Last season was a year of firsts for South Carolina football team.
A 35-21 win against No. 1-ranked Alabama marked the first time the Gamecocks beat a top-ranked team in school history.
South Carolina made even more history, recording their first ever win in The Swamp with a 36-14 defeat of Florida en route to the first SEC East title in school history.
South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier is looking for a repeat performance as he enters his 7th year in Columbia, and said he feels this year’s squad may be better than last year’s title winning team.
“We made progress last year. The fun part is achieving some things that have never happened before,” Spurrier said. “We feel like we’ve probably assembled maybe the best group of players we’ve had in the seven years I’ve been here.”
A major cause for confidence is the return of three key cogs in South Carolina’s offense – senior quarterback Stephen Garcia, junior wide receiver Alshon Jeffery and sophomore running back Marcus Lattimore.
Despite Garcia facing several off-the-field incidents and being suspended from the team indefinitely, Spurrier was confident his signal-caller would be back to run the offense in the fall.
“Stephen has done well,” Spurrier said. “He has some guidelines he has to follow to be reinstated in August but he has done everything we have asked him and certainly behaved very well. He, in all likelihood, is set to return.”
But Garcia’s spot isn’t completely safe.
Spurrier made it clear that Garcia and sophomore quarterback Connor Shaw would battle it out this fall for the starting job.
While the job isn’t guaranteed, Jeffery still voiced his support for Garcia, who tossed for 3,059 yards and 20 touchdowns last year, adding 222 yards and six more scores with his feet.
“Stephen is our quarterback so he’s the leader of our team,” said Jeffery, who raked in 1,517 yards and 9 touchdowns last season. “He’s going to do the job. He manages the game. He really knows how to play the game.”
Despite question marks surrounding the quarterback situation, there’s no question as to his supporting staff.
With the return Lattimore, a First-Team All-SEC pick, and Jeffery, a First-Team All-SEC and First-Team All-America selection, nothing but lofty goals have been set for this season.
“I want to get more yards than I had last year and get more touchdowns than I had last year and I want to win the Heisman,” Lattimore said. “It’s something I dream about. To bring another one to the University of South Carolina would be amazing.”
And while South Carolina were making positive strides on the field, Florida seemed to be moving in the wrong direction.
After a 13-1 campaign two years ago, the Gators could only manage 8 wins last season, the lowest total since 2004.
But 2010 marks a new era in the storied history of Florida, as former Texas defensive coordinator and head coach in-waiting Will Muschamp takes the reins from Urban Meyer, who resigned from the positions at the end of last season.
“It’s great to be back in the Southeastern Conference and at the University of Florida,” said Muschamp, who previously coached under Nick Saban at LSU and Tommy Tuberville at Auburn. “It’s an exciting time and I’m really pleased with the progress of our football team.”
The Gators may have made the biggest splash this off-season with the announcement of their new head coach, as well as a new offensive coordinator in former Notre Dame coach Charlie Weiss.
“I’m very pleased with where we are right now with Charlie,” Muschamp said. “His development of quarterbacks speaks for itself, his development of offenses speaks for itself, along with his expertise at play-calling.”
Florida struggled offensively last season, working with a two-quarterback system – rising senior quarterback John Brantley doing most of the passing duties and rising-sophomore Trey Burton scrambling.
Brantley struggled, passing for only 9 touchdowns and 10 interceptions and Burton has made the switch to full time running back.
With the addition of Weiss comes the subtraction of the standard Florida spread offense of last year.
“It definitely suits us a little bit better, especially myself,” Brantley said. “It definitely helps me out a lot because I’m not a runner. I like to hand the ball off to a fast guy or throw it to a fast guy.”
One speedster Brantley is looking forward to having back is senior running back Jeff Demps, who is currently running with U.S. National Track team in Italy.
With guys like Demps currently not with the team, Muschamp expressed his worries regarding the depth of the squad.
“We have some deficiencies as far as our numbers are concerned and I am concerned about that, but that’s part of it,” the first-year coach said. “But based on our conversations, [Demps] will be back with us.”