Share
COLUMBIA Steve Spurrier won't walk out on that limb, not this year and certainly not before South Carolina shows him something on the field.
It was this time last summer when Spurrier talked up his team's chances to rise beyond the middle-of-the-Southeastern Conference status they'd established since joining the league in 1992. And for a while, Spurrier looked like his old Steve Superior “Told-ya-so” self when the Gamecocks opened 6-1 and were No. 6 in the country.
Then, South Carolina fell apart and finished with five straight losses to end their chase and miss out on a bowl game. With the Gamecocks a few days off from opening the season against N.C. State on Thursday night, Spurrier won't guarantee much of anything about his team this season.
“We're trying to stay a little bit underneath the radar, whatever you want to call it, about not trying to talk too big and, hopefully, let our play do whatever talking needs to be said,” Spurrier said Sunday.
“I don't know if we've got a really good team, an average team or what. I don't know yet,” he said.
Neither does anyone else.
ARKANSAS: Coach Bobby Petrino has to replace star running backs Darren McFadden and Felix Jones and receiver Marcus Monk, all of whom moved on to the NFL. The solution might come from the freshmen class.
“I think we'll need to get a lot (from them), I really do,” Petrino said. “I'm excited about our running backs, there's going to be some young speed.”
Though Arkansas has not released a depth chart for this season, Petrino singled out four freshmen at the team's recent media day – Joe Adams of Little Rock, De'Anthony Curtis of Camden, Dennis Johnson of Texarkana and Jarius Wright of Warren.
