Dec. 28, 2005

Shreveport, La. – South Carolina head football coach Steve Spurrier met with the media following a brief practice on Wednesday. Following are some of his comments:

General Remarks:
“We had a Thursday-type practice on Wednesday. We did a little review, so we hope to play our best Friday afternoon.”

Regarding the importance of Friday’s game:
“It’s the same as every game. Every game is the most important of our lives. It’s the most important for me because hopefully I’ll have something to say about it and will have some control over it. For our players, it’s the most important game of their lives, right here at the Independence Bowl, so we’ll see how it shapes out.”

Regarding the bowl system versus a playoff in Division I football:
“College football is different than any other sport. As long as everyone understands that, then they’ll all quit worrying about a playoff. They don’t want a playoff for Division I college football, they want everyone to go to a bowl game, so as a school that right now is a long way off from the national championship, we enjoy if we have six or more wins and go to a bowl game and that’s what we do. That’s what college football is all about. You try to win more than you lose and have a bowl trip for your players to experience that part of college football, so that’s just what we do.”

Regarding the impact the weather could have on the game:
“It should be 70 degrees and hopefully not too windy. The wind sort of comes and goes here. Hopefully it won’t be too windy and both teams can pitch it around and see what happens.”

Regarding any injuries to his players:
“Everyone’s healthy and accounted for.”

Regarding if he had ever been to Shreveport before the current trip:
“I was here recruiting Brock Berlin and actually saw him yesterday. He’s a fine young man, but he just happened to be behind Rex Grossman at Florida and of course Rex turned out to be one of the best they ever had there at Florida, so he transferred to Miami and had a successful career there. That was the other time that I’ve been here. There are a lot of celebrities that live in Shreveport. Billy Joe Tolliver and Timmy Brando, and of course the golfers Hal Sutton and David Toms. Anyway, it’s a nice town and a big town…bigger than most people think back east.”