April 13, 2005

The USC football team practiced and scrimmaged Wednesday afternoon in chilly temperatures at the USC practice field and then scrimmaged at Williams-Brice Stadium. It will be USC’s last practice prior to the Spring Game on Saturday, April 16 (1 pm kickoff, free admission and parking).

Coach Spurrier commented on practice afterwards:

“It was an unusual scrimmage. The offense won fairly easily (39-14). Maybe the defense was overly confident. Antonio Heffner was the best quarterback today. He makes plays and he’s not scared when he comes to play in the stadium. He was impressive today.

“Cory Boyd made a long run today. You can tell he’s a good tailback. It was a good day for him. It was a good day for the offense and not a good day for the defense.

“We look forward to the scrimmage (spring game) on Saturday. We look for a pretty day with a good crowd and hope nobody gets hurt. We won’t a No. 1 quarterback. Antonio will start on one side and Blake Mitchell will be the No. 1 on the other side. We will try to divide the teams as evenly as we can and go play. We should have enough to do that. We want to make it as realistic as possible. We will limit the offensive and defensive formations – like an all-star game. Most schools do that with their spring games. We’ll try to run our offense and score a few touchdowns and go from there.”

The following are some quickie stats from the scrimmage:

The quarterbacks:

Blake Mitchell was 0 for 2; Brett Nichols was 1 of 3 (38 yards); and Antonio Heffner was 6 of 8 (147 yards) with 14 yds. rushing and 1 TD pass and 1 TD (rushed 1 yard).

The top receivers:

Noah Whiteside: 20 yards (1 catch); Syvelle Newton 23 yards (1 catch) and Sidney Rice 81 yards (3 catches); James Scott 9 yards, 1 TD (1 catch);

The top rushers:

Cory Boyd: 46 yards (2 carries); Daccus Turman: 47 yards (3 carries), Albert Ashcraft: 7 yards (1 carry), Jermaine Sims: 23 yards (3 carries); Sidney Rice: 29 yards (1 carry).

Defensive Stats:

Ricardo Hurley – 5 tackles

TFL: Ryan Brown – 1

Sacks: Ty Erving, 1 sack, 1 fumble forced

Fumble recovery: Terrell Davis – 1

Interceptions: Ty Erving: 1; Tremaine Tyler: 1

Updated Injury Report:

OG Eric Stroman: foot (day to day), DL Charles Silas: left ankle (day to day); DL Matt Raysor: right ankle (day-to-day), WR Travis Lee: neck strain (out); S Ko Simpson (day to day, limited contact); OL James Thompson (day to day).