Sept. 12, 2007

The 17th-ranked South Carolina Gamecock football team practiced for two hours in a light drizzle at the Bluff Road practice fields on Wednesday as they continued preparations for Saturday’s non-conference tilt with in-state foe South Carolina State. That contest will kick off at 7:05 p.m. at Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia. The game will be available throughout the Palmetto State on a pay-per-view basis, and throughout the country as part of ESPN’s GamePlan package.

“A little bit of a drizzly day,” said Head Coach Steve Spurrier following the practice session. “It felt pretty good. The guys appreciate the cool weather a little bit, so we had a decent practice. Nothing exciting. But we’ll be ready. South Carolina State is looking forward to it and we are to. It should be a heck of a game. We’re trying to play every week better than the last week. Good teams do that. We’re trying to be a good team so we should play better than we played at Georgia. It’s as simple as that. We should play better the next week than this week and so forth. And that’s what we try to do. At the end of the year they say what your record is. This is one of 12 games. So we’ll play as hard as we can. We have our starters ready to play the whole game.”

Coach Spurrier noted that while Kendrick Ellis is still working with the defense, Terrence Campbell has transitioned to offensive guard. “Hopefully (Kendrick) can get in there. He looks pretty good in practice. He’s too valuable on defense. Campbell’s been playing a little bit of guard. He’s running with the second group right now.” Coach Spurrier mentioned that Garrett Anderson, Lemuel Jeanpierre and Gurminder Thind are battling for the starting guard spots and all are expected to play on Saturday.

Several players were held out of practice on Wednesday and are out for this weekend including linebacker Dustin Lindsey (right knee), offensive guard Kevin Young (left ankle), linebacker Yvan Banag (right knee) and quarterback Chris Smelley (right shoulder). Tailback Bobby Wallace (right shoulder) was not in a sling on Wednesday but is doubtful for Saturday, as is wide receiver Chris Culliver (left ankle). Defensive lineman Nathan Pepper (right leg) returned to practice on Wednesday and is listed as probable. Coach Spurrier mentioned that Wallace was a candidate to be redshirted this season.