Dec. 17, 2009

The University of South Carolina football squad spent Thursday afternoon at the Bluff Road practice fields in preparation for the Papajohns.com Bowl game, scheduled for January 2, 2010 in Birmingham, Ala. The Gamecocks (7-5) will face the UConn Huskies (7-5) out of the Big East Conference at 1 p.m. CT at historic Legion Field.

“Just a normal practice today,” said head coach Steve Spurrier. “Some of the young guys are still out playing, but we’re heading out recruiting here in about 20 minutes, so that’s the reason I left them out there.”

Coach Spurrier indicated they have not changed their bowl approach from last season. “We’ve got a little bit better team spirit, team chemistry, and all that this year. Hopefully it will pay off in the way we play. (Stephen Garcia) was pretty serious last year. He just didn’t play worth a dang. He just wasn’t ready. That’s all you can say. He’s much better prepared now. He should play a lot better. He’s really improved.

“UConn’s a tough team,” continued Coach Spurrier. “They’re a physical team. They’ll try to run it down our throats, just like they ran it down Notre Dame’s throats. We’ve got to be ready. We’ll find out if we can match up with those guys.”

The team will have dinner on Thursday night with the kids from “Childrens’ Chance.” We always look forward to our dinner with the kids. We do this annually. Our players look forward to having dinner with them, signing a bunch of autographs, taking pictures and hopefully bringing a little happiness to these youngsters. The lesson we all learn is that we need to count our blessings that we are able to play college football, coach college football. That gift doesn’t go to everyone. We should embrace it and try to make the most of it that we can.”

The Gamecocks are scheduled to practice again on Friday morning at 8:45 p.m.