Spurrier glad Gamecocks came away with a win

There was a day when Steve Spurrier owned Vanderbilt.

Until 2007, he was 14-0 against a Commodore team known for being the doormat of the SEC for decades.

However, after ending a two-game losing streak to Vandy in a 14-10 win last Saturday, the South Carolina coach was just glad to see his team improve to 6-2 overall and 3-2 in the SEC.

“I didn’t know there would be a day that I’d say we were glad to be able to finally beat Vanderbilt, but that’s exactly where we are,” he said Sunday. “We were fortunate to win the game. I know that.”

Spurrier’s Gamecocks, who moved up to No. 21 in the poll and No. 22 in the BCS standings this week, rank 11th in the league in points per game with 23 and have struggled putting teams away early.

“We had a lot of ugly plays,” Spurrier said. “We had some bad play calls, we had some bad blocking, we had some poor execution and we had some bad plays.”

Spurrier wouldn’t elaborate on the “bad play calls,” saying the entire team needs to improve.

“It’s a combination of all of us,” he said. “We’re all trying to get better, coaches and players. When we’re all ugly, we’re all ugly. When we all look pretty good, we all look pretty good. It’s a team sport.”

The Gamecocks racked up 431 total yards and 312 through the air but never ran a single play in the red zone.

Spurrier said his defense being able to keep the Vandy offense out of the end zone and his side of the ball not committing a turnover were big keys to the win. However, he was disappointed in the fact that the special teams gave up its second kick return for a touchdown this season when Vandy’s Warren Norman went 99 yards for a score in the second quarter.

“We’ve got to shore up our kick coverage,” Spurrier said. “That was pretty ridiculous. We let the guy run about 100 yards right through us. We’ll work on that and see if we can improve.”

Winning despite mental mistakes might not be enough this week as the Gamecocks prepare to visit Tennessee on Saturday at 7:45 p.m. on ESPN. The Vols (3-4, 1-3) are coming off a near upset of then-No. 1 Alabama in which a last-second field goal that was blocked gave UT a 12-10 loss in Tuscaloosa.

The Vols have the league’s third-best total defense, something USC quarterback Stephen Garcia said he was quite aware of.

“Overall I thought it was a pretty decent game (against Vandy), but we’ve got to play much better to beat Tennessee,” Garcia said. “We’ve got to get better, got to get a lot better, against Tennessee.”

NOTED

Spurrier said defensive end Cliff Matthews went down with a stinger against Vanderbilt and will probably be held out of contact drills this week at practice, but he is expected to play at Tennessee. Also, receiver Moe Brown, who missed the Vandy game because of a concussion he suffered against Alabama, will be evaluated and a decision on his status will be made Tuesday or Wednesday.