Sometimes I’m asked, ticket sales are not quite where we hoped they would be. Well, I say, ‘Our fans remember the UConn game. And I remember the UConn game. And we weren’t very good,’” Spurrier said Wednesday after his annual media golf outing.

“And don’t tell us to forget it because we’re not going to forget it. We’re going to try our best to never ever have a performance like that again.”

Spurrier isn’t echoing any of the preseason talk about South Carolina being factors in the East this year. He wants the Gamecocks to prove they can contend before he starts crowing about them.

“We’re a different team. We have different leaders, different players. It’s going to be a new team,” he said. “We think our guys will really compete. But until we do it, we’re all just in the process of trying to earn respect – not only of our fans, but fans all over the country. We need to go out and earn it.”

A couple of news items:

–Assistant head coach for defense Ellis Johnson said an NCAA official was on campus several months ago to interview sophomore defensive backs Stephon Gilmore and DeVonte Holloman about their recruitment by USC.

Johnson said the interviews were unrelated to the NCAA’s ongoing probe of agent activity that involves Gamecocks tight end Weslye Saunders.

Johnson recruited Gilmore and Holloman, who were teammates at South Pointe High in Rock Hill. Johnson said the players and their families told him there was nothing in their recruitment that would be of concern.

Johnson said he thought another USC player might have been interviewed, as well.

“It sounded to me like they were quizzed about all their recruiting process, and some different things that went on,” Johnson said. “It happens quite frequently.”

–Backup quarterback Zac Brindise has been granted his scholarship release and is expected to transfer to Western Carolina. Brindise visited the Football Championship Subdivision school in Cullowhee, N.C., on Wednesday, according to his brother, Noah Brindise.

Brindise, who had been passed by freshman Connor Shaw as the backup to starter Stephen Garcia, would join Reid McCollum and Aramis Hillary as the third quarterback to leave the program this offseason.

–Reserve defensive tackle Ronald Byrd also could be on his way out.

“He’s not doing everything he’s supposed to do,” defensive line coach Brad Lawing said of Byrd, a redshirt freshman from LaGrange, Ga., who has yet to take a snap at USC.

–Spurrier had no update on Saunders’ situation; tight ends coach Jeep Hunter said the staff was waiting to hear from the school’s compliance office as to whether Saunders will be able to practice when preseason drills start next week.

Early praise for Lattimore

HOOVER, Ala. – Steve Spurrier wasn’t able to say much about freshman tailback Marcus Lattimore because he’s not been allowed to watch him in the voluntary summer workouts, which are off-limits to coaches.

But someone who has attended the 7-on-7 passing drills said the Parade All-American has been as good as advertised.

“He’s a good player. If I were to go out there and see him, I’d think he’d been there for a year or two,” South Carolina fullback/tight end Patrick DiMarco said Thursday during the second day of SEC Media Days. “He’s fitting right in and doing everything everyone’s asking him to do.”

As for Lattimore’s running style, DiMarco said he looks like a combination of several of USC’s returning backs.

“He has some of the Jarvis Giles quick-twitch. He has size like Brian Maddox. He’s 215 pounds,” DiMarco said. “And he has good hands surprisingly, which we’ve been worried about in our backs the last couple of years. … So hopefully he’ll be a benefit to the team.”

…

DiMarco and USC linebacker Shaq Wilson said tight end Weslye Saunders has continued working out amidst a NCAA investigation into his role in a South Beach trip allegedly funded by an agent.

“He’s been at every single workout. He hasn’t missed a beat,” DiMarco said. “With all the stuff going on, he’s been at the workouts, practicing and making all his conditioning times and doing everything that’s asked of him. He’s in a tough situation right now. Hopefully it works out for him.”

…

DE Cliff Matthews came to Columbia as a 230-pound freshman. He enters his final season as a 270-pound senior (re-checked my notes — make that 275 pounds).

Matthews, who has gained about 15 pounds from his 2009 playing weight, said he is eating four sizable meals a day with little regard to fat grams or calories per serving.

“I eat everything,” he said. “But I exercise.”

Matthews said he wanted to get bigger to help get off the blocks of opposing offensive tackles.

SEC Media Days, Spurrier edition

HOOVER, Ala. – A few nuggets from Steve Spurrier’s first few stops at SEC Media Days (coaches are shuttled from various meeting rooms to take questions from radio/Internet reporters, TV, print, etc.):

–Spurrier confirmed that reserve offensive lineman Nick Allison has left the team to get closer to his Asheville, N.C., home. Spurrier said a hometown girlfriend might have played a party in his decision.

–He said he’s not sure how the NCAA investigation of Gamecocks TE Weslye Saunders, UNC DT Marvin Austin, et al, will play out:

“All I know is that he and some other players from around the country went to something in Miami. I don’t know if it was a party, or whatever they went to. The question is who paid for the trip for all these guys?”

Spurrier on Saunders: “I talked to him briefly and he said he did nothing wrong. So we’ll see how it plays out.”

