April 10, 2010

South Carolina Head Coach Steve Spurrier Quotes

Opening statement…
It was a late arriving crowd today, at first I didn’t think they were going to come but it was a good crowd. As coaches, we thought it was a good spring, we’ve made progress and we’ll have a good summer and be ready to go September 2. We came out injury free today. There were a lot of good plays here and there. There were air plays, which were to be expected. But overall I think it was a decent game, the way you do games nowadays. All the quarterbacks had some good moments and did some good things. But I don’t really know who did best.

On having a set backup quarterback…
We’re looking for a guy to carry us all the way through. I hope (Stephen) Garcia will have a big summer and get committed to really learning how to play… Garcia threw some bullets that went through some guys’ hands… We’re looking for guys for all positions. But hopefully he will have a committed summer.

On Connor Shaw’s performance…
Connor is a true freshman but I believe he and (Andrew) Clifford will try to improve this summer. We will see where they are when we start practice.

Impression of offensive line’s performance…
They did as they usually do. We’ll have to watch the tape to see who played well…We’re looking forward to the freshman linemen coming in this summer.

On tougher, meaner coaching style…
We’re trying to get the team more accountable than they’ve been in the past. Hold guys more responsible for their actions. We obviously haven’t done a good job at that… After the game against UConn last year, we need to hold more guys accountable.

On how much further to go to get ready for next season…
We are certainly not a very good team yet. We have a chance if some guys come through. We have a chance but not until we’ve earned it. A lot of our players don’t handle praise very well… Don’t start praising the Gamecocks yet. So you’ll have to wait and see with the Gamecocks.

South Carolina Player Quotes

Stephen Garcia
“I’m not really sure what the stats were today but I feel like I threw the ball pretty well. I think all of us actually threw the ball pretty well.”

On comments from Spurrier
“As far as the comments go I’d rather not get into all of that. I’m just going to learn from it and try and work really hard this summer, and hopefully he will change his mind.”

On passes being ” high and hot”
“I think the reason is, because if I’m getting my full body throwing into it then I think it’s going to come out a lot faster and higher, I’m just not used to throwing like that. I’m just trying to get used to it.

Work to get ready for fall
“We’ve developed this group where there is one quarterback and five or six receivers, running backs, and tight ends, and we all have each other’s phone numbers. We are just going to go out on our own and throw that ball around during the summer. And it’s just going to take hours of that and getting used to everybody. It’s going to take a lot but summer is going to be able to fix it I think.

On comments made about him
“I’m not going to lie, I was pretty upset about it but it is motivation. I’m just going to have to use it as motivation and try and prove him wrong.”

Connor Shaw
“This is the reason why I came in early, so I could go through spring practice. I think I had a pretty decent practice, but I still have a long way to go during the summer. I’m excited about improving on the things I need to improve on. My goal is to compete, and if coach wants me to play I will be ready to play.”

On his mobility being a strength
“Coming out of high-school I was a duel threat quarterback, and I think that that is one of my strengths. I think that it is every quarterback’s goal to be the man out here, and we have good enough quarterbacks here to push everybody.”

Plans for the summer
“I think that I can work on every aspect of my game. During the summer I will be working out just as any other player here and I’ll be in the film room constantly.”

Stephon Gilmore
On his performance at quarterback
“I don’t think it was too good, but Coach just told me the route so I went out there and made the best of it.

On the importance of spring practice
“I think summer is more important than spring. As a team we should get together and work out hard and train as a defense and offense. I think we’ll be better off this year.”

On preparing for the season this summer
“We do 7-on-7 on our own and condition a lot to get prepared for the season.”

On the differences for him now versus the fall
“I think that I’m way more comfortable. I can just think more out there and start making plays. But I’m excited and looking forward to it this year.”

Justice Cunningham
On Stephen Garcia’s play
“He just needs to show Coach Spurrier he can do that job and be more consistent. Coach Spurrier gets on everybody. [Stephen] Garcia just gets it a little more because he expects a lot out of him because he’s our leader.”

On how he thinks the offense is going
“A lot of hard work and a lot of hard coaching are finally paying off. I think we need to keep doing the extra work we’ve been doing lately. We need to practice extra pass skills and extra running routes so we can become a better team. I say we did pretty well this spring, we can always do better, but we did pretty well.”

On the UConn game
“We try not to think about that game anymore because we have to put that kind of stuff behind us, but we have to come out hard and show that we’re better than that. We just have to keep working hard and out work everyone else in the SEC and the nation. “

D.J. Swearinger
On how the team can improve
“We have to come more together as a unit, offense and defense. We need to get better this summer and get better as a team and we’ll be alright. If we come together and have friendships with each other and come in as one unit and we’ll be okay. We can also be very strong. With a lot of people competing we can have a lot of depth.”

Assistant Head Coach Ellis Johnson
“Last spring this time we did not really have a good defense out on the field, and we don’t this year. So we are still waiting to answer some questions and put them all together in the fall, but the problems are different. The problem this spring is that we had a lot of our best front people out, including line backers and not to mention [Chris] Culliver. But last year, it’s hard to remember but we literally had two true freshman walk in January and compete in playing time, and one of them took a starting job the third day of practice. So we had some huge voids to fill that were really concerning. But this year it’s just a little frustrating that you don’t have your horses out there, and you can’t get it molded together and find out where you are. With as many players as we have coming back you would hope that we might step forward and be a better football team. Chemistry and leadership and some of the unknown factors you don’t really know about those and you can’t identify them until you get them all out there working together. What we have had from the spring is pretty much a shell of what I hope we will be in the fall with all the players that we have missing.