Aug. 19, 2006

The South Carolina Gamecocks spent a little over two hours at the Bluff Road practice fields on Saturday as they continued their preparations for the season opener at Mississippi State on Thursday, Aug. 31. The squad worked out in shoulder pads and shorts in the hot afternoon sun, with temperatures in the low 90s.

Among those who watched from the sidelines were wide receiver Mike West (hamstring), fullback Clark Gaston (shoulder), safety Brandon Isaac (hamstring and shoulder) and safety Nick Prochak (hamstring). Defensive tackle Matt Raysor returned to full practice after injuring his foot in a non-contact drill on Friday.

Following the practice, Head Coach Steve Spurrier met with the media:

“We looked about like always. We just are doing the little finishing touches right now. We’ll do some special teams work tomorrow. We’re getting close to hopefully being ready to play. The guys practiced pretty well today.”

On the offense: “Our guys have been scoring some touchdowns (in the scrimmages). Our guys have done pretty decent in the scrimmages. At times, our defense looks pretty good, too. We’re much improved from this time last year.”

On the defense: “We’ve got some who play very fast. Eric Norwood, a freshman kid out here probably plays as fast as anybody on defense right now. He and Rodney Paulk. They’re all over the place. We try to slow them down a little bit. But the guys are hustling. They’re all hustling well. I think we’ll play faster overall.”

On the freshmen offensive linemen: “At this point, (Hutch Eckerson and Garrett Anderson) are definitely on the second line. So with an injury, they’d be starters.”

On giving out more scholarships: “We’ve got several we’re going to give away. We’re going to make some guys happy. We’ve already got Thomas Coleman and Scott Morgan on scholarship. We’ll probably put four or five more on. We’ve got plenty of room. I think we only got 72 or 73 on scholarship. We can loan some to Coach Odom in basketball if you can do that. In football, you really need about 55 who can really play. The other 25 to 30 are scout team guys but it would be helpful if they eventually became players.”

The Gamecocks will return to the practice fields on Sunday, as they are scheduled to work out from 7:30 – 9 p.m. All practices are closed.