Oct. 12, 2009

The University of South Carolina football team moved its practice indoors on Monday night as the squad began preparations for Saturday’s showdown at Alabama. The 22nd-ranked Gamecocks (5-1, 2-1 SEC) and the second-ranked Crimson Tide (6-0, 3-0 SEC) will play at 7:45 p.m. ET in Tuscaloosa’s Bryant-Denny Stadium. The game will be televised nationally on ESPN.

“We went indoors tonight,” said head coach Steve Spurrier following the workout. “A lot of rain all day today, so we had a decent little practice in our indoor facility. Hopefully tomorrow we’ll be able to get outside and have a full practice. We practiced about like normally on Monday, indoors,” continued the Head Ball Coach. “We could not have “Monday Night Football.” We usually let the freshmen, young guys scrimmage a little bit on Monday nights. We’ll have a good practice tomorrow and go from there.”

Coach Spurrier gave out a couple additional game balls following Saturday’s win over Kentucky. “We gave C.C. (Whitlock) a game ball,” added Coach Spurrier. “We gave Shane Beamer a game ball for his continual recruiting of Alshon Jeffery. He didn’t give up on him. He hung in there with him.”

Tight end Weslye Saunders practiced on Monday after missing Saturday’s game with an ankle injury. “He ran around fine. He should be ready to play this week, so Weslye’s back. Justice Cunningham struggled a little bit as a freshman, like we figured he would, but he got to play a lot. He was out there. But Weslye needs to get back playing, blocking, hopefully catching a few here and there. We need everybody we can to give us chance this week.”

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