March 21, 2006

After taking the weekend off, the University of South Carolina football squad returned to the Bluff Road practice fields this afternoon for their fifth of 15 spring practice sessions. The Gamecocks worked for two hours in the cool temperatures but were able to avoid the raindrops. Following the practice, Coach Steve Spurrier addressed the media:

“Just a normal spring practice today. Nothing too much exciting happened. We did have one player break his finger though, (cornerback) Nitron (Stork). Hopefully he will be back by the spring game.

“Right now we’re working (Mike West) at (wide receiver). He gives us sort of a big, thick guy who can go in there and block the safety. He’s not bad catching the ball. He has a chance there. It may be a position he can excel in. I know Steve (Spurrier), Jr.’s excited about coaching him, so we’ll see where it winds up.

“(Junior college transfer linebacker) Jasper (Brinkley) is doing well. In fact, he’s hitting too hard right now, we’ve got to slow him down. He’s a tough, good-looking inside linebacker. He looks like those linebackers that play at Georgia and Tennessee. He’s got an excellent chance (to start).

“We’re slowly coming around. We’re doing some new things defensively, hopefully that are simple. It’s a different defense than what we ran last spring. Hopefully we’re more sound fundamentally.

“We’re going to practice again tomorrow, then Friday and Saturday this week. We’ll scrimmage Saturday morning at about 10:30 open to the public if anyone wants to come out. We’ll let the young guys have a go at it.”