Dec. 31, 2009

Birmingham, Ala. – The University of South Carolina football squad worked out for about 90 minutes Thursday afternoon at Birmingham Southern College as they continued preparations for Saturday’s fourth annual Papajohns.com Bowl. The Gamecocks (7-5) will take on the UConn Huskies (7-5) at 1 p.m. CT on January 2 at historic Legion Field in Birmingham.

“We had a little bit better practice today than yesterday,” said head coach Steve Spurrier following the workout. “Hopefully we’ll play well Saturday. It was the last practice (today) for a lot of these seniors. We have the bowling contest tonight against UConn, but we’re trying to start simmering down and get ready for a ballgame Saturday. The weather should be beautiful (on Saturday).

“Stephen (Garcia) was a little bit better today,” noted Coach Spurrier on Thursday after his redshirt sophomore signal-caller had a less-than-stellar practice on Wednesday. “He can always do a lot better, but he was a little bit better today. The receivers ran pretty good routes. We’ve still got to find out if we can block those guys, so it will come down to that. Our defense was flying around like they usually do. So hopefully they’ll have an outstanding game also.

“We remind them all the time about what we have to do to try to beat UConn,” said the Head Ball Coach. “We have to play tough, physical, block people, take care of the ball, all those kinds of things.”

The Gamecocks will get their first look at Legion Field on Friday afternoon, as the team will hold its walk-through at the stadium. The walk-through is not open to the public or to the media.