The South Carolina football team faces the Wofford Terriers at Williams-Brice Stadium on Saturday.<\/b>
\nSouth Carolina defeated Wofford 24-7 in the team\u2019s 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.
\u201cYou never know how it may have turned out,\u201d Wofford coach Mike Ayers recalled this week about the 2012 game. \u201cWhen you do the things that beat you, a lot of times you\u2019re going to get beat. I\u2019m talking about penalties, turning the ball over and lack of execution.\u201d
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\u2019s 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\u2019t won vs. USC since 1917.
Here\u2019s what Wofford said this week leading up to the matchup:
\u201cWe took care of the ball. We made plays on defense. We had a little bit of luck. We\u2019ve got a chance to go ahead, I can remember the play, we\u2019re 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\u2019ve 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.
\u201cIf 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\u2019re going to get beat. I\u2019m talking about penalties, turning the ball over and lack of execution.\u201d
\u201cThe 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\u2019re going to do everything you can to get that done.
\u201cWe\u2019ve got some guys that are nicked up a little bit. We\u2019ll 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\u2019ve got to understand that after that game is over, there\u2019s something else down the road coming and it\u2019s going to be the playoffs. Our ultimate goal would be always to win a national championship. You\u2019ve got to have a team that\u2019s as healthy as you can possibly get.
\u201cWe\u2019re going to do our very best when we go down there. We\u2019re 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\u2019t know. But our mindset is not going to be, \u2018Just to go down there and do a bus ride and come on back.\u2019 We definitely want to go down there, give it our best shot and see what happens.\u201d
\u201cIt\u2019s really exciting, Going into the recruiting process they basically say you\u2019re not good enough to play for them. It\u2019s good to have the opportunity to show that you could.\u201d
\u201cIt\u2019s an environment we don\u2019t get to see too often. It will be fun.\u201d
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