Feb. 5, 2003

“I’m very pleased with where we are at the present time. It’s hard to evaluate a class at this stage. The caliber of the competition we recruited against was very impressive. I thought our coaches did an excellent job. I think it proves once again that we have a lot to offer here at the University of South Carolina. Our graduation rate, academics, the city of Columbia and of course the dream of where we want to go.”

“It’s very exhausting yet at the same time it’s very rewarding. I honestly believe in my heart that there is not a better place for a young man to go to school then the University of South Carolina. I thought our athletes were exceptionally positive for us about coming here and it was difficult because we only really had two recruiting weekends.”

“You don’t ever satisfy all your needs but I’m pleased with where we are at the present time. You can’t evaluate a recruiting class until everything is decided.”

“We had our first winter program workout yesterday. It was nice to get back with the players. Now we have to put a lot of emphasis on what we want to do in the spring. We have to look out our offense, defense, evaluate different things. Second thing we have to do is work on the winter program. Third thing we have to do is spend time with our athletes and fourth is start junior recruiting.”

“You have ups and downs (on recruiting day). I am so pleased and thankful for the overwhelming majority of high school coaches in the state of South Carolina. When I cam here, all I asked them was please get your top athletes to visit us, and they have done that.”

“Everything starts with quarterback. We have Dondrial Pinkins and we are pleased with what he has done, but he is an unknown quantity. I thought he played very well in the last two football games. Mike Rathe has maturity and threw the ball very well (in JUCO). We don’t know what Bennett Swygert is but we liked a lot of things when we recruited him. So we felt we needed to bring in some players who could be good quarterbacks. Blake Mitchell won an awful lot of honors and awards. Syvelle Newton is such an excellent athlete and is a leader and competitior.”

“Demetris Summers could have gone anywhere in the country.? And there’s a reason for that — he’s a real talent.? He can run, he can catch, he can field punts, he can break tackles, he can run over you.? His accomplishments in high school are unbelievable.? I think he has a tremendous future and I’m glad he has chosen South Carolina.? Our obligation now is to help him become the very best student, the very best person and the very best player he can be.? Our mandate is to help him further develop his talents and abilities.”