COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier doesn’t pay too much attention to critical fans. He does, however, enjoy his Kenny Chesney.

Spurrier says he’ll pop on a CD by his friend, country music star and Knoxville native Chesney, or other performers of that genre to pass the time or keep his mind off South Carolina’s offensive problems.

Spurrier was listening to one earlier this week and decided to call his pal to thank him for selecting the Gamecocks to beat Ole Miss during Chesney’s guest appearance on ESPN GameDay last Saturday.

“Good to have somebody that picks you occasionally,” Spurrier said with a grin. ( Watch Chesney sing happy birthday to Spurrier)

Surprised Spurrier: Spurrier said he was caught off guard by the news Auburn had fired offensive coordinator Tony Franklin midway through his first full season.

Spurrier, in addressing the Gamecocks offensive problems most of the year, reminded the media that things with South Carolina’s attack hadn’t gone as far south as offense’s at SEC rivals Tennessee and Auburn.

Franklin was let go Wednesday by Tigers coach Tommy Tuberville.

“Yeah, that was a little disappointing that he got only six games. Well, I guess he got a bowl game there,” Spurrier said. “That’s a part of coaching, but it’s a bad part of coaching.”

The last Spurrier heard, “Tubby was defending him pretty well.”

Spurrier couldn’t remember having to let a coach go in midseason, although “I remember a few who tried to get fired,” he said.

Maybe the closest to that came in Spurrier’s debut season at South Carolina in 2005 when he turned defensive playcalling over from John Thompson to Tyrone Nix. The two were co-defensive coordinators. Thompson eventually took a leave of absence from the Gamecocks that December and reached a settlement of his contract a month later.

Spurrier is still trying to winnow out those at South Carolina not giving their all.

The Gamecocks fourth-year head ball coach says he’s still has about 10 percent of his scholarship players giving what he says is “50-60 percent” effort.

“You have to ... you either weed them out or let them know that’s not going to work here,” Spurrier says. “We’re still working on it, still working on how to weed them out somehow, let them transfer, go somewhere else or get with the program.”

Spurrier wishes all his 85 scholarship athletes shared the do-it-all attitude of his two dozen or so walk-ons the Gamecocks use. “Walk-on kids, they don’t miss anything. They’re the 100 percent guys,” Spurrier says.

“Some of the lazy scholarship guys, you’re right, the commitment level’s just not what you need,” he continued. “You hope to change it and a lot of them will change over time, but if they don’t after a while, you’ve just got to file them or put them on the scout team and when renewal time comes up, sometimes you just have to say, ‘We don’t have room for you now. You can’t get with our program.’ ”

He Said It: When asked if the Gamecock offensive line was eager to rally around quarterback Chris Smelley as its starter, Spurrier said, “If they are going to rally around their guy, they need to sort of pretend their momma’s back there passing, and maybe they wouldn’t fall on the ground.”

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