South Carolina Gamecocks vs. UCF Knights: Steve Spurrier Postgame Press Conference

On Lorenzo Nunez and whether he played up to expectations:

[He] played very well... and completed some nice passes there, two touchdown passes. Hit Dan August on that one play. I was watching Pharoh...and next thing I knew Dan was wide open....He was gonna throw it to Pharoh but he saw that nobody was covering August, so good play on his part.

Yeah when you have a quarterback that can run, he runs about as much as a halfback. That's what they tell me anyway. This is new for me, a quarterback that can run like he can. So we're trying to maximize the talents of our players.

I think he played better...than we all anticipated. We knew he could run, but gosh he hit a bunch of passes. First possession, two runs, 3^rd and 10 and he hit Pharoh on an out, hit Jerrell a couple of times. And he zinged it in there, they weren't wide open throws. So I think he threw the ball a lot better than maybe we anticipated. He's a gamer...I think we learned that.

(Note: If you're wondering why Spurrier refers to Jacob August as Dan, you can find the answer right here)

On Zack Bailey at center:

That was better than we thought also, so maybe Zack is a gamer on his snaps also. Some days in practice he'll roll a few back there, but he was very good today.

On the receivers:

Carlton Heard made a nice catch there at the end of the game also...Some of our other receivers, they've got to come around. We've got to get some plays out of these other guys as we go throughout the year.

On the special teams:

Sean Kelly, he's an excellent punter and holder. We just had one misfire on the extra point. But other than that, special teams have been good all year. Elliott, he did clank one, but he was 3 out of 4. Yeah, he's really good

On the defense:

Good defense, we played well and we should play well. And hopefully this will tell our guys we can play defense. I mean, we've got good players. TJ Holloman of course got a game ball for his two big picks. And the defense held them to that one drive I guess and played pretty well. Finally got a little pass rush there at the end. But hopefully we can gain some confidence through this second half.

On what happened at halftime:

We were in trouble at halftime, but I basically just told our guys that whoever plays best the second half is gonna win the game. And we played the best the second half, so it was a good win for us.

I don't ever say too much mean or anything...but a lot of the guys were mad. Skai Moore, some of those guys, we were mad a little bit. So that was good to see. We've got such a passive group, it was good to see guys yelling and ticked off a little bit.

On who was calling the plays:

I delegated early, and then obviously I got involved the second half more. With Lorenzo and the run game, we put G.A [Mangus] up top and let him call them down through. And I would throw one in every now and then. But we were calling so many of these runs and options, I said well you guys are a little bit more comfortable calling all those than I am. But obviously the second half I jumped in there a lot of times....So [I called], half, most, yeah sumlikat...Coach Elliott calls a lot of them too, when we're looking for a run he throws it in there, so he calls a lot also.

On how the play calls will be handled next week:

But we're probably gonna do the same format next week. If the guy up top sees something that looks better in the run game we'll go with it and then down below, I just try to make sure we get our game plan called. Try to get the ball at Pharoh, this that and the other....Sometimes you got to call a pass play and let Lorenzo take off running. Quarterback draw was pretty big there on one of those 3rd and 10s. I'm sure people are gonna be looking for it soon.

On what the win over UCF means:

At the beginning of the week we didn't realize what a big win this would be for us did we? I told our guys it was going to be a tough game. Their D-Line is one of the best we play against.

Time will tell. Missouri...will be a good test for us. We're capable, I really believe we're capable. Now UCF didn't come in here as the top offense in the country, in fact they were near the bottom I think, so we can't get too overconfident right now. We gotta go stop some good teams, so the test is still out there for us.

Hopefully a confidence-builder for a lot of young guys. We do have a bunch of freshmen...sometimes it just happens that way. But it was a good win for us and hopefully we can play better and better as the season goes.