I'll have a said and unsaid and videos from the players up in a little while, but for now, here are my quick notes from Drinkwitz's Tuesday presser.
Shouts out the volleyball team and Dawn Sullivan.
Connor Tollison has been lost for the season "Very tough news for us as a program and as a team. Connor was Mr. consistent and as good of a center as we've had"
"Got a really tough opponent this week, a ranked South Carolina team"
"They're playing their best football and peaking at the right time."
"Gonna be a very difficult test, obviously it's one of the most difficult places to play in the SEC"
"Their quarterback LaNorris Sellers gets better every week"
"Rocket Sanders has been one of the best backs in this league for a long time."
"They have two elite defensive ends, but I think their internal players ... make it very, very tough"
"We've gone against a lot of these guys for the last three seasons"
"I talked to an NFL scout a couple of weeks ago and he said South Carolina has as many defensive NFL prospects as any SEC team"
"We've got our hands full and we know it's going to be a challenge"
"We have a lot of confidence in Drew, whoever gives us the best opportunity to win is going to play"
"We won't know anything about Brady until later in the week, but we'll prepare for Drew to start"
"For him to be able to see, develop and push up in the pocket was a big difference"
"As he settled into the game, he was able to make some throws with more time"
"There's not really been anybody that's been able to keep (the pocket) clean" against SC
"It's going to be about us finding the ability to run the football better than last week"
"That's a growing trend in college football, it's a little easier to get your offense going with a mobile quarterback, it doesn't require as much timing with your receivers"
"South Carolina has some really elite wide receivers ,,, that really is a tough matchup problem"
"In the pass game, (Sellers) is really hard to get down because he's about 240 pounds. Arm tackles aren't going to do it."
"The thing about Drake (Heismeyer) is ... he has played quite a bit of football, just not in the role we're asking him to play now."
"We have a lot of confidence in him. He had to do this a couple of times during fall camp and I think he did a great job Saturday. He doesn't have to replace Connor, he just has to be the best he can be."
"There's a chemistry part of offense that is going to be disrupted when the center and quarterback are new"
"It wasn't good (special teams) ... we call special teams a team responsibility and we think we let ourselves down. It was poor play, we were in safe punt and gave up a fake punt. That's disappointing, we knew they were going to fake punt and didn't get it done. ... For offense and defense to play so well and for team responsibility to not get it done was dissapointing."
In one score games "They've all been uniquely different, they've all had their own flavor to it"
"Coach Luper has done a really good job. We're in a spot where we want to play Kewan (Lacy) but we find ourselves in every moment being a big moment and we can't risk a big mistake. We will hopefully get some more time for Kewan in these last few games."
"We're five weeks into the SEC and we're going to be defined by how we play the last three games in the trenches"
Nick Deloach "He keeps developing. ... We have confidence to put him in the game"
Shouts out the volleyball team and Dawn Sullivan.
Connor Tollison has been lost for the season "Very tough news for us as a program and as a team. Connor was Mr. consistent and as good of a center as we've had"
"Got a really tough opponent this week, a ranked South Carolina team"
"They're playing their best football and peaking at the right time."
"Gonna be a very difficult test, obviously it's one of the most difficult places to play in the SEC"
"Their quarterback LaNorris Sellers gets better every week"
"Rocket Sanders has been one of the best backs in this league for a long time."
"They have two elite defensive ends, but I think their internal players ... make it very, very tough"
"We've gone against a lot of these guys for the last three seasons"
"I talked to an NFL scout a couple of weeks ago and he said South Carolina has as many defensive NFL prospects as any SEC team"
"We've got our hands full and we know it's going to be a challenge"
"We have a lot of confidence in Drew, whoever gives us the best opportunity to win is going to play"
"We won't know anything about Brady until later in the week, but we'll prepare for Drew to start"
"For him to be able to see, develop and push up in the pocket was a big difference"
"As he settled into the game, he was able to make some throws with more time"
"There's not really been anybody that's been able to keep (the pocket) clean" against SC
"It's going to be about us finding the ability to run the football better than last week"
"That's a growing trend in college football, it's a little easier to get your offense going with a mobile quarterback, it doesn't require as much timing with your receivers"
"South Carolina has some really elite wide receivers ,,, that really is a tough matchup problem"
"In the pass game, (Sellers) is really hard to get down because he's about 240 pounds. Arm tackles aren't going to do it."
"The thing about Drake (Heismeyer) is ... he has played quite a bit of football, just not in the role we're asking him to play now."
"We have a lot of confidence in him. He had to do this a couple of times during fall camp and I think he did a great job Saturday. He doesn't have to replace Connor, he just has to be the best he can be."
"There's a chemistry part of offense that is going to be disrupted when the center and quarterback are new"
"It wasn't good (special teams) ... we call special teams a team responsibility and we think we let ourselves down. It was poor play, we were in safe punt and gave up a fake punt. That's disappointing, we knew they were going to fake punt and didn't get it done. ... For offense and defense to play so well and for team responsibility to not get it done was dissapointing."
In one score games "They've all been uniquely different, they've all had their own flavor to it"
"Coach Luper has done a really good job. We're in a spot where we want to play Kewan (Lacy) but we find ourselves in every moment being a big moment and we can't risk a big mistake. We will hopefully get some more time for Kewan in these last few games."
"We're five weeks into the SEC and we're going to be defined by how we play the last three games in the trenches"
Nick Deloach "He keeps developing. ... We have confidence to put him in the game"
