Spurrier puts streak on line

COLUMBIA -- Florida’s dominance over Kentucky in the 1990s made plenty of sense to Steve Spurrier: Better Gators players meant big wins against the Wildcats.

That perfect 16-0 run continuing at South Carolina? That’s something the Gamecocks coach can’t fully figure out.

“Obviously, at Florida normally we had the better team almost every time we played them,” said Spurrier, who won all 12 games against Kentucky at Florida.

“Here, I don’t know,” he continued. “It’s pretty even. We’re pretty even with Kentucky. We’ve seemed to get the good turnovers and the good breaks in close games.”

Spurrier gets the chance for his 17th consecutive victory when No. 25 South Carolina (4-1, 1-1 Southeastern Conference) faces Kentucky (2-2, 0-2) at Williams-Brice Stadium today.

Only Penn State coach Joe Paterno has longer undefeated stretches against one team – 26-0 all time against Temple, 24-0-1 against Maryland – according to South Carolina’s sports information department.

“Nah, we don’t talk about that at all,” Spurrier said of his streak. “Every game stands on its own that year, I’ve firmly always believed that.”

Kentucky was among Spur­rier’s favorite stops during his successful run as Gators coach from 1990-2001. In 1994, Florida won 73-7, then two years later defeated the Wildcats 65-0 on the way to the 1996 national championship.

Spurrier seemed to pick up where he left off in 2005, the Gamecocks defeating Kentucky 44-16 in his debut season. The margins, though, have tightened since then with South Carolina winning two of the past three games by a touchdown.

Kentucky coach Rich Brooks has watched his teams bungle chances to succeed against South Carolina.

Last year in Lexington, South Carolina used a blocked field-goal return TD from Captain Munnerlyn and a late scoring pass from Stephen Garcia to keep the streak alive, 24-17.

Kentucky’s protection on the field goal last year was “like parting the Red Sea,” Brooks said. “And there goes a 10-point swing in the game, and it ended up a seven-point game. Those are the things you can’t do if you want to win a lot of SEC games.”