July 31, 2006

South Carolina head football coach Steve Spurrier addressed the media as part of his annual golf outing Monday in Columbia. Here are some of his thoughts on the upcoming season:

Opening Statement
“I really think I’ve got one of the best coaching staffs I’ve ever had in 16 years, I’m serious. We’ve got some new guys who have helped us, plus I think our guys are going to coach better this year. I think we have learned a little bit more about what we are trying to do and we are going to coach better than last year.”

“I know I had to yell at our guys a little bit about offseason workouts. We had five to seven players that are not as committed as well as we should, but one group I want to brag on a little bit is the offensive line, and I’ve said several times already this year I think the offensive line will play better than the group last year. They’ve worked harder in the offseason. They’ve been close to 100 percent from what our strength coach tells us, and as a group, they’ve probably been the best on the team.”

“James Thompson is ready to become a ballplayer now. Chris White is in the best shape he’s ever been in, Thomas Coleman has really improved his strength and was able to make all the runs the other day. Gurminder Thind is a guy who’s worked extremely hard. He works on his own. I saw some guys in the weight room the other day working out on their own, which is very unusual around here. I’m sure they do it on their own some, but we don’t see them very often. They do go out and throw the ball around and cover each other, the quarterbacks, receivers and DBs from what I hear, so they’ve done that. Anyway, it’s good to see some guys doing a little extra on their own, which Gurminder was doing the other day.”

“We are approaching the year again with some cautious optimism. I’ve said before if we win more than we lose that will be a good year. I don’t think we need to put a lot of pressure on our guys that they’re supposed to win so many right now. We’re still building this thing, but we could have a pretty good team. I don’t know what’s going to happen. I just know looking back at a lot of teams I’ve been able to coach, we’ve been able to win a lot of games with not maybe a dominant defense, but a good defense. I think our defense will play better this year too. I think we’ll be much better organized. Our players will be more knowledgeable about what they’re trying to do, and I think those sophomores and freshmen maybe will really represent us as a group that plays with a lot of effort, that plays with as much effort as we can, so I’m looking forward to seeing what our defense does this year too.”

“Obviously, we feel good that we won seven games last year. We had a chance to win one or two more and had a chance to lose two or three other more. When you play a whole bunch of close ones and you win more than you lose, sometimes you count your blessings. Some of those teams lose all the close ones, then you can really have a bad year, so hopefully we’ll again win our share of the close games and go from there.”

“If we are going to have a big year this year, obviously our quarterback Blake Mitchell will have to play extremely well. I think our running backs Cory Boyd and Mike Davis are two really good ones. Bobby Wallace may jump in there and make some long runs this year, who knows.”

“Our receiving corps, with Sidney Rice and Kenny McKinley; Mike West is a fast player over there just learning how to play receiver. Maybe he can make some plays. The freshman Moe Brown is one of the fastest kids on the team, so he’ll get a good chance out there also.”

“Defensively, I don’t know who to talk about right now. We’ll have to wait and see who the star players are going to be over there. We think a lot of them have got a chance to play well.”

“Marvin Sapp hopefully is going to be our leading tackler, hopefully one of our safeties won’t do it this year, although one freshman you might want to keep an eye on is Emanuel Cook. I think right now we’re putting him where Ko Simpson played. From what I hear, Emanuel runs extremely well and is one of the strongest freshmen reporting, so he’s physically ready to play as a freshman. Other than that, Fred Bennett is about the lone returning starter, though I’m sure we had a few others start off and on.”

“We’re excited about Marque Hall. Marque has gained about 25 good pounds and he’s ready to step in there and play defensive tackle and hopefully make a bunch of plays in there. Stanley Doughty is always a wait-and-see type guy, but hopefully he’s lost a little weight and can play to his potential, because he could be a good player in there for us if his weight is right and his mind is right, so hopefully he’s going to do that.”

“In our kicking game, Ryan Succop of course is our kickoff man. He’s one of the best in the country. I don’t know who the extra point/field goal is going to be. We’re still having some tryouts. Coach Chatham and us are going to have tryouts here quickly and try and settle on who we think our best kicker is. Ryan Succop could be our punter.”