Rich Rodriguez previews South Carolina matchup

Jacksonville State head coach Rich Rodriguez takes his team on the road to Columbia to face South Carolina on Saturday.

Rodriguez held his weekly press conference this week.

Below is an edited transcript focusing on Rodriguez’s comments about the Gamecocks’ program and the game this weekend.

[$1 for unlimited access to GamecockCentral’s content and community]

On South Carolina’s record…

Their record is not great, but are they kind of alive? Yeah, I mean, it’s the most talented team we’ve played since I’ve been here, and I don’t think it’s even close on both sides of the ball. And they’ve lost, I mean, they’re up 14-3 on the defending national champions. Georgia, everybody knows how good they are. They lost a close one to Florida. They lost a couple other close ones. So, I mean, they’re better than their record. But, I mean, our guys know the challenge.

[On3 App: Get South Carolina push notifications from GamecockCentral]

On Spencer Rattler…

The thing with Spencer is he seems like he’s been there forever. I mean, he’s a talented guy, but he’s also been in their system for several years now. And I think he’s playing really good football. I mean, he’s a competitive guy, and he’d be fun to watch if you weren’t playing him. But I think he’s an NFL guy.

The biggest thing for us defensively, probably, is to try to get him into some predictable situations third and long. And, you know, our defense, we’re not very big, but we’re pretty athletic. And so when we get him into some third and long stuff, our athleticism can help out a little bit there. But that’s, you know, easier said than done. But Spencer is… I’ve kind of followed him on his career. I mean, he’d come from Arizona, which I knew where high school he went to, kind of followed him his whole career. And he’s had a great career, really has.

On the Gamecocks’ injuries…

I know South Carolina’s gone through that. They’re probably healthier this week than they’ve been in the last couple weeks with some of their injuries. But, you know, that’s going to be part of the game.

Connection to Frank and Shane Beamer…

Yeah, I’ve known Frank first because we competed against each other when he was at Virginia Tech, and I was at West Virginia. And then we were on various, you know, trips together, Nike trips and stuff like that.

So, I’ve known Shane. And then we had a place in Georgia, they did, too. Shane and I played golf together. Just think the world of him as a person, as a coach, who he is, what his family’s all about. I think he’s just phenomenal. They’ve had a couple tough games this year, but he’s done a lot of great things there.

And he’ll be a successful head coach for a long time. It’s in his DNA, you know. But it’s also who he is. I mean, he didn’t get the South Carolina job because his last name was Beamer. He got the South Carolina job because he earned it. And he earned a lot of it. He earned it the way he recruited and the way he coached there, you know, 10 or 12 years ago. He did a great job for Coach Spurrier there. So, he’s earned all his success.

[Newsletters: Get breaking news and analysis from GamecockCentral]

On South Carolina’s linemen….

No, hell, there are going to be five of them (OL), you know. So, and all five of them are going to be SEC recruited, and the five backups will be SEC recruited guys. And the five backups behind those backups will be SEC recruited guys. So, I mean, every offensive lineman on the roster would probably have been guys we would have offered. If you looked at their lineup now and their lineup two weeks ago and six weeks ago, to me, they all look the same.

So, they’re going to have the same way on defensive line. They’re going to have some guys. I think the hardest thing is not so much for us to look at them, is that do they change their offense at all based on who’s in there, whether it’s on the O-line or just skill positions. And, you know, most teams don’t. They’re going to run what they run, irregardless of the only thing that will possibly change is if you had a different quarterback, you know, and had a different skill set, you might change what you do offensively. But Spencer’s been there the whole year, so what they do is what they do.

We’re going to play an SEC team. There’s always going to be a bigger challenge when you’re playing against guys that’s going to be bigger, stronger, faster than you. It’s a challenge every week just playing college football because everybody, you know, have great players, but it’s a great challenge for us.

Discuss South Carolina football on The Insiders Forum!