Nov. 5, 2007

The South Carolina Gamecock football team (6-4, 3-4 SEC) began preparations for Saturday’s SEC showdown with Eastern Division rival Florida on Monday night. Saturday’s game is set for a 7:45 p.m. kick at Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia. The game will be televised on ESPN with Mike Patrick handling the play-by-play, Todd Blackledge providing the color commentary and Holly Rowe working the sidelines.

Both cornerback Captain Munnerlyn and safety Emanuel Cook watched from the sidelines on Monday. “Sprained foot and sprained ankle,” said Head Coach Steve Spurrier of his two starting defensive backs following the workout. “Hopefully they’ll be ready to play.”

The Gamecock offense has put up some big numbers over the past two weeks, generating nearly 1000 yards of offense against Tennessee and Arkansas, but Coach Spurrier seemed unimpressed. “Insignificant. We got behind early in both games and had to throw more than probably we needed to. Most teams that throw more than 50 times seldom win.”

Coach Spurrier noted that he was impressed with what he’s seen from the Florida defense this season. “They don’t make many mistakes. It’s a whole different bunch (than last season). They play hard, play smart, love to play and are a well-coached bunch. They’ve hung in there pretty well.”

Coach Spurrier was confident that defensive coordinator Tyrone Nix and the rest of the staff will have the defense ready to go this week after surrendering 48 points and over 600 yards of offense to Arkansas. “We’ll get them ready to play. That was really the first lousy defensive game we’ve had all year. We’ll find out how Arkansas plays against Tennessee. If they can’t run against Tennessee, it’s all us. They didn’t run far against Auburn, but maybe Auburn has a lot tougher defense than most people. We just need to play ball and be competitive. We weren’t very competitive last game. We’re looking forward to this week and representing our team and our university a lot better than last week.”

The Gamecocks will return to the practice fields on Tuesday.