Gamecocks' Spurrier has longer practice; LB Paulk out for season

The sun was beating down Saturday afternoon, practice had been over for more than a half-hour and there were several college games on TV,yet Steve Spurrier was on the practice field throwing pass after pass to the South Carolina receivers.
Fixing the Gamecocks' offense following an opening 7-3 victory at N.C. State will be a hands-on project for the 64-year-old coach.
“I'm going to start coaching my butt off until we can throw the ball around. We've all been coaching, but we're going to put in overtime,” Spurrier said. “We were pretty sad the other night. It was nobody's fault but mine, so I'm going to just coach my tail off and see if we can't get some offense around here.”
USC had 256 yards of offense against the Wolfpack, and its revamped rushing attack managed 108 yards and an average of 2.6 yards per carry. Two first-and-goal situations from the 10-yard line produced minus-9 yards and no points.
Spurrier mentioned several negative-yardage plays on first down — a pass interference call on former Rock Hill High star Tori Gurley and a Jarvis Giles run that lost 9 yards — and lamented the lack of audibles.Spurrier said USC stuck with its plan to emphasize the run but should have thrown more around the goal line. That is what Spurrier was working overtime on Saturday.
Also as expected, an MRI on middle linebacker Rodney Paulk's right knee revealed a torn ACL that will require season-ending surgery. Paulk was leading USC with six tackles when he was injured in the second quarter.
“My body went one way, my knee went the other,” said Paulk, adding the injury was unrelated to the knee problem that forced him to take a redshirt season in 2008.