March 20, 2007

The University of South Carolina football squad went through a two-hour session at the Bluff Road practice fields on Tuesday in perfect weather conditions, the first of 15 spring practice sessions for the squad. The team, practicing for the first time since its 2006 Liberty Bowl win over Houston, worked out without pads on Tuesday.

The next scheduled practice is set for Thursday afternoon at 4 p.m. The team will also practice on Friday at 4, then will hold a scrimmage on Saturday at 10 a.m. in Williams-Brice Stadium. All practices are open to the public and are free.

Following the day’s activities, head coach Steve Spurrier addressed the media:

“We were just in shorts, jerseys and helmets today. We put the pads on (for the first time) Friday. We’ll have a scrimmage in the stadium on Saturday, open to the public.”

On the changes to the defensive line: “We hope they’re going to be able to play. We’ll see how it works out. Casper (Brinkley) can always go back down there if we have injuries. Ryan Brown is over at fullback. I think he has a chance to be a good one. He had class today, so he was here early but had to leave early.”

“We didn’t have any beautiful plays today. The defense played some good zones and forced a lot of short throws. Nothing much happened.”

On the play of walk-on quarterback Michael McQueeney compared to the other quarterbacks in camp: “Physically he’s just like all the other guys. They’re all about 6-2 and a half, 215 to 220 pounds. They all ran between 4.74 and 4.78. If you change numbers with them, you wouldn’t know which one was out there.”

On junior college wide receiver Larry Freeman: “Larry had a pretty good first day. He proved to us he can catch the ball. He’s got a chance to really help us.”