–But Spurrier said he did not come to Hoover to get “on a big bandwagon” and rail against the practices of shady agents. Alabama’s Nick Saban had some pointed words for agents during the first day of Media Days.

–Spurrier poked a little fun at himself when asked about his choice as first-team quarterback on his preseason ballot.

“I voted for Jevan Snead. Where’s Jevan?” said Spurrier.

Spurrier, you’ll remember, created a bit of a controversy last year by voting Snead ahead of Tim Tebow on his original ballot. He later changed the ballot, and initially blamed director of football operations Jamie Speronis for the mix-up.

Spurrier said Speronis “got a raise” out of the flap – “a couple hundred bucks.”

–On using CB Stephon Gilmore more in the WildCock package: “My defensive coaches cringe when I say we’ve got to get him over and use him on offense today.”

–Spurrier said he’s heard QB Stephen Garcia has been attending all the summer conditioning workouts and passing drills, as have nearly 100 percent of the players.

“If we’re going to compliment (Garcia) on that, we’ve got to compliment all of them.”

–Like SEC commissioner Mike Slive, Spurrier also refuses to refer to Lane Kiffin by name: “The former Tennessee coach — I didn’t pay a lot of attention to.”

–About the upcoming seson: “I’m pumped up about this year. I like our team. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I like our players.”

–He reiterated that freshman OL Ronald Patrick, Trammel Williams and A.J. Cann could play this year.

–Spurrier on season-opener opponent Southern Miss: “The’re already talking about coming in and talking about beating us on national TV in front of the entire nation.”

–On APR: “I never thought I’d get a bigger bonus for our players graduating than for the bowl game. But that’s what happened this year.”

SEC Media Days, Round 1

HOOVER, Ala. – With several SEC teams ensnared in the sweeping NCAA investigation involving players and athletes, the topic quickly became the prevailing storyline at the SEC Media Days at the Wynfrey Hotel.

Expect two more days of it.

SEC commissioner Mike Slive opened Media Days by calling for a re-examination of the NCAA rules regarding agent activity. Alabama coach Nick Saban took it a step further, saying agents who cost players their eligibility should lose their license in the NFL Players Association for a year.

“That’s the only way you’re going to stop it,” Saban said, “because it’s ridiculous and it’s entrapment.”

Saban said schools also could close their doors to agents. Saban said he currently allows agents to watch the Crimson Tide’s practices to get a behind-the-scenes look at players as they go drills.

But Saban said he might have to change that practice because of rogue agents, which he said give all the other agents a bad name.

How bad? Well, Saban used a “street corner” metaphor and the world’s oldest profession in describing dirty agents.

“How are they any better than a pimp?” Saban asked. “I have no respect for someone who does that to a young person. None.”

…

Slive did not use language quite that colorful, but the commissioner drew laughs throughout the crowded ballroom while discussing the SEC’s new coaches and one of their departing ones – He Who Shall Not Be Named.

Lane Kiffin.

Slive referred to “Derek Dooley’s predecessor” returning “to his Western roots” at Southern Cal, and then said this:

“I want to welcome coach Dooley back to the SEC, and when I say welcome, I mean welcome.”

…

Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen was not as successful in his attempt at humor from the podium.

“For the next 10 seconds it’s legal to ring your cowbells,” Mullen said. “After that we’re going into a cowbell-dead zone.”

There were no cowbells clanging. And no laughter, either.

More on Saunders and NCAA probe

There is still a lot that needs to shake out on the Weslye Saunders’ investigation before we get a clearer picture of what this might mean to the South Carolina football program.

But for those posters to gogamecocks.com or bloggers elsewhere suggesting that the NCAA only wanted to talk to Saunders about his friend, Marvin Austin, who is at the center of the North Carolina investigation, that’s not accurate.

Here’s the statement released by USC athletics director Eric Hyman on Sunday:

“The NCAA has been in contact with us regarding a possible rules violation in one of our programs. We have and will continue to cooperate fully with their inquiry. We have confidence in our compliance program and will work with the NCAA to bring this matter to a resolution in a timely fashion.”

Now, obviously, Hyman did not identify the name of the athlete, or even the sport involved. But the key phrase there is: “a possible rules violation in one of our programs.”

The NCAA was doing more than collect dirt on Austin and Co. when it came to Columbia last week to interview Saunders. It wants to know what involvement Saunders had, if any, in a couple of alleged trips taken by Austin and other UNC players that might have been financed by an agent or agent(s).

We might not know for a few weeks whether Saunders broke the rules or not. If the NCAA has not ruled on this before the Gamecocks’ Sept. 2 opener against Southern Miss, I don’t see how USC could allow Saunders to play and risk forfeiting any games Saunders played in if he is ultimately ruled ineligible.

When The State asked Saunders on Sunday if he had done anything wrong, the senior tight end said: “I can’t say anything right now.”

Are there other USC players involved?

The folks I’ve talked to say no. But that might depend on what the NCAA uncovers.

And from what I keep hearing, there could be other schools involved, too.