Aug. 14, 2014

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The South Carolina Gamecock football team was back at the Bluff Road practice fields on Thursday morning preparing for the start of the 2014 campaign, which is now just two weeks away.

“I think (the defense) is close,” said defensive coordinator Lorenzo Ward following Thursday’s practice. “I think we’ve gotten better. We had one of our better practices yesterday than we did this morning, but that goes a little bit to the offense, too. I think they picked it up and we didn’t totally respond like I would like us to, but we didn’t do bad. We’re getting better.”

The coaches have not yet started to put in the game plan for Texas A&M. “We’ll start 10 days out, so Monday will be the day that we’ll start practicing for Texas A&M,” said Ward. Ward does not know which quarterback his squad will be facing. “Both are athletic quarterbacks. We’ve got to prepare for both of them. We have to be conscious of who is in the game and what he’s capable of doing. But we’ve got to do what we do best on defense. That’s the key. We’ve got to make sure we’re taking care of our assignment and make the proper call to get them in the right position to execute their assignment.”

The Gamecocks will return to the practice fields on Friday morning at 10 a.m. All practices are closed.