Aug. 20, 2009

The University of South Carolina football team enjoyed its first day of fall semester classes before taking the practice field in the late afternoon on Thursday.

“It was just a routine practice today,” said head coach Steve Spurrier following the two-hour workout. “Nothing exciting happened. The defense looked good today. (Eric) Norwood was back. Nate Pepper was back. So obviously in our little offense versus defense, the offense didn’t go very far today.”

The big news of the day was the move of wide receivers Joe Hills and Matt Clements to the defensive side of the ball. Clements, a redshirt sophomore, worked at cornerback on Thursday, while Hills, a junior, played safety.

“Coach (Lorenzo) Ward said I’ll take a look at Joe Hills and Matt Clements. We have too many receivers right now trying to get in there and play so I think both of them looked pretty good over there,” said Coach Spurrier.

The team will work out again on Friday afternoon at the Bluff Road practice fields beginning at 4:15 p.m.