Aug. 6, 2015

The 2015 University of South Carolina football team donned shoulder pads for the first time as they practiced Thursday morning at the new practice facility. It was the squad’s third workout of the preseason camp.

“We had a pretty good practice,” said head coach Steve Spurrier following the two-hour workout. “Guys were hustling. Guys threw the ball around in pass skell pretty well. In team period with a little pass rush, we weren’t very good. It’s coming along and the players are trying hard, that’s all you can ask. We’re coming around.”

Coach Spurrier thinks his defense will be much improved this season. “Well, obviously, we can’t play much worse,” said the Head Ball Coach. “We gave up more yards than any team in school history, so we’ve got nowhere to go but up, which is going to be a positive. Even at that, if offensively we had played well at the end of some games, we would have been ok also. So they were team losses. It’s history.”

Coach Spurrier expects North Carolina to be much improved defensively as well. “They’ll be much better. They’ll be better prepared. Gene Chizek has a track record of being an excellent defensive coordinator, there’s no question about that. Their offense I think returns 10 starters. That’s a lot of dudes on one offense, so they know what they’re doing. We’re really going to have to play well to beat those guys, I think everybody knows that.”

Several players were held out of Thursday’s practice including wide receiver Terry Googer (left shoulder), cornerback Wesley Green (left knee), Spur T.J. Gurley (right hamstring), Spur Darin Smalls (cramps), defensive end Gerald Dixon (lower leg), defensive end Boosie Whitlow (right hamstring), tight end Connor Redmond (back) and defensive tackle Taylor Stallworth (pec muscle).

The Gamecocks will return to the practice fields on Friday morning at 9 a.m.