Oct. 27, 2005

The South Carolina football squad worked out on the Bluff Road practice fields Thursday afternoon as they continued preparations for Saturday’s Southeastern Conference battle at Tennessee. The nationally-televised ESPN2 matchup is set for 7:45 p.m. ET Following Thursday’s practice, Head Coach Steve Spurrier met with the media:

On the Tennessee defense: “They’re very good. They’re always pretty good. That’s why they’ve got about 20 guys in the NFL from their defensive teams. I don’t like to over-praise the opponent. They know they’ve got good players and a good team and hopefully we’ve got good players and a good team too.”

On the status of Thomas Coleman: “He was back today. I think we’re going to stay the same (along the offensive line). The key to the game is going to be our offensive line. If we can block decently and play decently up front, we’ll have a chance to move the ball some. If we don’t, we’ll have very little chance to move it. It’s up to the offensive line to give us a chance.”

On Syvelle Newton: “I went by and saw Syvelle today. He’s got a long rehab. Unfortunately, that’s where he is right now. He’s in decent spirits for what’s happened. He’s got 6-8 months to try to come back.”

On Tyrone Nix calling more of the defense: “Just giving him a little more input. Sometimes we’ve struggled some on third down. Sometimes if the play-caller is struggling, you let the next guy try to be a little bit of a play caller. Just trying to get him both involved and we’ll see what happens.”

On playing one of the SEC’s top teams: “We’re a pretty loose team. It’s not the end of the world if we get beat. They’re the ones that have a little heat on them – oh no, let’s don’t lose to South Carolina. There’s probably a little more pressure on their team. We should be loose and let it fly. We can run all of our trick plays. We’ve been saving about 20 of them.”