Nov. 12, 2003

Columbia, S.C. – * For the third straight day, South Carolina’s football team practiced in full pads as the Gamecocks continue to prepare to face 15th-ranked Florida this Saturday at Williams-Brice Stadium (12:30 p.m. kick-off with Jefferson Pilot Sports televising). Assistant head coach Skip Holtz met with the media after practice and here are some of his comments:

“We’ve had a good week of practice; it’s been physical but the players have responded. We will start to pull off of them on Thursday and Friday. We will have our hands full with Florida. They’ve got an excellent defense and their freshman quarterback (Chris Leak) is playing extremely well now. He was making some mistakes early in the season, but he’s not making those mistakes now. Florida is very talented and very athletic on defense. They have experience on that side of the ball. Your quarterback cannot afford to make a blind throw against their defense or they will make you pay. Their scheme makes it difficult for your quarterback to throw away from (Keiwan) Ratliff. He’s an exceptional cornerback … This is the most physical week of practice we’ve had this year. We’re coming off of an open date, so to speak, having played last Thursday night and having the Saturday and Sunday off. We’ve been practicing good against good. That’s the only way you can get any type of look that comes close to resembling Florida … We’ll look to play the back-up quarterback on the third offensive series Saturday. We’ll have to sit down as a staff and discuss what we want to do there. Bennett (Swygert) has been running second team, but we’ll have to see.”

* Injury update: TB Demetris Summers is out with a concussion; however, the USC medical staff says that Summers’ headaches have subsided and the freshman has started to do some light running away from practice … LB Rod Thomas (ankle sprain) is not expected to play Saturday against the Gators.

*Thursday media availability: Head coach Lou Holtz will be available to the media following practice at approximately 6 p.m. in the press room behind the lobby of the football building.