Gamecocks ride two QBs to Outback Bowl victory

TAMPA, Fla. - Steve Spurrier's plan to use two quarterbacks in the Outback Bowl worked so well that Dylan Thompson and Connor Shaw both earned game balls.

That's a first for the Head Ball Coach, who has a well-known penchant for benching struggling QBs. Except in this case, the Gamecocks' winningest coach used his talented pair of passers by design.

Shaw began Tuesday's 33-28 win over Michigan with a 56-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Damiere Byrd. Thompson closed it out by throwing a 32-yard TD strike to wide receiver Bruce Ellington in the final minute to help South Carolina match the school record for victories in a season.

"I don't know if I've ever given two quarterbacks a game ball," Spurrier said, "but today I said: 'Hey, we've got to give them to both you guys.'

"Both those young men are just so super team-oriented. There's no jealousy, nothing. ... Wonderful team players. We tried to tell Connor: 'It's your game.' And it was his game, but Dylan was going to play. He understood that. It worked beautifully."

Thompson replaced Shaw during the winning drive, covering the final 43 yards after Shaw began the march from his 30 and kept it alive with a 6-yard completion to wide receiver Ace Sanders on a fourth-and-3 play. Devin Gardner's third TD pass of the game had given Michigan a 28-27 lead.

"I wasn't nervous. I knew I had great guys around me, and I trusted them and just was confident," Thompson said.

Shaw threw for 227 yards and two touchdowns after missing the Gamecocks' regular-season finale with a left foot sprain. Thompson led the Gamecocks (11-2) to a victory at archrival Clemson and threw for 117 yards and two TDs in the bowl.

Gardner threw for 214 yards in his fifth start for Michigan (8-5) since Denard Robinson injured his right elbow late in the season. Robinson took snaps at quarterback and attempted his first passes in a game since Oct. 27 but lined up mostly at running back and rushed for 100 yards on 23 carries.

Sanders caught TD passes of 4 yards from Thompson and 31 yards from Shaw, who completed 18 of 26 passes before aggravating his foot injury and limping off during the final drive. The speedy receiver had nine catches for 92 yards and also scored on a 63-yard punt return - one of four plays over 50 yards yielded by Michigan.

Gardner was 18 of 36, including TD passes of 5 yards to wide receiver Drew Dileo and 10 and 17 yards to wide receiver Jeremy Gallon, who gave Michigan its late lead and finished with career bests of nine receptions and 145 yards. Robinson set the NCAA record for yards rushing by a quarterback, hiking his four-year total to 4,495 - 15 more than West Virginia's Pat White ran for from 2005 to '08.

"I'd rather win the game," said Robinson, who attempted two passes in the third quarter, both incompletions, and also ran twice on plays in which he took the snap as the quarterback - a role he's embraced since being injured during a loss to Nebraska.

"It was just what I thought it was going to be," Robinson said. "I tried to make the most of it."

South Carolina defensive end Jadeveon Clowney was quiet for much of the day but shifted momentum in the fourth quarter with a big hit on Vincent Smith that sent the running back's helmet rolling several yards backward and caused a fumble that the Southeastern Conference defensive player of the year recovered to set up Shaw's TD pass to Sanders for a 27-22 lead.

The TD capped a three-play sequence that began with Michigan running its second fake punt of the game, gaining 4 yards to the Wolverines' 41 for what was ruled a first down, despite not appearing to be one when the officials called for a measurement. South Carolina challenged the spot, but the ruling on the field was upheld.

Clowney then slammed into Smith just as the Michigan runner was taking the handoff from Gardner, jarring the ball loose.