Sept. 11, 2006

Defensive tackle Marque Hall has been lost for the season with a left knee injury, University of South Carolina Head Coach Steve Spurrier announced following Monday’s practice. The Gamecocks are preparing for Saturday’s 7 p.m. contest against Wofford College.

In addition to Hall, offensive tackle Gurminder Thind will miss the Wofford game. Thind will be in a boot all week as he recovers from a right foot injury suffered in Saturday’s loss to Georgia. Freshman offensive lineman Kevin Young underwent surgery on his left shoulder and will redshirt the 2006 season.

Coach Spurrier post-practice quotes:

“Marque is going to have surgery. He’s out for the year. It’s unfortunate. Our D-linemen don’t wear leg braces – I don’t know if that would have helped or not. He’ll get a redshirt year since it happened in the second game. He’ll be out and hopefully back strong ready to go next year. We’re getting Stanley (Doughty) ready a little bit more – Stanley and Joel Reaves.”

On replacing Thind: “Hutch Eckerson went in there the other night. We were getting Hutch ready to play anyway. Gurminder struggled mightily the other night. So Hutch is in there.”

On the development of Matt Raysor at guard: “We’re trying to get him ready to play. We’re going to give him a chance to see if he can play some.”

On changes in the lineup: “We’ve got to keep trying players. We’re not the smartest coaches in the world – I never said we were. That’s why you keep trying a lot of guys to find out who your best players are.”

On the quarterback situation: “We’ll announce that later in the week.”

On the lack of effort: “It’s discouraging. I don’t know how to explain it. Maybe we don’t know how to coach. I don’t know what the problem is. It was discouraging watching some of our guys attempt to block. So we’ll keep trying some new guys and see if we can’t get better blocking and better effort. Very discouraging – but that’s what it is. Players are a reflection of their coaches. Coach Hunt was embarrassed. I’m embarrassed. We’re going to try not to be embarrassed this game. Simple as that.”