Aug. 1, 2008

The University of South Carolina football team opened its fall camp on Friday night in helmets and shorts with a couple of thousand spectators on hand. Among those who enjoyed watching the Gamecocks go through the two-hour session was University President Harris Pastides, Gamecock men’s basketball coach Darrin Horn and head track & field coach Curtis Frye.

Following Friday’s practice, Head Coach Steve Spurrier had some thoughts on which players stood out on Friday:

“Tommy (Beecher) obviously has done a lot of work this summer. Tommy threw the ball pretty doggone well. He’s going into his fourth year here and is about as knowledgeable as any quarterback I’ve ever had. C.C. Whitlock was encouraging. I saw him running around a lot better tonight for some reason tonight than he did in spring practice. We have to find somebody besides Kenny (McKinley) to throw to, I know that. Hopefully Dion (LeCorn) should be fine. But those other guys like Matt Clements and Joe Hills need to come around. Ryan Doerr punted the ball pretty well. Mike Davis is the fastest he’s ever been in his life – he’s in the best condition of his life so he should be. If we can get ahead, the ballcarriers get a lot more carries.”

In position changes, Melvin Ingram and Clark Gaston have moved to the defensive line. Junior college transfer Jarriel King began his Carolina career at left tackle. “We’ll give him every opportunity to see if he can help us there. I felt like we needed a big strong guy on the offensive line. Somebody who could push someone around and not get pushed around so much.”

The Gamecocks will return to the Bluff Road practice fields on Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. That practice will again be open to the public.