BALL COACH ISN’T BOASTING THIS YEAR

Before last season, South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier suggested that the time had come for his Gamecocks to make a run at the upper echelon of the Southeastern Conference.Through seven games, Spurrier looked like a genius. The ‘Cocks were 6-1, and ranked No. 6 in the polls.Five straight losses later, the “other” USC didn’t even go to a bowl game.This year, Spurrier is being a little more careful in his comments.”We’re trying to stay a little bit underneath the radar, whatever you want to call it, about not trying to talk too big and, hopefully, let our play do whatever talking needs to be said,” Spurrier said."I don’t know we’ve got a really good team, an average team or what. I don’t know yet."As we see it, the problem last year wasn’t that any preseason boasting made the Gamecocks a target; instead, it apparently was their early-season success that prompted teams they faced later in the slate to take them seriously. Maybe the explanation is that the team wasn’t in good enough condition to make it through the full 12-game grind.The team used last season’s collapse as motivation during summer workouts and practices. “We don’t want what happened to us last year to happen again,” defensive back Chris Culliver said.Spurrier and his team open on Thursday night against North Carolina State.