Sept. 24, 2003

The Gamecocks continued their preparation for Saturday night’s game at eighth-ranked Tennessee with a workout on the practice fields west of Williams-Brice Stadium. USC spent the final 15 minutes of practice inside the stadium with Tennessee’s fight song, “Rocky Top” blaring over the loudspeakers.

Offensive coordinator/assistant head coach Skip Holtz met with the media following practice and offered the following comments:

(on the kicking game) – “We will make a decision about the kicking game on Thursday. Daniel Weaver has been kicking well in practice but he has to be productive in games.”

(on practicing to the sounds of “Rocky Top”) – ” Our reason for practicing with the their fight song over the loudspeakers is to work on our communication. For the Georgia game we piped in crowd noise. We do it to make sure we can communicate on the field and gives our players an understanding of just how loud the stadium will be. Hand signals are critical and there will be some big third and fourth down plays where we will need to rely on them, especially on the offensive line and between the quarterback and receivers.”

(on Dondrial Pinkins) – “Dondrial has had a great week of practice. He has gone back to the fundamentals and the basics as he did early in the year. He looks sharp but when he presses and tries to make things happen on his own, that is when he had difficulty. He played well in the first two games, struggled against Georgia, and played well last Saturday.”

PERSONNEL UPDATE: WR Matthew Thomas has been limited in practice with a sprained knee … WR Troy Williamson has been limited with a pulled quadriceps … LB Ricardo Hurley continues to be limited with his ankle injury … OL Chad Walker had surgery today for his dislocated kneecap and will be lost for the year.

OTHER NOTES: USC will bring 8,000 fans to Knoxville as part of the 104,079 fans expected to attend the Saturday night’s contest at Neyland Stadium … The game will mark the second top-10 opponent faced on the road by the Gamecocks in the last three weeks, with both Georgia and Tennessee holding No. 8 rankings at kickoff … Carolina has not won at Knoxville and enters Saturday’s contest with an 0-11 all-time mark at Neyland Stadium.