April 12, 2007

With Oklahoma head coach Bobby Stoops looking on, the University of South Carolina football squad worked out for nearly two hours Thursday afternoon at the Bluff Road practice fields. It marked the Gamecocks’ 13th practice of the spring. They will practice for the final time on Friday at 4:15 p.m. in preparation for Saturday’s Garnet & Black Spring Game.

At the end of the practice session, the third team units had a chance to scrimmage for about 15 minutes.

Following Monday’s practice, Coach Spurrier met with the media:

“We had a nice little scrimmage with the young guys. Chris Smelley threw a lot of good balls – threw a couple of touchdowns and showed remarkable improvement from the other day. Hopefully he will have a good game Saturday. It’s going to be Chris Smelley against Blake Mitchell. They’re the only two (quarterbacks) who will play a lot. Michael McQueeney may get a little action for both teams.

“Usually out of the spring game you find a player who demonstrates that he can play in the stadium, on television, in front of a lot of fans.

On the status of Tommy Beecher: “Beecher has a sprained shoulder. He needs two or three weeks of rest.

On Bobby Stoops addressing the team: “I always ask the coaches I admire and respect to say a few words to our team. He basically just tells them how it is to win a championship. If we’re ever going to win one here we have to earn it. We have to pay the price. We have to have 100 percent participation in our summer program, and we’ve never had that since I’ve been here. We all know it’s voluntary, but teams that want to win don’t have to beg guys to work out.”