Sept. 21, 2005

The South Carolina football team practiced for two hours Wednesday afternoon as they continued their preparations for Saturday’s 7 p.m. contest with Troy. Following the workout, head coach Steve Spurrier addressed the media:

“For whatever it’s worth, I think we practiced a little better on Tuesday and Wednesday this week than last week. Weather or not that means we’ll play better, we’ll have to wait and see. Hopefully we’ll represent our school, our university and our team in a more proud way this week. Looking forward to it.”

“We did a little extra hitting yesterday, but not a whole bunch. We need to hit a little more on Tuesday’s than we did in the past.”

“James (Thompson) is going to get a chance to play this week. Jamon Meredith we hope to get in there also. We’ve got to let a lot of people play and see how they can do. Antonio Heffner hasn’t had much of a chance. I’d like to see him play a quarter and see what happens. Blake (Mitchell) is doing ok. We need to look around to see who can play in the games.”

“Obviously we didn’t get the ball to (Syvelle Newton) as well as we need to try to do. So hopefully he can get his hands on it a little bit more than in the past.”

“When I took this job I knew it wasn’t going to be what some people thought it was going to be in the first year. We’re going to sign 25, 25, 25 (recruits) as best we can for three or four years in a row, and then hopefully we’ll have a whole bunch of football players that are very comparable to Georgia, Tennessee and all those other schools. That’s what we’ve got to do to get to their level.”

“We’ve played two really good teams. We had a shot at one of them and the other we got embarrassed. We are what we are. We’ve got to scratch and claw, but that’s ok. Our goal of 6-5 is still out there. We lost to two good teams. We played so poorly, we’ve got no way to go but up. If we come with an attitude of playing all out, we’ve got a chance.”

INJURY REPORT: Defensive back Yvan Banag (shoulder) returned to practice. Tight end Jonathan Hannah is out with a right ankle sprain. Linebacker Lance Laury was in street clothes after undergoing successful surgery to remove the infection from his right elbow earlier in the week and is out for Saturday. Offensive guard Freddy Saint-Preux has an injured right ankle and remains doubtful for Saturday’s game. Running back Taylor Rank (ankle sprain), defensive end Shea McKeen (lower back) and tight end Andy Boyd (right knee sprain) are all out indefinitely.