March 28, 2006

The University of South Carolina football squad returned to the Bluff Road practice fields on Tuesday afternoon to conduct their ninth of 15 spring practice sessions. The Gamecocks worked extensively on special teams through the first hour of the two-hour session. Following practice, Head Coach Steve Spurrier addressed the media:

“Just a normal practice today – nothing too exciting happened. We’re going to try to scrimmage a little bit on Friday about 4:30 in the stadium. Open to the public. We’d like to see if we can get a little crowd out and make some of our guys nervous in front of them.”

“Good luck to our basketball team tonight. Hopefully we can get the semifinal game and head into the finals.”

About Saturday’s scrimmage: “We did some good things and some lousy things. It was good for us. The effort was pretty good. Nobody got hurt, which is always most important. It was a worthwhile scrimmage.”

About quarterback Blake Mitchell: “He’s starting to learn what’s going on and what’s happening. He should play much, much better this year. His timing is much better. Just his knowledge of the game (is better). Until you really study the game, and study coverages and know where your guys are all of the time, that’s when you play quarterback the right way. He’s come a long way and can still get better.”

On cornerback Carlos Thomas: “He’s doing ok. He needs to work on his tackling like everybody else. He’s a cover guy. He’s quick and should be fine back there.”

Injury Report: Cornerback Nitron Stork had successful surgery the middle finger of his right hand on Monday. He will miss the remainder of the spring. Defensive back Stoney Woodson did not practice on Tuesday due to a hamstring injury.