Is Spurrier neglecting offense to coach up the defense?

In his ninth year at South Carolina, Coach Steve Spurrier has steadily built a foundation of strength

With NFL-level talent, the SC defense
was OK in 2013. Now, without the players
will Spurrier have to coach the D too? 

that has resulted in one of the top win totals, of late, in major college football.

The program should be on automatic pilot with double-digit wins easily attained, right?

South Carolina just provided the NFL with the top pick in the draft with a defensive player. Shouldn't the Gamecocks just plug in the next crop of high-star recruits – taken on the recent success - and pick up where Spurrier left off last year?

But last Saturday, in a 21-20 loss to Missouri, Spurrier's defense gave up two scores in sandlot fashion.

So poor was the defense’s play, Spurrier is now confronted with the reality that he has a mid-level defensive coaching staff. That does not bode well when you're competing for a title in the toughest football conference in America.

The Gamecock defense lost a 13-point lead in the last six minutes, to grab a loss from a sure victory.

Strangely, most of the local sports media is blaming Spurrier's offense, or him, for blowing the lead.

If the score would have been 43-30 before the defense imploded, would the offense still be called out? Being woefully inept to protect an almost two TD lead, late in the fourth quarter, is a defensive problem, regardless of what is being reported.

And because of the defensive fail and despite all of his success to this point, Spurrier is going to have to figure out how to limp to the end of the season with a deficient defensive staff. Mid-season changes are rare, and firing coaches now would not help win games, most likely.

So what are Spurrier's options?

This is where Spurrier's 30-plus years of coaching experience will have to kick in. He is going to have to take time away from the offense, see what is being done wrong on D, and try to correct the problem. Spurrier may have to tweak staff assignments, so that anyone competent can fill the gaps by whoever is not doing the job.

Can Spurrier do enough to keep from falling apart? Yes. He has had to do it in the past.

Does Spurrier want to have to provide remedial assistance at this point in his tenure at SC? No. Spurrier loves coaching offense. He has a lot of fun calling ball plays. It's why he does what he does.

After struggling for so many years at South Carolina, dealing with many issues on different fronts, Spurrier probably hates to have to re-double his effort to fix a part of his team others were hired to coach.

Spurrier hates losing. So you can guess Spurrier has already resigned himself to the fact that he is going to have to step in and do someone else's job, instead of his.

Who knows, maybe he already started coaching up the D before the Missouri game. If so, that may explain why all the “experts" are now blaming the offense because the defense allowed two scores in six minutes to give the game away last week.

No matter who is the blame; drastic action is required to salvage the season. It will be intersting to see what happens.