Aug. 11, 2015

The University of South Carolina football team practiced in full pads for about two hours on Tuesday morning at the new practice facility.

“Practice was so-so today,” said head coach Steve Spurrier. “Yesterday was a little better than today. Hopefully this afternoon we’ll pick it up a bit. We can actually use the ball during walk-thrus today, so we’ll have a little bit better walk-thru practice.”

Coach Spurrier has been complimentary of the play of the secondary in the early part of camp. “Obviously, Jon (Hoke) is the secondary coach. Grady Brown works with him back there. We’ve got a little more simple-type scheme of things with the safety back there most of the time. The guys know what to do. It’s not complicated, so when they know what to do, they should have a better chance to execute their assignment.”

The quarterbacks continue to battle it out each day. “They were so-so,” said Coach Spurrier. “Pretty good at times, but nothing too special. We’ll let them keep throwing. A lot of them had a pretty good day yesterday. The receivers are doing ok,” continued the Head Ball Coach. “They’re coming around. I think Jerell Adams caught a bunch of passes. We need to get more balls at him. Deebo Samuel is running around very well. And some of those young freshmen kids are coming around.” Coach identified Jalen Christian, Jared Washington and D.J. Neal as freshmen receivers who had caught his eye, with Christian and Washington getting more reps in place of the injured Pharoh Cooper.

Linebackers coach Kirk Botkin is happy to have at trio of junior linebackers in Skai Moore, Jonathan Walton and T.J. Holloman to build around. “I think experience helps you a lot and those guys are experienced,” said Botkin. “They have playing time under their belt. They’re doing some good things. We’re not there yet, but they have lunch pail mentality, go to work every day and try to get better at the little things every day.”

Those players who were held out of Tuesday’s practice included wide receiver Pharoh Cooper (left hand), linebacker Jonathan Walton (right knee), defensive end Gerald Dixon (lower leg), tight end Connor Redmond (back) and defensive tackle Taylor Stallworth (pec muscle).

The squad will hold another closed practice on Wednesday morning at 8:30 p.m.