Dec. 23, 2009

The University of South Carolina football squad worked out Wednesday morning at Williams-Brice Stadium 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. It was the Gamecocks’ final practice before breaking for the Christmas Holidays.

“Merry Christmas to all Gamecocks out there and we’ll see you in Birmingham for the bowl,” said Head Coach Steve Spurrier following the hour-long workout. “We appreciate our people, our fans buying all of our allotment – 10,000 and plus. I understand we’ve sold a lot more than that. We’ll try our best to play our best game of the year in Birmingham against a very good UConn team.”

The Gamecocks should be pretty healthy going into the Papajohns.com Bowl, although offensive lineman Jarriel King was injured on Tuesday. “Jarriel sprained his ankle a little bit yesterday. He should be ok by the bowl game.” In addition, defensive tackle Nathan Pepper had his hand heavily bandaged during practice on Wednesday. “He sorta broke a finger a while back,” noted Coach Spurrier. “He said he wasn’t going to wear it during the game.

“Practices have been pretty good,” continued Coach Spurrier. “We have to maintain it. We’ve got to really step it up once we start the week of the game. We’ll practice here Monday and Tuesday and fly over Tuesday, then practice over there Wednesday and Thursday and a little bit Friday before the Saturday game. We’re reporting here Sunday night and will get ready for a normal week of practice.”

The Gamecocks will return to the practice fields on Monday at 11 a.m.