ATHENS, Ga. - They got him, the old fox. But they didn't get him by much.

Steve Spurrier's return to Sanford Stadium had been, to say the least, much anticipated by the Georgia Bulldog nation.

They got him Saturday night. They beat Spurrier in his return to the SEC.

They got their win. Still, they didn't get their pound of flesh. An ounce or two, maybe, but no pound.

Yes, there was a palpable amount of relief mixed in with the jubilation of Georgia's 17-15 win over South Carolina.

Though Spurrier has long tormented the Bulldogs - 11-1 while coaching the Florida Gators from 1990-2001 - he usually did it from the distance of Jacksonville, Fla., traditional site of Georgia-Florida rivalry.

Saturday was only his second trip between the fabled hedges. His lone previous visit was vintage Spurrier and Georgia hasn't forgotten.

In 1995, with the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville under renovation, the Gators came to Athens. They trounced Ray Goff's Bulldogs 52-17.

So the story goes, a Florida assistant coach informed Spurrier before the game no team had ever scored 50 on the mighty Bulldogs in Sanford Stadium. Spurrier made a mental note.

Playing his reserves with a 45-17 lead as the clock wound down, Spurrier called a trick play that worked for a touchdown, running the final score to 52-17.

To Georgia fans, it was an insult from an arrogant enemy. To Spurrier, it was all in the normal course of the game. Hey, he was playing his subs, wasn't he?

Ten years later, Spurrier called another trick play with the clock running down.

This one, though, was out of desperation.

Down 17-15, backed up at his 13, facing fourth-and-19 with a young quarterback, Spurrier called a flea-flicker pass.

Blake Mitchell completed the pass and the receiver completed the lateral but a Georgia defender rode Sidney Rice out of bounds far short of the first down with 42 seconds left.

Georgia coach Mark Richt, a kind man, chose to have quarterback D.J. Shockley take a knee rather than chance a back-at-you-Steve double-reverse pass.

Given Shockley's erratic throwing, taking a knee was a preferable option even if the Bulldogs were behind. But that's another story.

Spurrier's return to the SEC after a three-year absence won't be a victory march. Offensively, the Gamecocks have issues.

Their first touchdown came on Jonathan Joseph's 42-yard interception return off Shockley. For the longest time it looked as if a Spurrier-coached college team might fail to produce an offensive touchdown since when? Since a 45-3 loss to Tennessee in 1990 perhaps?

But all of a sudden midway through the fourth quarter, Mitchell began to look like Danny Wuerffel or Shane Matthews.

He completed three huge passes on a 65-yard drive: a 34-yarder on third-and-18; a 25-yard strike to the Georgia 4; finally, a short touchdown pass to Rice with 6:52 to play.

That cut Georgia's advantage to 17-15. A 2-point conversion pass by a pressured Mitchell was off the mark, though, and Georgia avoided the prospect of overtime.

It was the kicking game, in the end, that allowed the Bulldogs their slight measure of advantage over Spurrier.

An acknowledged genius in developing quarterbacks, perhaps Spurrier dropped the ball when he came to South Carolina. Maybe he should have taken the kickers under his wing as well.

After all, the man did clinch the Heisman Trophy in 1966 by kicking a game-winning field goal against Auburn.

South Carolina has been fraught with kicking goofs since it joined the SEC in 1992. Forget the Chicken Curse. Here's the Kickin' Curse.

Sure enough, after the Gamecocks' first touchdown Saturday, Josh Brown missed the extra-point kick. The upshot was having to go for two points after the second touchdown.

And there was this: near the end of the third quarter, Spurrier tried another kicker, but Ryan Succop missed a 45-yard field goal that would have given Carolina a 12-10 lead.

Give Spurrier a competent kicker and maybe it's a different story.

Maybe Georgia doesn't get the old fox after all.

Mike Strange may be reached at 865-342-6276 or strange2@knews.com