Feb. 1, 2006

Columbia, S.C. – South Carolina head football coach Steve Spurrier met with the media to discuss this year’s signing class.

“We believe we have added another outstanding group of guys to the University of South Carolina. We believe it is a very similar recruiting class to last year, you never know until about five years from now. We certainly feel the offensive linemen, the defensive linemen and a few players here and there will help our team immediately. We also signed several players we hope to redshirt and they will become fifth year players.”

(comments on each player signed today)

“Garrett Anderson is the kind of guy we really like having here. He wants to be redshirted and we are going to try to do that. He wants to go here five years, graduate and be a heck of a player for us. He’s an all-state player. He graded out 93 percent (in high school), that’s very good. That’s a lot higher than anybody we had, I can assure you of that.”

“Pierre Andrews is a kid who has never lost a high school football game. He never lost a game at Independence. He’s a young man who can play center or guard. He may redshirt. He’s a good recruit for us.”

“Heath Batchelor is another offensive lineman from Haleyville, Ala. He earned all-state and is an excellent student, a member of National Honor Society. He’s 6-7, 287, a real big, strong kid. He’s the kind of offensive lineman that some of the other teams we played against (had). We had to fight off some other schools at the end but he stuck with us and we are excited about him.”

“Casper Brinkley, he’s the twin brother of Jasper who is here now. We have another set of twins. He went to Georgia Military. Big, strong, will have a chance to help us right away.”

“Ryan Broadhead is another offensive lineman from Leesburg, Ga. He may be redshirted. He will be here five years.”

“Moe Brown, not many of you may know, but he’s part of the national high school shuttle hurdle relay record. I saw the tape on a home visit. His mom put it on tape. He set the record two years ago. I think he has a chance to win the hurdles this year. He’s a wide receiver and I think he has a big-time career ahead of him here at South Carolina. He’s been committed to us for awhile.”

“Seaver Brown, an offensive lineman from Clearwater, Fla., he could be redshirted as well. A big, strong kid that played in the high school All-Star game between California and Florida.

“Terrence Campbell is a defensive end from down in South Cobb near Atlanta. He’s a pretty good basketball player also. We think he is going to be a very good defensive lineman.”

“Emanuel Cook was a state 6A player of the year in his area of Florida. He led Palm Beach Gardens to their first state championship. He ran for 243 yards and four touchdowns in that game. He could start at tailback but he could play strong safety, nickelback, outside linebacker. He’s a tough football player. He’s a really good guy to have on our team.”

“Kenrick Ellis is also from the West Palm Beach area. He’s maybe the biggest guy we have signed. Hopefully we can have him around 315, 320. He can move and as you can see was rated very high. He made a lot of tackles and is an active big-guy.”

“Hutch Eckerson from Lumberton, N.C., is rated as one of the best players in the state of NC. He may play right away, we just don’t know. We tell all these offensive linemen to come in ready to play and if it looks like we need to redshirt you, we will. We will redshirt at least half of them. We should be in good shape for the next four, five years with the amount of linemen we signed.”

“Clark Gaston is a young man who is already on campus. He has a chance to play a lot of fullback for us. He’s about 232 right now, 238, he’s a good hard worker in the weight room. He knows his role there as a fullback.”

“Chris Hail is a WR/DB from the Atlanta area. He’s the two-time state champion in the triple jump. He’s an excellent athlete. He may start at WR, wherever we can get him on the field first.”

“Jarriel King, of course we signed him last year and had to re-sign him. Hopefully he passes his test and we can get him up here soon. A defensive lineman up to about 300 lbs, hopefully he will be on board with us.”

“Captain Munnerlyn is a DB/WR down in Mobile, Ala. He’s a real fast kid, maybe one of the fastest players in this group. He can kick return, punt return and has a chance to play right away for us.”

“Eric Norwood is a defensive end from Atlanta. He made a bunch of tackles, had 11 sacks and caught a few TD passes. We are not sure where we are going to use him yet. We think he is a very good athlete and is going to be a good player for us.”

“Rodney Paulk, a local product from Richland Northeast here in Columbia. He made a whole bunch of tackles. There is a guy who did all the tackling and he “was the active player in a defense that was one of the best in the state. He is a good kid, wanted to go here, he was an early commit.”

“Nick Prochak is another guy who wanted to come to Carolina. I think he came to about all our home games. He’s just a good athlete that can play a lot of positions. He’s a student body president also, a smart young man who will do well here.”

“Vandaral Schackleford is a good looking linebacker from the Atlanta area. He was Metro Atlanta Player of the Year and is also a good student on the honor roll.”

“Chris Smelley, a quarterback and there is a long list of things he has done. What we like about him is that he has played quarterback for a long time and he has thrown a lot of passes from eighth grade on. His career TD is about the most in Alabama. He’s a guy who is a good athlete, also a catcher on the baseball team. We are excited to see what he can do here as a quarterback.”

“Darrian Stewart is a defensive back from out of Huntsville, Ala. He led his team to a pretty good record, also an excellent basketball player and runs track. He is an all-around good athlete.”

“Kevin Young is a big offensive lineman out of the Clearwater, Fla. area. He’s a big kid. We will put him at guard and see how he can compete with the other guys.”

“We are excited about all of these guys. We think they are going to help us. How many redshirt? It will play its way out. We tell them all to get ready to play and if they are not going to play much we will hold them out.”

(on the quarterbacks) “We tell them all to prepare and get ready. Obviously we want somebody to push Blake (Mitchell). I don’t know if it will be Cade Thompson, Tommy Beecher or Chris Smelley. We want someone to push Blake to be the best he can be. Blake’s our starter until somebody beats him out.”

“To tell you the truth, I don’t like over-signing. Last year, the last four or five came. We thought of the last five, maybe two would come, but we sort of missed on a couple we thought. We are right at the limit.”

(on signing players from the state of South Carolina) “Hopefully next year we can sign more, in the seven-nine range. We of course have already started on the juniors like all the other schools. I think it was similar to last year (reaction). Last year we got those last four, five guys. You have to keep it all in perspective. This is an excellent group, yes we missed some guys, but with all the offensive linemen, I always felt that if you can get the big guys you have a chance.”

(on next year’s team) “I think we will be a better team next year. I don’t know if we will win more games but hopefully we can act like we can block and tackle better. Certainly we weren’t very good at that. I’m still very irritated at the way we played in the bowl game. It was sort of pathetic to watch some of our guys try to tackle in the second half. It was pretty pathetic watching our guys try to block some. So, anyway, we lost the game. Hopefully, we can get a bunch of guys around here, it hurts them a little bit to lose. Hopefully we can improve our attitude around here with this new class.”