Matching wits again: Spurrier vs Muschamp

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Matching wits again

Monday, September 25, 2006

By PHILLIP MARSHALL

Times Sports Staff pmarsh9485@msn.com

Muschamp still looking for first win over Spurrier

AUBURN - First-year Auburn defensive coordinator Will Muschamp has seen plenty of South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier's offense.

Muschamp saw it up close as a Georgia defensive back playing against Spurrier's Florida teams from 1991-94. He saw it as LSU's defensive coordinator coaching against Florida in 2001. And the results were always the same.

Spurrier won.

"It hasn't been good," Muschamp said with a chuckle Sunday.

On Thursday night, at Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia, Muschamp will get another shot at Spurrier's offense.

It's different now. No. 2 Auburn (4-0 and 2-0 in the Southeastern Conference) goes into the game as a two-touchdown favorite over South Carolina (3-1, 1-1).

But Spurrier will still be on the other side and he still has Muschamp's attention.

"I have great respect for him and what he has accomplished as a football coach and as an offensive coach," Muschamp said. "He does an outstanding job of teaching the quarterback. I see him implementing his system at South Carolina right now. That's always a work in progress, but they are a team that can light up the scoreboard. I've been there before."

Lighting up scoreboards has not come easy for Spurrier's second South Carolina team. The Gamecocks huffed and puffed to a 15-0 win at Mississippi State in their opener. They were beaten 18-0 at home by Georgia, the first shutout suffered by a Spurrier team since he was at Duke in 1987.

They barely got by Division I-AA Wofford 27-20 before blowing out overmatched Florida Atlantic 45-6 last Saturday.

Along the way, senior Syvelle Newton, moved from quarterback to wide receiver by Spurrier last season, moved back to quarterback and took the starting job from Blake Mitchell. Two true freshmen - left tackle Hutch Eckerson and right guard Garrett Anderson - became starters on the offensive line.

The Gamecocks' main offensive weapon continues to be wide receiver Sidney Rice, who has caught 21 passes for 356 yards. He caught five touchdown passes from Newton against Florida Atlantic.

Auburn's 38-7 trouncing of Buffalo last Saturday at Jordan-Hare Stadium left no Tigers leaping for joy. But by the time they went to practice late Sunday afternoon, the focus was only forward.

"Well, we won the game," Muschamp said. "We had Buffalo outmatched and that was about it. They did some good things. We didn't play as well as I would have wanted to, but we've put it to bed and we're moving to South Carolina."

Poll talk: Auburn leads No. 3 Southern California by 22 points in the Associated Press poll, nine points more than last week.

USC is No. 2 and leads Auburn by 48 points in the coaches' poll. In the first Harris poll of the season, USC is No. 2 and Auburn No. 3, 22 points behind. Ohio State is No. 1 in all three polls. Only the Harris and coaches' polls count in the Bowl Championship Series standings.

Working Sunday: Sunday is usually a light work day, but with a short week ahead, the Tigers practiced for more than two hours. They will practice again tonight and on Tuesday morning before leaving for Columbia on Wednesday.

Tailback Kenny Irons, cornerback Jonathan Wilhite and linebacker Karibi Dede are expected to play after sitting out the victory over Buffalo with injuries. Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville said junior wide receiver Prechae Rodriguez, suspended for academic reasons, is "out of the doghouse" and will play Thursday.

Different Gamecocks: A year ago, Spurrier's first South Carolina team was no match for Auburn, falling 48-7 at Jordan-Hare Stadium. Under co-defensive coordinators John Thompson and Tyrone Nix, the Gamecocks' defense struggled. On top of that, redshirt freshman Antonio Heffner got his first start at quarterback because Mitchell was injured. It was ugly.

But, after that loss, Spurrier turned the defense over to Nix and the Gamecocks went on a roll, winning five straight SEC games.

Tuberville says his team will see a different team Thursday.

"They have gotten better defensively," Tuberville said. "This time last year they were in disarray. They were standing up and running around (on defense). Tyrone is a good coach. They have a plan. They are more fundamentally sound than they were last year."