SEC Championship Game, Auburn Vs. South Carolina: Tigers Maul Gamecocks, 56-17, Are Locks For BCS Title Game

Update: Here’s the Auburn Hail Mary video.

We’re less than an hour from kickoff of the 2010 SEC Championship Game, and South Carolina fans are getting fatalistic:

Connect with South Carolina fans at SB Nation’s Garnet And Black Attack.

We’re less than an hour away from the kickoff of the 2010 SEC Championship Game, and Auburn fans are already hitting the Red Bull and champagne with a fury:

Connect with Auburn fans at SB Nation’s Track ‘Em Tigers.

Steve Spurrier is widely beloved and be-loathed for running his mouth off in advance of games great and small, but he’s sadly dialed it back since slinking home to the SEC from a disastrous stint in the NFL. Given the hoopla surrounding the eligibility of Cam Newton to participate in today’s SEC Championship game, however, you might have expected him to toss off a bon mot or two to waiting reporters. Prepare to be disappointed:

South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier doesn’t care about that.

He’s actually looking forward to the challenge of undermining a player many consider a future Heisman Trophy winner.

“We’re glad he’s playing. He’s been playing all year,” he said. “It wouldn’t have been right to not play when the championship’s on the line. I remember Joe Paterno one time said: ‘You want to beat the other team when all their best players are playing.’ I’m glad he’s playing. He deserves to play.”

This is maybe the most magnanimous statement we’ve ever heard emanate from the Ol’ Ballcoach’s maw. Truly, we live in the age of Spurrier The White.

SB Nation’s SEC blog, Team Speed Kills, breaks down Auburn and South Carolina’s history with common opponents, featuring the Gamecocks’ most ignominious loss of 2010:

Auburn faced Kentucky a week before South Carolina did, so this game might provide a little bit closer to a moment in time. Of course, South Carolina was also coming off the program-redefining win against Alabama, so take that into account. The truth of the matter is that, for all the attention that Stephen Garcia’s interception in the end zone got at the end of that game, South Carolina lost to Kentucky largely because the Gamecocks couldn’t hold onto the football. Another interception led to a touchdown earlier in the game, and a fumble near the end of the first half killed a drive that was in Kentucky territory. There’s also a notable similarity in the flow of these two games: Both teams took a sizable lead against Kentucky only to watch the Wildcats rally; Auburn stopped the rally in time and South Carolina didn’t. And notice that while Auburn did better on the offensive side of the ball against Kentucky, they also did a better job on defense.

SB Nation’s Garnet And Black Attack mulls over the various pitfalls of attempting to defend a player of Cam Newton’s caliber:

SB Nation’s Track ‘Em Tigers breaks down Auburn’s to-do and to-don’t lists for this weekend’s SEC Championship Game:

The investigation into Cam Newton’s recruitment has not been closed, but for the moment, all is right on the Plains and Auburn is poised to salve their undefeated-for-naught wounds of 2004 with another appearance in the conference championship, one from which they’re widely favored to emerge victorious and move on to Glendale and the BCS title game.

The lineup for the 2010 SEC Championship Game has been set for a while now, with Auburn and South Carolina each clinching their division before the end of regular-season play, but one of the rosters has been threatened with the possibility of upheaval in recent weeks. A PR disaster has been averted, however; the Tigers’ showpiece quarterback has been ruled eligible and will suit up Saturday in the Georgia Dome. What future disasters this might engender, no one can say, but here we are. Now, blessedly, on to football.

Compelling on-field storylines abound in this weekend’s matchup. The Tigers have 2004 and their title snub to avenge. This is the first time any team not named Florida, Georgia, or Tennessee has won the SEC East, and it’s Steve Spurrier’s first trip back to the SECCG since leaving Gainesville. Where in years past many quality East teams would bitterly accept invitations to lesser bowls, this year it’s the SEC West that’s bringing the depth.

Auburn has history on its side, with a 6-1-1 all-time record against the Gamecocks, but Spurrier revels in playing the spoiler, both on the sidelines and in front of a live microphone. And while the Ol’ Ballcoach may have lost some of his former spiteful vim, his team will need all the swagger they can muster to contend with the Tigers’ war machine offense:

The 2010 SEC Championship Game kicks off at 4 p.m. EST this Saturday. Connect with Auburn and South Carolina fans on SB Nation at Track ‘Em Tigers and Garnet And Black Attack.