February 7, 2002

“You always work hard in recruiting, but this one seemed to be a little more difficult. I can’t thank Dr. McGee, the administration, the faculty, and our players and all the people involved, enough. We thought it was a good year. You don’t get everybody you want all the time. It was fun to compete against some outstanding schools and it went down to the wire with several of them.”

“I think Tom Lemming ranked us seventh best in the country. I have a lot of respect for Tom Lemming. I don’t know of anybody who works and studies it harder then he does. But before our fans jump up and down and get all excited, let’s just remember it doesn’t mean anything.”

“It’s just like I said last year, you have a baby. What is it? I don’t know. You don’t have any idea or clue but I do like the people we have. I thought the reception around the country was excellent. When we went in on virtually everybody, there was interest. Whether they chose South Carolina, that’s their decision, but the reception around the country was excellent.”

“Our responsibility starts now. When a family gives you their most prized possession, their child, and they have raised it for 18 years and put it in your care, we don’t take that responsibility lightly. The one thing I say to the coaches is that they do a great job in the recruiting, but we have to make sure we do a great job for those parents. That’s an obligation we have and that starts immediately.”

“We have a lot of players that can play both positions. We have a lot of needs and lost a lot of seniors last year, and you can’t rebuild a football team on just one class. You try to compliment one with another.”

“The encouraging thing about this class is that many were captains, class officers and leaders. We put a real emphasis on that. I think that there are some natural leaders and we want to make sure we get their fair share out of them.”