Jadeveon Clowney has no history of being a quitter or a liar.

Those are two things some of the national media have suggested about South Carolina’s All-America defensive end the past few days after he sat out the Gamecocks’ game against Kentucky last Saturday with a strained muscle near his rib cage.

Those media types, who often want to be bigger than the athletes, coaches and even the games, may have been feeding off Gamecocks Coach Steve Spurrier, who was upset after the 35-28 victory and practically threw Clowney under the bus while questioning his loyalty among other things.

It was typical Spurrier, who fires from the lip often without thinking about the consequences. That’s why he is often referred to as “Steve Superior.”

When presented with the facts regarding Clowney’s injury, Spurrier - who never has lacked confidence - backed up so fast that he should have had whiplash.

“Obviously, we all handled it poorly,” he said.

No, Steve, you did.

There was no reason to question the young man’s drive or integrity.

In an attempt to smooth things over, Spurrier pointed out that with Clowney the Gamecocks have won 26 games and had two 11-2 seasons, the best in school history.

Obviously that translates into lots of money in the bank for South Carolina, including the sale of No. 7 jerseys. That’s Clowney’s number, and he doesn’t make a penny off any of those sales.

Apparently, Clowney wasn’t upset with Spurrier.

“He’s really competitive,” the defensive end said. “He was just saying stuff. It’s all right.”

If Spurrier hadn’t backtracked it could have hurt recruiting.

No kid wants to play where he’s going to be criticized in front of the whole world by his head coach, and this still could bite Spurrier in the backside because some smart coaches from opposing teams will bring up to recruits what Spurrier said.

All of the drama Spurrier created has overshadowed the fact that quarterback Connor Shaw was questionable for the Kentucky game after sustaining a shoulder injury against Central Florida. Shaw started and showed no signs of being slowed by injury as he completed 17 of 20 passes and had a 62-yard touchdown pass.

Shaw is not a spectacular quarterback, although he is a dual threat and can hurt defenses with his scrambling, but he’s 21-4 as a starter. He has passed for more than 3,000 yards and rushed for more than 1,000 in his career.

Still, as a team leader, even he couldn’t escape questions about the Clowney incident.

“All I know is Clowney has helped us win a lot of games,” Shaw said. “It’s more of a big deal to everyone else instead of us.”

Obviously, everyone associated with South Carolina football realizes this could have become a major distraction for a team that hasn’t exactly lit it up this season.

The Gamecocks have victories over North Carolina (1-4), Vanderbilt (3-3) and thanks to some luck Central Florida (4-1) and Kentucky (1-4), but only the victory over North Carolina was convincing. Their loss to Georgia was 41-30.

Spurrier’s old style of chuck-and-duck has been shelved for a running attack. Marcus Lattimore started it,and now Mike Davis is carrying the load.

He is averaging 6.7 yards per carry on 92 carries and has scored 8 touchdowns. Incidentally, Arkansas freshman Alex Collins leads the SEC in total rushing yards with 651 while Davis is third with 614.

Davis, Shaw and most everyone else is supposed to be ready for the Razorbacks on Saturday.

Clowney is still questionable, although he has said he wants to play.

That never should have been a question. There is nothing in his history that even hints he is a quitter or a liar.

Sports, Pages 19 on 10/10/2013