HOOVER, Ala. – As South Carolina continues to look for that breakthrough football season, motivation for this year has been provided.
Late last month, the Gamecocks swept UCLA to win the College World Series. The national championship was the first in a major sport for the school and just the second overall (joining a 2002 women’s track title).
“Our baseball team certainly proved you can win a big championship at the University of South Carolina, so hopefully that will rub off on other sports,” football coach Steve Spurrier said Thursday at SEC media days. “We’re the next one up. Hopefully we can take a cue from those guys and have a good run as we go through the season.”
Spurrier attended South Carolina’s triumph in Omaha, while senior defensive end Cliff Matthews was among the thousands who packed Colonial Life Arena when the champions returned.
“They walked through the crowd, and it was a feeling I had never felt before,” Matthews said. “It sort of ignited things for us. We want to feel how our baseball team feels.