Listening to Steve Spurrier's press conferences for the past eight years, I have come to learn that the Ol' Ball Coach's verbal trolling of his opponents is a true art, at once effortless and calculated, biting and hilarious. In the wake of the Gamecocks' 35-7 blowout of the border rival Georgia Bulldogs, Spurrier has been a bit freer in his willingness to take jabs at his opponents, both those who lay lifeless in his wake and those he has yet to conquer.

When asked about the tough stretch of games against LSU and Florida, Spurrier had this to say:

That's just the way it is. That's what the schedule is. We're looking forward to it. Most of our guys have never been to Death Valley. That is the Death Valley, isn't it? Or is there another one? There's two of them. That's right there's two Death Valleys. Was LSU the first one or the second one? They were first? Oh, OK.

Now, devoted press conference listeners will recall that Spurrier frequently asks questions of An Unseen Glenn when he wants to double-check a fact or statistic, but this time Spurrier's question was a purely rhetorical one. The quip recalled LSU Freek's gem from earlier this season. (BTW, if you haven't read Les Carpenter's piece on LSU Freek, you should definitely do that.) And we should all be thankful to Spurrier for manufacturing some entertainment out of being asked 50 different iterations of "What is the team doing to avoid a letdown after such a big victory?"

Interestingly enough, whoever it is that compiled the press conference transcript for publication on the athletic department's website saw fit to exclude the barb from their release:

I suppose the public relations wing of the athletic department didn't find Spurrier's comment nearly as amusing as the room full of reporters did. I sincerely hope that their efforts did nothing to prevent us from getting to see another one of these: