Watching a Steve Spurrier-led team struggle on offense is still something UF fans haven't grown accustomed to.
And watching a Spurrier-led team win because of its defensive play is usually a rare sight, but that has been the case this season.
Spurrier's offense has been average at best, while his defense has led No. 24 South Carolina to a 7-3 record.
The Gamecocks are in the middle of the pack in the Southeastern Conference in scoring offense (24.0 points per game) and total offense (332.5 yards per game), which rank sixth and seventh in the conference, respectively.
"We've made tremendous improvement defensively," Spurrier said. "I wish I could say we've made the same improvement offensively, but we're still not quite where we hope to be some day offensively."
It always comes back to the play of his offense with Spurrier and, more specifically, the play of his quarterbacks.
Watching Spurrier shuffle back and forth between quarterbacks Chris Smelley and Stephen Garcia is a familiar sight to Gators fans, though.
"There's a chance we may do that," Spurrier told The State earlier this week. "We're going to try and play them both, some way or another. There may be a spot where they stay in there two or three plays in a row, just have to look and see."
Smelley and Garcia only completed 13 of 30 pass attempts in South Carolina's 34-21 win against Arkansas last week, but the pair did combine for 219 yards passing, 42 rushing yards and three touchdowns.
While they don't conjure memories of Doug Johnson and Jesse Palmer shuffling in and out of the game from possession to possession - and often play to play - in the late-1990s, they were effective.
Spurrier also feels sharing the load from play to play may help his young quarterbacks deal with the noise of The Swamp, which will be by far the largest and loudest stadium the Gamecocks have played in on the road this season.
"Both of our guys deserve to play," Spurrier said. "And that's one way to do it and eliminate signals and all that."
Smelley and Garcia would be fortunate if noise was the biggest hurdle they had to face this weekend. UF's defense has also made a vast improvement this season and is currently ranked first in the conference in scoring defense (11.9 points per game), fourth in total defense (286.2 yards per game) and lead the conference in turnover margin (+13).
These issues aren't lost on Spurrier.
"You don't put up a whole bunch (of points)," Spurrier said. "You hope our defense doesn't give up a whole bunch of points, and we also hope that our offense and our special teams don't give them anything. That's not easy right there.
"(UF defensive coordinator) Charlie Strong has their defense playing well. They've got athletes at every position, and Charlie Strong has developed into really one of the best coordinators in the country."
