April 14, 2007

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Head Coach Steve Spurrier
Postgame Quotes
Garnet and Black Spring Game
April 14, 2007

“Basically, what I told the team is that the defense got the best of the offense on both teams. Cory Boyd has some good runs here and there. Chris Smelley was 10-for-22 (passing), better than the other quarterback.”

“We didn’t have many highlight plays. It was tough for the offense. When you get dominated up front, it’s hard to find a ball play or two.”

“The offensive line got steamrolled by the defensive line a little bit. Maybe we threw the ball too much. In the spring game, I think that’s what you’re supposed to do, throw it a lot.”

Regarding Blake Mitchell:
“Blake struggled today, that last one he threw out of ball park. Today was a lot like last year. He was 10-of-27 last year and 13-of-39 this year. It’s disappointing that when we did have a few guys open didn’t hit them. I understand the protection wasn’t all that good. He missed some guys he had a chance to hit. We’ll watch the tape and I’m sure we’ll see some things with the protection. There was a lot of pressure on our quarterbacks.”

“Blake is our guy. Hopefully he will return to form.”

“Give our defensive kids credit. Our wide receivers don’t get very well open. Until we get some guys who can run past them. Kenny (McKinley) has ability to get by them. He ran a nice slant and fade but we couldn’t hit him on the goal line.”

Regarding the Defense:
“The defense got the best of offense today. I think we’re a lot better on defense. Until we beat somebody in a real game, I don’t need to be talking. It seems like every time we have a good performance and I say something, we don’t follow it up. We need to do it in real games before I start bragging. The defensive guys are handling the offense right now.”

“We have better players up front. Our corners played better – Captain (Munnerlyn), Stoney (Woodson), Carlos (Thomas).”

“After every spring game, I say it’s not our final team out there. You dilute team when you split them up. The freshman recruiting class is very good supposedly; we’ll find out.”

Regarding the crowd and atmosphere:
“Thanks to the Gamecock fans, the crowd and Hootie and the Blowfish. It was a marvelous day, beautiful day. The storm held off. Our players were excited during warm-ups. To me, this was as big time a spring game as there was in the country. Some places may have bigger crowds, but not the show we had with Hootie and the Blowfish.”

“Those guys love Carolina and love Carolina Football. We’re very thankful they helped bring in a crowd.”

South Carolina Player Quotes — Garnet and Black Spring Game

Freddie Brown
“We played pretty well today. The team competed hard and everybody got better. We need to work hard every day, work together and get better. The game was about what I expected, except Marvin Sapp getting hurt. But otherwise we stayed pretty much healthy and worked hard.”

Blake Mitchell
“It was not the best game I’ve played, but we have a ways to go obviously and that’s why we have the off-season. I need to throw a lot this summer. I need to still make better decisions and know where to go with the ball. The teams were about equal and we just wanted to go out and have fun with it. You are only as good as your last outing. I will use this game to motivate myself this summer. I will work out hard, run, lift and get guys together for pass drills a few times a week to get the timing down.”

Regarding the crowd:
“There were a lot of people – we had a really good showing with our fans. We appreciate it. I wasn’t really surprised because they usually support us and come out, but it was nice today.”

Emanuel Cook
“I felt I did okay today. We looked pretty good – we made some mistakes here and there, but it was fun. I expected it would be tough and everything that happened today was mostly expected.”

Regarding the crowd:
“I was definitely surprised. I knew we had some good fans, but I didn’t know there would be that many today.”

Jasper Brinkley
“I could have done better than the outcome, but that’s why we have the summer. We are ahead of where we were last year. We aren’t saying we are going to win the SEC, but we want to get better this next season. We still make mistakes and we need to clean those up. We have to correct those.”

Regarding Carolna’s new Under Armour uniforms:
“They are really nice. They fit really tight and really nice. We like them.”

Chris Smelley
“It was a pretty decent game for us. We had big drives in the first half and then things slowed down a bit. We need to work together on every play and work together as a team. I had a good time out there today. I think it was good to be back there and have a little pressure on me. The defense had a chance to be really good today and we have a chance to be really good this year.”

Cory Boyd
“We still have work to do. I had a good feeling being out there. We tried to show the other team up and being my last spring game, it felt good to be a part of this. I’ve won four in a row.”

Regarding his one yard touchdown run in which he faked a throw:
“I was definitely going to throw it, but the tight end got jammed up so I just ran it in. Before that play, Coach Spurrier told me to make a good decision.”

Kenny McKinley
“I played alright. I finally got a touchdown. There is always room for improvement. We did a lot of really basic plays today, but the defense played great.”

Regarding Carolina’s new Under Armour uniforms:
“I love the new uniforms. When you look better, you play better.”

Eric Norwood
“For the most part the defense played pretty good as a whole. We need to work to get more consistent on getting off the field on third down.

Regarding how he can do that:
“We will work hard on summer conditioning and to be more relentless on third down. We have to work to not ease up on third down.”