Aug. 10, 2008

The South Carolina Gamecock football team returned to the Bluff Road “Proving Grounds” Sunday night for a two-hour practice one day after its first full scrimmage of the fall. The team was dressed in helmets, shoulder pads and shorts. The squad will have its first “two-a-day” on Monday, working out in both the morning and again in the evening. Both practices will be closed.

On the injury front, sophomore quarterback Chris Smelley did not practice on Sunday after sustaining a right thumb sprain during Saturday’s scrimmage. Third-team quarterback Stephen Garcia was limited on Sunday with a right ankle injury, which also occurred during the scrimmage. Senior defensive tackle Marque Hall did not practice a day after the scrimmage to give his surgically-repaired knee a day off. Junior offensive lineman Garrett Anderson tweaked his right shoulder and sat out the second half of Sunday’s practice. On the positive side, junior tight end Jared Cook participated in the non-contact drills, while sophomore defensive tackle Melvin Ingram was full go. Senior tailback Mike Davis participated in more of the running drills tonight and could practice some on Monday.

“Chris Smelley jammed his thumb on a throw – hit a rusher, and Garcia sprained his ankle a little bit, so they were both out tonight,” said Head Coach Steve Spurrier following the practice session. “So Aramis (Hillary) and Reid (McCollum) got some work behind Tommy (Beecher).”

After looking at the tape of Saturday’s scrimmage Coach Spurrier said, “It was about like all of them – a lot of mistakes. There was some good plays, some good plays by the defense, too. But it wasn’t real pretty. Hopefully we can get better. Tommy (Beecher) was pretty decent, but we didn’t hit any big pass plays. It’s early in practice. We didn’t want to be perfect yesterday. Hopefully we can be as good as we can be at the first game. We still have open competition around here,” added Coach Spurrier. “We don’t know who the players are yet. So we’ll keep juggling around and see who we think are our best players.”