Dec. 21, 2009

The University of South Carolina football squad spent Monday afternoon working out 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.

“We had a decent practice today,” said Head Coach Steve Spurrier. “Hopefully we got some good work in and we’ll practice against tomorrow and on Wednesday morning break for Christmas. We’ll come back Sunday night, practice Monday here, then go to Birmingham on Tuesday.

“We’ve got to be ready to play,” noted the Head Ball Coach. “This is a physical team – Connecticut is a tough bunch of guys. Their coach says it’s the best team he’s had since he’s been there and with a little luck here and there, they could have had a big season – 10 wins or more. So they’ll be ready. They don’t make a lot of mistakes and they’ll be ready to play.”

Coach Spurrier will not name his new offensive line coach prior to the Papajohns.com Bowl. “I’m going to wait until after the bowl games are over. We’ll probably do that sometime in January. There are some candidates that have bowl games, so as soon as we get through this bowl game (we can) find us an outstanding coach. We have pile of resumes – a lot of people are interested.”

The Gamecocks will return to the practice fields on Tuesday at 1 p.m.