April 4, 2007

The University of South Carolina football squad worked out under the lights at the Bluff Road practice fields for about two hours Wednesday night. The squad will take Thursday off, then head to Williams-Brice Stadium for its second official scrimmage of the spring on Friday at 3:30 p.m. All practices are open to the public.

Following Wednesday’s practice, Head Coach Steve Spurrier met with the media:

“We’ll scrimmage Friday at about 3:30, so anybody that wants to come out, (there is) free admission in the stadium. We’re not going to practice on Saturday. We’ll give the guys off for the Easter weekend, then come back to practice on Monday. Hopefully we’ll have a big crowd (Friday). Anybody who doesn’t have anything to do – come on out Friday afternoon. We’d love to have you here in the stadium.”

On the format of the scrimmage: “It will be similar (to the last scrimmage). We might not get as many plays in, but we hope to get in 85 to 90 plays.”

On the status of Jamon Meredith who did not work out again on Wednesday, but was not in the “boot” for his sprained ankle: “He’s going to try to play a little bit on Friday. He’s all right. We’re all healthy.”

On what he looks for in the scrimmage: “We’ll find those that like football and and aren’t afraid. That’s why I want some people in the stands. Our guys get nervous out there – you put a few people in the stands, get some real looking referees, a few sports writers covering it, television boys – they get nervous. That’s what we want. We want to see if they can play under game-like conditions. Hopefully we’ll have a good crowd Friday afternoon.”

On who has shown some improvement: “Stoney Woodson has improved from last year’s play. He has played very solidly. Carlos Thomas is much improved. We’re expecting the defense to be much improved from last year and those two players have shown it thus far. Now we’ve got a bunch of freshmen who will come in and try to beat them out and they’ll have a chance to beat them out. So we’ll see how it all plays out.”

On the running backs: “Taylor (Rank) had a heck of a scrimmage last week. Cory (Boyd) was solid. I hope Bobby (Wallace) has a couple of big runs Friday. He’s very capable.”