'It was sad to watch'

By Joseph Person
The State
Published: September 17, 2005

In the waning moments of the third quarter, with his team trailing by more than three touchdowns, USC coach Steve Spurrier stared down at his play sheet and searched for answers to an afternoon gone wrong.

He didn't find any.

Quarterback Brodie Croyle led Alabama to scores on its first four possessions Saturday en route to a 37-14 thrashing of the Gamecocks. Nearly 83,000 fans crammed into Williams-Brice Stadium for the start of the nationally televised game; midway through the third quarter the crowd had thinned to about a third of that total.

Those who left early missed a familiar sight from Spurrier's time at Florida - a backup quarterback throwing a late touchdown to pad an already huge lead. Only this time it was the Crimson Tide piling it on.

Meanwhile, the man credited with revolutionizing SEC offenses in the 1990s felt compelled to apologize to the Gamecock faithful three games into his USC tenure.

"It was," Spurrier said, "sad to watch."

The 23-point margin of defeat was the worst home loss of Spurrier's 16-year career. In Spurrier's second year at Duke, the Blue Devils fell to Wake Forest 35-16 on Nov. 5, 1988.

Coupled with the Gamecocks' 17-15 defeat at Georgia last weekend, Spurrier dropped back-to-back SEC games for only the second time. Spurrier's Florida team lost road games to No. 4 Tennessee and No. 24 Mississippi State in succession in 1992.

"We'll take a lot of credit for stopping their offense. Spurrier is human like everybody else," Alabama free safety Roman Harper said. "He just happens to be an offensive genius that's human."

USC (1-2, 0-2 in SEC) will take a break from conference play next weekend when Troy visits Columbia. Alabama (3-0, 1-0) will face Arkansas at home after claiming its third SEC road victory in three seasons under Mike Shula.

After Croyle's 12-yard touchdown scramble put the Crimson Tide up 7-0 after its first possession, the Gamecocks responded on their opening drive with a 13-play, 75-yard touchdown march, capped by Mike Davis' 1-yard run.

But USC's offense went into shutdown mode after Davis' score. The Gamecocks' final four first-half possessions produced 11 yards, no first downs, an interception and three punts.

"I thought it was going to be a good battle today, just like last year," said USC offensive tackle Na'Shan Goddard, referring to the Gamecocks' 20-3 win in Tuscaloosa. "We were looking good at first. Things just got out of hand and went the wrong way after that."

Alabama made no major adjustments after USC's opening drive, according to the Gamecocks' players. But USC couldn't get any surge from its offensive line and had only two plays longer than 20 yards.

"I just think we couldn't hit anything," Spurrier said. "You have a lot of plays ready that you'd like to get to. Shoot, we never got to them."

Looking for a spark, Spurrier replaced starting quarterback Blake Mitchell with Antonio Heffner at the start of the second half. USC picked up a first down for the first time since its opening drive with Heffner under center. But the redshirt freshman ran his way into a 17-yard loss on fourth-and-1 from the Alabama 35-yard line.

Of the Gamecocks' 11 offensive possessions, nine consisted of six plays or fewer. That gave Spurrier ample time to watch Alabama's offense, which racked up 338 rushing yards and 489 total yards, both of which were the Tide's most under Shula.

Spurrier sounded envious of Shula's work on the opposite sideline.

"I was watching him call plays. I said, 'That's a fun way to call it,' " Spurrier said. "You go back and throw one 60 yards downfield. If you don't hit it, who cares? You're going to run for it the next play and you get to stay on the field. We're not near in that category."

Croyle, a fifth-year senior who sat out last year's loss to USC with a knee injury, passed for 115 yards and a touchdown. Tide tailback Kenneth Darby rushed for 145 yards and a touchdown in three quarters.

Most of USC's fans and Alabama's first-teamers were gone by the final quarter when Croyle's backup, John Parker Wilson, lofted a 36-yard touchdown pass to make it 37-7 with 9:51 left.

Far from being upset at Shula for throwing with a big lead, Spurrier was grateful the Tide didn't roll it on worse.

"They might could have scored some more if they wanted to," he said.

Reach Person at (803) 771-8496 or jper

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