April 13, 2003

Columbia, SC –

* USC went through a two-hour spring football practice in shorts and shoulder pads Sunday evening. One practice remains this Thursday. The Gamecocks had their Spring Game on Saturday. Sunday’s practice was primarily a correction session after the team viewed the Spring Game film earlier that afternoon.

* Head coach Lou Holtz made these comments to the media Sunday evening: “I thought our quarterbacks threw the ball well. Our receivers had a few drops and I didn’t think our offensive line played as well as I would have liked … We gave up 13 big plays on defense (runs of over 12 yards and passes of over 18 yards) … I was impressed with how Josh Brown punted the well. Just to make sure it wasn’t a fluke, we had him punt some again Sunday night, and he did a good job once again … The Friday-Saturday-Sunday routine has worked pretty well for us this spring. We’re able to get in some quality meeting time and don’t have any class conflicts … Our offensive backs didn’t play that well without the football … George Gause (defensive end) played every play and played as hard as he could play. Moe Thompson (defensive end) stepped up and played well. Marcus Lawrence has performed well and linebacker and is one of the starters there. Rod Thomas would be another starter at linebacker. Ricardo Hurley may be the other. We’ll have to see. Jeremiah Garrison hasn’t done anything all spring. I’m really not counting on him. Sure, he was voted a captain, but that hasn’t been approved yet. We’ll have to wait and see … We have one more practice (Thursday). It will be a physical practice and one they will remember … I thought Dondrial Pinkins made some good plays. He needs to do a better job fundamentally. The long pass he threw down the sidelines that was dropped was a nice throw. Mike Rathe did some good things. For only being in our program for 12 practices, he was impressive. He runs the team well … We should have a depth chart by the end of this week. The players are the ones who fill out the depth chart, not the coaches. No one has money in the bank. What you did last year does not apply to this year. We are building a team from the spring and moving forward.”

* Tight end Hart Turner has a low back strain and did not play in the Spring Game. Neither did linebacker Ricardo Hurley, who has an ankle sprain.