Gamecocks revel in first SEC East title

Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Tennessee have combined for 55 Southeastern Conference football championships and 13 Associated Press national titles through the years.

This year, they combined for zero wins against SEC East champion South Carolina.

"That doesn't happen very often," Gamecocks coach Steve Spurrier said Sunday. "That's something to be as proud of as winning the Eastern Division."

South Carolina won its first East title Saturday night in convincing fashion, stunning Florida 36-14 in the Swamp behind 212 rushing yards by freshman tailback Marcus Lattimore. It is the first title of any kind for the Gamecocks since 1969, when they won their lone Atlantic Coast Conference championship.

When the Gamecocks returned to Columbia around 2 a.m. Sunday, they were greeted by roughly 3,000 fans inside Williams-Brice Stadium.

"We celebrated a little bit more than most teams winning a division, but we probably needed to celebrate a little bit," Spurrier said.

The 7-3 Gamecocks have a Dec. 4 date with Auburn, which improved to 11-0 with Saturday's 49-31 victory over Georgia. The Tigers remained No. 2 Sunday night in the Bowl Championship Series standings behind Oregon and ahead of TCU, Boise State and LSU.

Auburn is off this week before traveling to Alabama on Nov. 26 for an Iron Bowl that should contain the most combined wins -- 20 -- in that rivalry's history. The Crimson Tide are expected to notch their ninth victory with ease Thursday night, when they host a Georgia State team coached by former Alabama mentor Bill Curry.

Tigers coach Gene Chizik said Sunday that the next few days will include a focus on Alabama and Auburn.

"We're going to go back and really look at the last month of football and really try to self-examine and just see where we can be better as a football team," Chizik said. "Usually bye weeks consist of a little bit of both, whoever your upcoming opponent is, and making sure that you really go back and re-evaluate yourself. It will be a combination of both of those things, but we're certainly going to spend a lot of time on ourselves."

Chizik planned to spend part of today talking with the league office about Auburn defensive linemen Michael Goggans and Mike Blanc, who were ejected in the waning moments Saturday. Under SEC guidelines, a player who gets suspended in the fourth quarter must sit out the first half of the next game.

As far as the continuing chaos surrounding quarterback Cam Newton's recruitment, Chizik may take his "no comment" stance straight through the Iron Bowl.

"Absolutely," he said. "I'll take questions based on any question that has to do with Cameron and the game last night. Otherwise, yes, I have the same stance."

While Auburn has one major challenge before its trip to the Georgia Dome, the Gamecocks have a couple of games in between. South Carolina hosts Troy this Saturday before visiting Clemson next week.

Might the Gamecocks be looking past the Trojans?

"I hope not," Spurrier said. "One of our goals was to win eight and then nine games, and they all count the same in number of wins. We'd be fools not to go play the best we can this week and try to beat these guys."