Oct. 1, 2003

Columbia, S.C. – * The Gamecocks worked out in full pads for two hours under sunny skies Wednesday afternoon. The first offense worked against the first defense the last few minutes of practice. Assistant head coach Skip Holtz met with the media following practice and here are some of his comments:

“We’re trying to keep the tempo going this week, even though we don’t play this weekend. It’s almost like a spring practice. We went against each other the last 30 minutes of practice. There wasn’t a lot of emotion, but that’s to be expected. We have no one to play this Saturday. We sat some of the seniors down today and worked with a lot of the young players. It was a little bit of a tooth pull at practice. We are putting in the time, effort and energy, but there’s not a great deal of emotion right now. We’ve spent about half the time this week working on Kentucky and half the time working with our younger players.”

* Here is the schedule for the next few days:

Thursday – early morning practice before classes

Friday – off

Saturday – off

Sunday – late afternoon meeting followed by practice

* The coaches will recruit on Friday and have Saturday off before returning to the office Sunday afternoon to resume preparation for the Thursday night ESPN showdown against Kentucky at Williams-Brice Stadium.

* Injury update – OL Chad Walker, who had knee surgery last month, returned to the hospital due to pain and a fever … WR Troy Williamson did not practice Wednesday due to a sore quadricep … FB Regis Edgerson has a neck strain.

* Media availability for Thursday – Coach Lou Holtz will be available following the early morning workout at approximately 7:15 a.m. in the press room at the football building. Player availability will be dependent upon class schedules. The next media availability after that will be Monday at Coach Holtz’s press conference, 12 noon in the Lettermen’s Lounge.