A year ago, Kentucky entered a matchup with Steve Spurrier’s nationally ranked South Carolina team having lost three games in a row. The losing streak dampened the optimism many around the program had entering 2010 and left fans wondering what the rest of the season would hold.Sound familiar?Of course, the Wildcats overcame a 28-10 deficit en route to an upset of the No. 10 Gamecocks, the biggest victory of the Joker Phillips era. As the 2011 edition of UK football prepares for a game against that same South Carolina team under similar circumstances, there are lessons to be learned from last year’s win.”If we get down, we have to continue to play,” Phillips said. “We were down 18 last year against these guys and we continued to play. Every chance we have to use some of the things that have happened around here in the past, we’ve got to use it.”UK (2-3, 0-2 SEC) has displayed the ability to play at a high level in short bursts, but have consistently been undone by a series of mistakes started by one simple one. Phillips knows the Cats must address that if they are to compete with the No. 18 Gamecocks (4-1, 2-1 SEC) on Saturday at 12:21 p.m. ET in Columbia, S.C.Running back Raymond Sanders, who missed UK’s last three games due to a knee injury, has noticed a tightness among his teammates that has precipitated that chain reaction.”That’s one thing that I did see,” Sanders said. “I felt like guys were taking it too serious and worrying about making mistakes.”Sanders has recovered from his injury and participated in practice this week. Phillips complimented the sophomore for bringing energy and enthusiasm to practice that proved to be contagious as the Cats strung together two quality practices on Wednesday and Thursday. The impact Sanders had was not accidental. He made a conscious effort to buoy the spirits of his teammates and infuse practice with a spirit of fun he thought was missing.”Give your all, but have fun,” Sanders said. “That’s what football is about: having fun. Enjoy it.”Sanders did not register a carry in last year’s game against South Carolina, but he did return a pair of kicks. The running back also said UK can learn lessons in resilience and confidence from the 2010 upset, but his coach has made sure to emphasize these two teams are different from a year ago.”This is a different team,” Phillips said. “We can use some of that and some of the guys were here last year, but this is a different team and they have a different team too.”It also can’t be forgotten that the two teams will play in front of a raucous crowd at Williams-Brice Stadium and the Gamecocks will have revenge on their minds. South Carolina was riding high and ranked in the top ten coming into last year’s matchup when the Wildcats scored three second half touchdowns to send Spurrier to his first ever loss against a UK team.”We’re playing them at their place and they’ll be a little more confident coming into this game,” Phillips said. “Actually, they’ll be jacked up also because last year they were coming off a huge, huge win and could have been (5-1) and we beat them. We expect to get their best game.”Assuredly, the Gamecocks best game will consist of handing the ball to Marcus Lattimore early and often. The sophomore running back has rushed for 677 yards in five games, third in the nation. He has scored nine touchdowns on the ground and has averaged 5.5 yards per carry.The Cats don’t need to look at statistics or film to know what kind of player Lattimore is after having to deal with him last year. Lattimore diced UK to the tune of 79 rushing yards and 133 receiving yards before exiting with an ankle injury that forced him to miss the second half. If South Carolina had been able to hand to the 233-pound back throughout the second half in 2010, the upset may never have happened.The game against UK was a rare one for Lattimore in that he did the majority of his damage through the air. He found himself open on screen passes and needed just four receptions to top 100 yards. UK tried unsuccessfully to use defensive ends to peel on Lattimore and he took advantage. UK won’t completely abandon that strategy on Saturday, but their approach will be much more aggressive this time around.”We’ll try to do some of that but we also want to get him into protections by bringing blitzes,” Phillips said. “Now, if he releases we should have a clean shot at the quarterback so we want to bring as many blitzes towards him as we can and eat the back up in protection.”The quarterback who will attempt to cope with those blitzes is expected to be sophomore Connor Shaw. Senior Stephen Garcia started in the Gamecocks’ 16-13 loss to Auburn last week, but Spurrier has said he will turn to Shaw against UK. Shaw played some earlier this season, so UK has tape on the new starter, though Phillips says he doesn’t anticipate too much to be different.”We saw (Shaw) earlier in the season against East Carolina,” Phillips said. “Their offense didn’t change any when Garcia went back in so it didn’t change anything. Spurrier is a guy who does what he does and he’s been doing it for a long time. He’s never been a guy who went from a drop-back guy to an athletic quarterback.”Above all else, Spurrier will be looking for his quarterback to avoid mistakes regardless of who takes the snaps. He has a running game and a swarming defense led by two of the nation’s top pass rushers good enough to carry the team. Defensive ends Melvin Ingram and Jadeveon Clowney rank first and second in the SEC in sacks and have terrorized their opponents all season. A number of the plays they have made have directly resulted in turnovers and touchdowns, so UK’s offensive line will have a tall task ahead of them even if Ingram does miss the game with injury as has been reported.The offensive line has gotten healthier week by week and the result has been continual improvement. All five members of the veteran unit started last season’s game against South Carolina and played well. A repeat performance by the group could be the first step to another season-altering upset.”We opened up some gaping holes and protected the quarterback so I pointed that out to our guys,” Phillips said. “We’ve got to get back to that level and we’re getting closer and closer every week.”