Aug. 12, 2010

Preseason Practice Central | Buy Season Tickets | Buy 3-Game Mini Packs

The University of South Carolina football team worked out at the Bluff Road practice fields Thursday morning as they continued preparations for the 2010 season.

Several players were able to return to practice on Thursday after nursing minor injuries, including tailbacks Brian Maddox and Kenny Miles, wide receiver Kevin White and linebacker Qua Gilchrist.

“It was a decent practice today, nothing too unusual happened. Nobody got hurt I don’t believe,” said head coach Steve Spurrier following the workout. “Hopefully we’re making progress but we won’t be able to tell until we play a real ballgame. That’s when it counts. A lot of guys are getting a lot of snaps and we’ll have a lot of players ready to play three weeks from tonight. I know our fans will be there, but we need to earn our way back with our fans. We’ll try our best to do it three weeks from tonight.”

Coach Spurrier has commented several times this fall about the improved leadership on this year’s Gamecock squad. “”We have a very strong group of leaders with our older guys and some younger guys too,” noted the Head Ball Coach. “They lead by example. We don’t have a bunch of rah-rah guys. Cliff Matthews and Patrick DiMarco are not real rah-rah guys. They just lead by example, which is the only way to lead. Our players have made a stronger commitment than in the past, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to win more games. We’ve got to go win the game. We’ve got to have playmakers. We’ve really got to put forth the effort all during the week prior to every game. We’ll see if we can do that this year.”

The quarterbacks continue to compete hard each day in practice. “We’re training three quarterbacks right now with Connor Shaw and Andrew Clifford getting a bunch of snaps,” said Coach Spurrier. “Certainly Stephen Garcia should be No. 1 (on the depth chart), but it’s three weeks away. He had a good practice today but he needs to maintain and show that he’s our best quarterback as we go through these scrimmages. The last scrimmage, there wasn’t any huge difference in all the quarterbacks. Hopefully Stephen will show Saturday that he’s definitely our best quarterback.”

The squad will return to the Bluff Road practice fields on Friday morning at 8:30 a.m. The practice is closed. The team is slated to scrimmage on Saturday afternoon at Williams-Brice Stadium, with the practice scheduled to start at 3:45 p.m. The scrimmage is closed to the media and the general public. Sunday is Colonial Life Fan Appreciation Day at the Colonial Life Arena from 1-2:30 p.m. There will be no media availability following Sunday night’s practice. Practices scheduled for Tuesday, August 17 and Wednesday, August 18 have been moved to 8:30 a.m.