Bodog Week 11 College Football Preview

When Steve Spurrier and the South Carolina Gamecocks face the No. 6 Gators in Gainesville, Fla., the Ol’ Ball Coach will get a glimpse of the way things used to be.

With a 12-year coaching tenure at Florida that brought six SEC titles and one national championship, Spurrier commanded the Gators to a 122-27-1 record, the most wins of any coach in the program's history.

Unfortunately for South Carolina, his current run with the Gamecocks hasn’t been as successful.

"We don’t have the greatest of players," Spurrier said to TheState.com on Saturday. “We know that. I told the guys, 'If you’re a young guy and you’re playing a lot, you better get better because we’re going to try to bring guys in here to beat you out.'"

"It’s as simple as that because the way we’re playing right now is not good enough."

Spurrier is looking at back-to-back seasons with fewer than 10 wins for the first time since going 8-4 with Duke in 1989 and 9-2 a year later in his first season at Florida. The Gamecocks' offense has been steady - the team is averaging 22.6 points to go along with 352.9 total yards – but the lacklustre Gamecock defense has routinely kept opponents in games. They’ve given up 22.2 points per game in their last five and the run defense has been getting manhandled, allowing 151.7 yards along with nine touchdowns.

"To win against good competition, you just can’t have those kinds of things that we keep doing," Spurrier said. "That’s why we’re losers around here. We don’t do it quite right. We don’t do the little things right. That’s why we’re losers."

Meanwhile, Spurrier’s alma mater has made a leap back into national title contention. Under coach Urban Meyer, the Gators have posted a 6-1 conference record and have already clinched a spot in the SEC championship game on Dec. 2.

Meyer has revitalized the Gator offense. Florida is averaging 26.3 points and 378.7 total yards, and has scored two big wins over SEC rivals Tennessee (21-20) and LSU (23-10).

"Their offense at times looks really good and at times they have scored enough to win every game but one," Spurrier said in his Tuesday press conference. "They may clobber us, I don't know. The other teams haven't. We played Auburn, Tennessee, Arkansas very close."

When Spurrier re-enters "The Swamp", the Gator fans will likely be honoring their school's winningest coach. But don’t expect Spurrier and his squad to get caught up in "Spurrier Appreciation Night" - they plan to win.

He even caught his old team sleeping last year. South Carolina stunned Florida 30-22 despite coming into the contest as a 4.5-point underdog.

"It was a nice win for us and it got us our seventh win [last year]," Spurrier said. "We beat a team we hadn't beaten in a long, long time. We have another shot to pull an upset, it won't be easy but we look forward to the challenge, see what happens."

Quick Hits

Coming off a huge win over Tennessee, the pressure is still on No. 12 LSU to go undefeated in November. The Tigers have only three games remaining on their schedule and they sit behind both Arkansas and Auburn in the SEC West.

"It's good to get that win, and we're enjoying it. But as far as pressure, it's the same week in and week out," senior defensive end Chase Pittman said to the Associated Press. "We got to get it done."

With the Crimson Tide posting an away record of 3-0 against the spread the Tigers need to stay focused in order to keep their conference championship hopes alive.

When the No. 7 USC Trojans were punched in the gut by Oregon State in Week 7, NCAA football experts figured it was the nail in the national title coffin. But with a slew of one-loss teams filling out the BCS top-10, the title game is far from decided.

"People thought after that loss to Oregon State, we'd just tumble and fall," linebacker Rey Maualuga said.

The road will be far from smooth, however, starting with Oregon this weekend. The Ducks' offense has been averaging 36.3 points per game.

PHOTO: Coach Steve Spurrier is leading the Gamecocks against his old team, the Florida Gators, this weekend. (AP Photo)

Note: All NCAA football lines subject to change.

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