April 2, 2011

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The University of South Carolina football squad held its second official scrimmage of the spring on Saturday morning at Williams-Brice Stadium. It was the 11th of the allotted 15 spring practices for the Gamecocks.

The offense dominated the scrimmage early, scoring on each of its first four possessions, but the defense came around later in the scrimmage and forced several stops along with a pair of interceptions.

“We had an interesting scrimmage today,” said head coach Steve Spurrier. “The offense actually somehow or another went 70 yards the first four times they touched it, then after that they didn’t do much the whole scrimmage. At the end, the defense completely stymied the offense. We put the ball at the 50 where a field goal is a tie, and the offense didn’t even get a field goal attempt. So the defensive guys made a nice little comeback at the end of the scrimmage. It was typical of some of our guys,” continued the Head Ball Coach. “We had a little early success and they can’t handle success. Hopefully we can learn from it and move on.”

The offense struck quickly when, on the second play of its first possession, senior signal-caller Stephen Garcia hit junior tailback Kenny Miles out of the backfield on a wheel route. Miles did the rest, going 72 yards untouched down the sidelines into the endzone.

Faced with a fourth-and-one on its next possession, Garcia found sophomore receiver Ace Sanders near the sidelines behind the defense for a 43-yard completion for a touchdown.

Connor Shaw got into the act on the next drive. Facing a fourth-and-one, the sophomore quarterback hooked up with sophomore wideout DeAngelo Smith in the middle of the field on a 61-yard scoring pass.

The fourth drive was highlighted by sophomore tailback Marcus Lattimore’s only carry of the day, a 44-yard burst where he weaved his way through the middle of the defense. Miles covered the final four yards for his second touchdown of the day.

Later in the scrimmage, walk-on tailback Josh Hinch went in from eight yards out for the final score.

Garcia easily had his best day of the spring, completing eight of his first 10 passes before finishing the day 8-for-13 for 170 yards. Shaw hit on 3-of-4 passes for 83 yards. Dylan Thompson, Andrew Clifford and Seth Strickland also took some snaps at quarterback on Saturday.

Smith was the top receiver with three catches for 80 yards and a touchdown. Lamar Scruggs added four receptions for 34 yards, while Miles and Sanders each had a pair of receptions and a score.

Sharrod Golightly and Reginald Bowens recorded interceptions for the defense.

The Gamecocks will begin their final week of spring practice on Tuesday at the Bluff Road Practice fields at 4 p.m. The annual Garnet & Black Spring Game will be held Saturday, April 9 at 1 p.m. at Williams-Brice Stadium. Admission is free. The game will be broadcast over the internet on ESPN3 with Bill Rosinski and Randy Shannon describing the action.

SCORING PLAYS:

Kenny Miles 72-yard pass from Stephen Garcia (Adam Yates kick)

Ace Sanders 43-yard pass from Garcia (Josh Newton kick)

DeAngelo Smith 61-yard pass from Connor Shaw (Joey Scribner-Howard kick)

Miles 4-yard run (Jay Wooten kick)

Josh Hinch 8-yard run (Yates kick)

GAME STATISTICS:

PASSING: Stephen Garcia 8-13-1-170, 2 TD; Connor Shaw 3-4-1-83, 1 TD; Andrew Clifford 5-10-0-48; Dylan Thompson 2-6-0-18; Seth Strickland 1-2-0-0. TOTALS: 19-35-2-319, 3 TD.

RUSHING: Marcus Lattimore 1-44; Josh Hinch 7-18, 1 TD; Andrew Clifford 3-16; Kenny Miles 4-13, 1 TD; Stephen Garcia 3-1; Joshua Blue 4-(-4); Connor Shaw 4-(-8). TOTALS: 26-80, 2 TD.

RECEIVING: Lamar Scruggs 4-34; DeAngelo Smith 3-80, 1 TD; Nick Jones 3-33; Kenny Miles 2-76, 1 TD; Ace Sanders 2-53, 1 TD; Jason Barnes 2-12; D.L. Moore 1-17; Marcus Lattimore 1-7; Justice Cunningham 1-7. TOTALS: 19-319, 3 TD.