Respect and revenge can, at times, be strong motivating factors in college football. Combine the desire the serve up a little of both on the national stage that is Thursday night and you certainly have a recipe for motivation.
Enter RB Kenny Irons of Auburn. Just three years ago Irons was trying to find his way as a member of the South Carolina Gamecocks under coach Lou Holtz. However, when the ‘Cocks landed highly touted freshman RB Demetris Summers and quickly inserted him into the starting lineup, Irons chances to show his talents dwindled considerably. Looking for a school that would offer him the opportunity to shine, Irons left Columbia and landed at another SEC school, Auburn.
Although Irons has risen above calling out South Carolina, the back no doubt feels the Gamecocks didn’t respect his talents. That’s the respect part – now for the revenge.
Thursday night Irons will lead the #2 ranked Tigers into Columbia, SC and Williams-Brice Stadium, a place he used to call home. Lots has changed at SC since Irons left – Holtz is gone, having been replaced by Steve Spurrier as is Summers, who was dismissed for marijuana use.
Irons too is a much different back. He is now the SEC's leader in rushing yards per game and part of an Auburn ground attack that is second in the league with more than 184 yards rushing a game. Considering that the South Carolina defense is 11th in the league at stopping the run, Irons could end up serving one heaping spoonful of revenge.
South Carolina will look to counter with an offense that has been revamped since the start of the season…only four weeks ago. As we all probably remember – since South Carolina started this year on a Thursday night game against Mississippi State – Blake Mitchell began this season as the starting quarterback for Spurrier.
However, after a mediocre showing against the Bulldogs (W 15-0) and then getting completely shut-out by another set of Bulldogs, this time the Georgia (L 0-18) kind, the ‘ole Ball Coach made a change. For the record, it also helped to make his decision an easy one when Mitchell was suspended from the team for participating in an off-campus fight.
Now senior Syvelle Newton is taking the snaps for the Gamecocks and if the last two games are any indication, the offense has improved with 72 points in that span. Considering those wins were against Wofford (W 27-20) and Florida Atlanta (W 45-6) that offensive outburst might not really indicate much, but it’s a move in the right direction.
The Auburn Tigers will offer a whole different level of competition however. This is a squad that is currently third in the country in scoring defense after surrendering only a field goal in its first two SEC games and has not allowed a point in the fourth quarter this season. Overall, Auburn has won 18 of its last 19 SEC regular-season games, and 19 of its last 20 games against SEC opponents counting the 2004 SEC Championship game.
You can be sure that the Auburn defense and especially the secondary will be focused on SC WR Sidney Rice, who after a slow start to the season got on track in a huge way with five touchdown catches against the Owls of FAU last weekend. The task of tracking Rice could often be in the hands of David Irons, brother of Kenny. Needless to say, David would love to help his brother serve up some of that cold revenge to his former teammates in Columbia.
Matchup Factoid:
South Carolina has never beaten a team ranked No. 1 or No. 2 and lost their past 19 games to top 5 teams since a 31-13 victory over No. 3 North Carolina in 1981.
