Although it can be tough to tell in his media statements, Steve Spurrier certainly was being earnest Tuesday when he said East Carolina will be mindful of last season when the Pirates step onto the field in Columbia, S.C., on Saturday.

The eighth-year South Carolina head coach knows as well as anyone who witnessed the Gamecocks’ comeback win over the Pirates in Charlotte that the game could have ended much differently.

“They’ll see they had a really good chance to get us last year, and they sort of fumbled it away, they really did,” said Spurrier, whose team trailed the Pirates 17-0 in the second quarter and 24-14 at halftime before scoring off three consecutive ECU turnovers in the third quarter and rolling to a 56-37 win. “We scored on fumbles, had a punt return and this, that and the other. They’ll know that they can play with us very well.”

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