South Carolina true freshman QB Lorenzo Nunez rushed for 123 yards on 18 carries in his first collegiate start Saturday against UCF.
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UCF was dead last of 127 FBS programs in offense coming in and did nothing to change that in the game’s first 20 minutes with just 32 yards in its first four drives. So far in this season UCF Knights has 21.3 scored compared to South Carolina Gamecocks’s 29.5. “You play a good first half and get things you have to get done”.
UCF coach George O’Leary can’t worry about the players he had, just about improving the ones he’s got now. Nunez, however, was replaced in the second quarter by Perry Orth for one drive, but Orth was unable to complete a pass and the Gamecocks went three-and-out.
“I think I did a pretty (good) job”, Nunez said. The Gamecocks and 70-year-old Steve Spurrier went 11-2 for three straight seasons from 2011-13, yet are 8-8 since. “I thought we did some better things this week compared to last week”.
He was supposed to look for Cooper in the corner. It may not have been much on paper, but the Gamecocks are looking for a catalyst offensively and they believe Nunez could be it. Same story in the next UCF drive: another Holloman pick, this time returned to the Gamecocks’ 46, opened the door for the quarter’s third touchdown: a nice 35-yard Nunez to Cooper strike to make it 28-14 with the missed two-point conversion. “I did better in the second half”.
Nunez is the first true freshman to start at South Carolina since Mikal Goodman in 1999. But his edge block to help spring Pharoh Cooper for a 29-yard touchdown on a broken play was mighty impressive for a guy playing a position more in tune with making glamour plays and not executing grunt work. It’s a bit odd for a team that’s coached by the man who created Florida’s fun and gun offense in the 1990s, a point Spurrier himself conceded. A short time later, Cooper muffed a punt at the one-yard line and senior T.J. Mutcherson recovered for the Knights. “No matter what we have to overcome, we’re going to keep fighting”.
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In the second quarter, the defense contributed to the scoring after Sean Kelly was able to pin UCF at their own 1. Nunez found a wide-open August in the middle of the field to extend the lead. Right away, the Gamecocks knew they probably weren’t going to be able to run the ball very effectively – Shon Carson is not an every-down back and David Williams, for whatever reason, was not taking advantage of his opportunities.
