The South Carolina football team faces the Wofford Terriers at Williams-Brice Stadium on Saturday.
South Carolina defeated Wofford 24-7 in the team’s last meeting, a 2012 game that was closer than the score indicates.
Gamecock great D. J. Swearinger forced a fumble in the third quarter with the game tied 7-7, and USC pulled away with 17 fourth-quarter points for the win.
“You never know how it may have turned out,” Wofford coach Mike Ayers recalled this week about the 2012 game. “When you do the things that beat you, a lot of times you’re going to get beat. I’m talking about penalties, turning the ball over and lack of execution.”
That game was broadcast on pay-per-view, back before the launch of the SEC Network and before digital streaming was more commonplace.
This year’s game is 4 p.m. Saturday at Williams-Brice Stadium and will be broadcast on the SEC Network Alternate channel.
Wofford (9-1) is the Southern Conference champion and enters this Saturday No. 7 in the FCS Top 25. The Gamecocks (7-3) lead the series 19-4. The Terriers haven’t won vs. USC since 1917.
Here’s what Wofford said this week leading up to the matchup:
“We took care of the ball. We made plays on defense. We had a little bit of luck. We’ve got a chance to go ahead, I can remember the play, we’re pitching the football to the left, we get them all blocked. They had an All-American safety, I think his name was Swearinger, and we’ve got a freshman that had the football on his inside arm. [Swearinger] put his head on the ball and the ball went out, and the tide of the game turned right there.
“If we secure the ball, we were moving the ball pretty well. We had a chance to at least kick a field goal, if not score a touchdown, and go ahead. You never know how it may have turned out. When you do the things that beat you, a lot of times you’re going to get beat. I’m talking about penalties, turning the ball over and lack of execution.”
“The big thing is, always understand what your goals are. Understand that they come at a different cost. You have your initial goal of winning the Southern Conference championship. You’re going to do everything you can to get that done.
“We’ve got some guys that are nicked up a little bit. We’ll probably have to hold some of them. All of that being said, our mission and our mindset is going to be to go down there and do the best we can and do everything we can do to try to win the game. As a coach you’ve got to understand that after that game is over, there’s something else down the road coming and it’s going to be the playoffs. Our ultimate goal would be always to win a national championship. You’ve got to have a team that’s as healthy as you can possibly get.
“We’re going to do our very best when we go down there. We’re going to do our best to be the best football team we can be. Is that going to be good enough to have a shot at winning? I don’t know. But our mindset is not going to be, ‘Just to go down there and do a bus ride and come on back.’ We definitely want to go down there, give it our best shot and see what happens.”
“It’s really exciting, Going into the recruiting process they basically say you’re not good enough to play for them. It’s good to have the opportunity to show that you could.”
“It’s an environment we don’t get to see too often. It will be fun.”
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