Aug. 30, 2009

The University of South Carolina football team practiced at the indoor practice facility on Sunday evening as a heavy rainstorm engulfed Columbia. The Gamecocks are turning up for the season opener at NC State on Thursday. That 7 p.m. contest will be televised nationally on ESPN.

“We went to the indoor for about two hours,” said head coach Steve Spurrier. “It always seems to pick up the guys spirits a little bit when we go indoors. We got some good work done. A lot of handing the ball off, blocking, stuff like that. Hopefully we made a little progress tonight. Stephen (Garcia) actually looked pretty good throwing. Catching was a lot better in there. We mainly worked on the run game, run defense and so forth. We hope all of our running backs get some holes and run well and we hope pass protection is good. We hope the same thing every team in the country hopes right now. We’ll find out Thursday night.”

Coach Spurrier confirmed that backup tight end Mike Triglia sprained his neck in practice on Saturday and could miss Thursday’s game. “He actually was a starter on our extra point/field goal team. He may not be able to play in this one.”

The Gamecocks will practice again on Monday night at 7:30 p.m.