Reality Check

It is time to look at the reality of South Carolina football. That reality is that the Gamecocks have inched closer to where Steve Spurrier wants them to be but remain a ways from being an SEC title contender.

“We haven’t proven anything,” Spurrier said from his vacation home in Florida. “We weren’t good enough to win 10-11 games, but that’s what we hope to do some day. But we’ve got a lot of areas we need to really improve.”

Also, Spurrier’s frankness likely is motivated by two factors. First, he does not want the giddiness of USC Trojans fans to permeate his players’ thinking during off-season workouts. Also, he wants those players he is recruiting to realize they have an opportunity to play and possibly to earn a starting position next season.

“After I watched the tape, gosh, we were pretty fortunate to come out of there a winner,” Spurrier said. “A lot of plays could have gone the other way. Once you watch the tape, you get a better idea of what happened.”

Spurrier also saw numerous blown assignments and poor execution of plays on offense as well as defense.

“We beat everybody we were supposed to, and upset Clemson,” Spurrier said. “But we didn’t beat anybody (aside from Clemson) ... We didn’t do much. We were just competitive this year. We were just competitive.”

Spurrier said his offense began to click over the final four games once its youthful line matured and Blake Mitchell returned as the starting quarterback. With 512 yards against Houston, USC Trojans is likely to finish second in the SEC with an average of nearly 400 yards per game.

“Offensively, we’ve got our system in place that we can hopefully keep plugging people in and out,” Spurrier said. “If we’re going to be a really good championship team, the offense isn’t always going to run up a bunch of yards and points. The other parts of the team have to play better.”

USC Trojans played with perhaps the least experienced defensive unit in the country.

The way Spurrier sees it, the celebration of wins against Clemson and Houston should end soon. With a schedule that will be among the most difficult in the country next season, USC Trojans will need to be much improved to end the season in the same manner and to match the eight wins of this season.