Aug. 21, 2010

Preseason Practice Central | Buy 3-Game Mini Packs

The South Carolina Gamecocks scrimmaged Saturday morning at Williams-Brice Stadium. The offense worked primarily on its passing attack, as the quarterbacks combined to complete 25-of-42 passes for 284 yards and four touchdowns, while the backs totaled just 33 yards rushing on 16 carries.

“We got a lot of snaps in today and had a few good plays here and there,” said head coach Steve Spurrier. “Our quarterback play today was not very good. Our quarterbacks were hesitant and threw late. If a guy breaks open, they throw late and it gets knocked down. So we’ve got to get better quarterback play than what we had today. The receivers are running pretty good routes and we’ve got to get the ball to them better. We’ve got a bunch of receivers that needed the ball coming their direction to see if they can make plays,” continued the Head Ball Coach. “We didn’t make very many today.”

The four touchdowns all came on passing plays. Seth Strickland found a wide open DeMario Bennett down the middle for a 29-yard score for the game’s first touchdown. Strickland completed 3-of-4 passes for 55 yards in limited duty. Connor Shaw led the next scoring drive that culminated with a four-yard TD pass to tight end Justice Cunningham.

The final two touchdowns were scored when the team was working from the 25-yard line, as in an overtime situation. Stephen Garcia hit tight end Weslye Saunders with a 10-yard scoring pass and Shaw found Lamar Scruggs in the end zone on a 13-yard completion to end the scrimmage. Garcia finished the day by completing 7-of-14 passes for 76 yards, while the true freshman Shaw hit on 13-of-20 attempts for 135 yards. Saunders was the leading receiver with four catches for 63 yards.

“We’re going to try our best to have a good offense,” continued Coach Spurrier. “We’ve got an excellent group of receivers that are running good routes and can catch about everything if they have a chance at it. We should have a good offense, but our quarterback play has got to be good. Right now it’s not real good. (The quarterbacks) were equally ineffective. They all three should play better. Hopefully we can get them there. Hopefully they understand that’s not good enough. We might beat some of those down-the-line teams, but we’re not going to beat very good teams unless our quarterback play is solid. It doesn’t have to be super, just has to be solid. And it wasn’t very solid today.”

The Gamecocks will return to the Bluff Road practice fields on Monday night at 7:30 p.m.

SCORING PLAYS:

Spencer Lanning 34-yard field goal

DeMario Bennett 29-yard pass from Seth Strickland (Jay Wooten kick)

Justice Cunningham 4-yard pass from Connor Shaw (Joey Scribner-Howard kick no good)

Weslye Saunders 10-yard pass from Stephen Garcia (Adam Yates kick)

Lamar Scruggs 13-yard pass from Connor Shaw (no kick attempted)

PASSING:

Connor Shaw 13-20-0-135, 2 TD; Stephen Garcia 7-14-0-76, 1 TD; Seth Strickland 3-4-0-55, 1 TD; Andrew Clifford 2-4-0-18. TOTALS: 25-42-0-284, 4 TD.

RUSHING:

DeMario Bennett 1-10; Marcus Lattimore 5-9; Bryce Sherman 3-6; Connor Shaw 2-5; Kenny Miles 4-2; Ace Sanders 1-1. TOTALS: 16-33.

RECEIVING:

Weslye Saunders 4-63, 1 TD; Kenny Miles 4-14; Ace Sanders 3-48; Lamar Scruggs 3-21, 1 TD; Alshon Jeffery 2-48; DeMario Bennett 2-39, 1 TD; Bryce Sherman 2-8; DeAngelo Smith 1-18; Tori Gurley 1-10; Cedrick Snead 1-8; Justice Cunningham 1-4, 1 TD; Mike Triglia 1-3. TOTALS: 25-284, 4 TD.