Nov. 19, 2007

The South Carolina Gamecock football team (6-5) returned to the Bluff Road practice fields Monday afternoon after enjoying a three-day weekend. The Gamecocks began work on the final week of the regular season, which culminates on Saturday with the annual Palmetto State battle against the nationally-ranked Clemson Tigers (8-3). Game time is set for 7 p.m. at Williams-Brice Stadium. The game will be televised nationally on ESPN2 with Gary Thorne providing the play-by-play, Bob Davie handling the color commentary and Stacey Dales working the sidelines.

“Everybody came back (from the weekend off), so we’ll get ready to play the best we can Saturday night and see what happens,” said Head Coach Steve Spurrier following practice. “(Sophomore cornerback) Captain (Munnerlyn) is out for the year,” noted Coach Spurrier. “He’s having his foot looked at by a specialist up in Charlotte early this week.

“We’ve had a week off,” continued Coach Spurrier. “They had a big game that didn’t work out for them. It was a down-to-the-wire game. Clemson was very unfortunate. I thought Clemson was the better team, but sometimes it doesn’t work out. It just didn’t work out for them. I’m hoping that our guys will play a lot harder and with a lot more effort and that we don’t get run over. Offensively – take care of the ball and hopefully play smarter. Boston College did a good job of holding Clemson to not very many running yards. Hopefully, we have athletes close to what Boston College has.”

Coach Spurrier also dismissed rumors circulating about his interest in other job opportunities. “We had a good (recruiting) class last year. As you know, they’re all freshmen. Some are redshirting and some are playing. I think we’re going to have another very good recruiting class. We believe we’re going to be a lot better team than we are right now, in the future. That’s how I believe. Hopefully that will come true.” When asked if he would be there for the freshmen’s tenure, Coach Spurrier said, “I certainly hope so. If we keep going like this, I may get fired before their tenure’s over.”

The Gamecocks will return to the practice fields on Tuesday afternoon.