No. 18 S.Carolina beats Kentucky 54-3

(AP)—Football finally got fun again for South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier. Connor Shaw had a good day, too. Spurrier opened up his offense Saturday with direct snaps to the running backs, passes to the tight end and even an option run as the No. 18 Gamecocks (5-1, 3-1 Southeastern Conference) beat Kentucky 51-3, their biggest margin of victory in an SEC game since joining the league in 1992.

“Gosh, we had over 600 yards,” said Spurrier, whose team finished with 639 yards, the most since he took over the Gamecocks in 2005.

Spurrier’s biggest change paid off the most. He gave Shaw the start over fifth-year senior Stephen Garcia and the sophomore threw four touchdowns, going 26-of-39 for 311 yards.

“I didn’t know if we could move it like this or not. But I knew we had to try,” Spurrier said.

Spurrier concentrated so hard on his offense that he spoke after the game for 30 seconds about the decision to keep defensive lineman Melvin Ingram off the field because of an injured foot before someone broke in and told him Ingram played several downs, making a solo tackle.

“He did?! I thought his uniform was clean,” Spurrier said, smiling and laughing.

The Wildcats (2-4, 0-3) gained just 96 yards, and their quarterbacks threw four interceptions and just four completions.

“Ugly is how you can describe it,” Kentucky coach Joker Phillips said. “It was ugly, especially offensively.”

Shaw’s four touchdown passes were as many as Garcia has thrown all season and the most in a game for any South Carolina quarterback in almost five years. Jeffery caught five passes for 82 yards and two touchdowns, doubling his season total for TDs. Lattimore ran 22 times for 102 yards. South Carolina’s defense held an opponent under 100 yards for the second time this year, forcing six Kentucky turnovers and holding the Wildcats to just six first downs.

Shaw got a loud cheer in the fourth quarter when he came out and Andrew Clifford came in for mop-up duty. Clifford got in the action too, throwing a 7-yard touchdown pass to D.L. Moore that put the Gamecocks ahead 47-3.

Then, Spurrier put in fourth string quarterback Dylan Thompson with less than four minutes to go in the game and ran a 10-play drive that had three passes, ending with an 8-yard touchdown scramble by Thompson with nine seconds left, after he couldn’t find an open receiver.

“We could have picked up 70 or 80 points today,” Spurrier said smiling. “But 50 was enough.”