Coach Phillips shared his thoughts on the upcoming game against South Carolina. 3 straight wins and then 3 straight SEC losses. The next is always more important that the last and that is definitely the case this week. Joker and the Wildcats know that better than anyone. Yet they still haven’t been able to pull through for their first SEC win. Maybe this week. Maybe not.
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
[B]COACH PHILLIPS:[/B]
Injuries, DeQuin Evans, he aggravated a ligament in his ankle. Derrick Locke still has no feeling in his arm well, he does have feeling, not as much as needed in his arm, in his shoulder with the stinger. Those guys are doubtful. Larry Warford should be back on Wednesday. Donald Russell should be back on Wednesday. Larry is a back (injury), and Donald Russell is a sprained knee.
[B]Derrick Locke being doubtful for the upcoming game isn’t motivating at all. Can the offense still move without his yeards?[/B]
Another opportunity, we keep talking about guaranteed opportunities. Those guarantees keep running out, though, so we are down to guarantee No. 7 and another big challenge for us as a football team. South Carolina is coming in here on a high after beating the No. 1 team in the country.
The quarterbacks are playing outstanding for them. He (Stephen Garcia) is completing 72 percentage of passes. They are averaging 30 points a game, running the ball.
And one of the things that people always put with Steve Spurrier is he’s always throwing the ball well. But when Steve Spurrier has won and won big, they are running the football. They are running the football averaging 160 something yards rushing. Third downs, (they are making) 55% which is unheard of.
And the reason why they are 55% is because they are running the ball efficiently on first and second down, getting themselves into third down, which is allowing them to keep the chains moving and allowing them to score points, which they scored 30 something points (per game).
[B]Will the Wildcats defense be prepared to handle that run game and the passing game that South Carolina is showing right now? If they play like they did in their win against Alabama, it could be a very long night.[/B]
Defensively, the statistics that are the most important are the ones that they are good at, okay? You talk about total yards, they are one of the last in the league. But the statistics that matter, scoring, they are only giving up 19 points a game. Sacks, they had seven last week and a total of 19. They have only given up seven touchdowns. Those are statistics that count. Only giving up 109 yards rushing. Those are the statistics that count, not the total total defense, those things. Only given up three rushing TDs. So, (they are) doing a really good job of not allowing people to run the football on them, which is demoralizing when the team can run the football.
And in the special teams area, they’re doing a good job of flipping the field with their punting unit, which is giving 38 yards net punting. So they are flipping the field and they are punting.
So (this is) another big challenge, another fast defense that you are going to face every week in this league. Got some playmakers on the perimeter at wide receiver with (Alshon) Jeffery.
They are establishing the run which is what you have to do to win big in this league.
[B]If there was ever a such thing as a must win, this is it.[/B]
