Gamecocks in Helmets and Shorts on Friday

The South Carolina football team was back on the practice fields Friday morning dressed in helmets and shorts one day before their first scrimmage of fall camp. It marked the eighth official practice of fall camp.

“We were pretty well-balanced as a team,” said head coach Will Muschamp after Friday’s two-hour workout. “I thought defensively we did some nice things at times and we had some explosive plays offensively. That’s what we’ve got to continue to progress to do.”

The Gamecocks will hold a closed scrimmage on Saturday at Williams-Brice Stadium. “We’ve got a big day tomorrow – a huge evaluation day for everybody on this football team – young players, old players, and at multiple positions,” continued Coach Muschamp. “We’ve got to continue to build depth.”

Coach Muschamp has several things he would like to see on Saturday. “We’re going to operate in game-like situations,” noted the Gamecocks’ head coach. “We’ll have coaches in the box and coaches on the sidelines, so that communication. Being clean offensively, clean defensively with no procedural issues and self-inflicted penalties and mental mistakes. We’ve got to continue to push through those going into practice 9.”

Special teams play will be a focal point during Saturday’s scrimmage with some “live” looks. “We will have some live work and we’ll have some thud work where we’ll stay up, so it will be a mixture of both,” noted Coach Muschamp. “But we’re going to have a lot of kicking involved. I think Kai (Kroeger) has punted pretty well. He can do some different things for us as far as punt is concerned. He’s a really good athlete. I’ve been pleased with that. Mitch Jeter has really kicked the ball well for us when Parker (White) has had some class. He’s done some nice things. But we need some special teams work. We’ve got to find a punt returner, we’ve got to find a kickoff returner, and we’ve got to find more guys who can help us on (special) teams.”

The Gamecocks are scheduled to meet at 10:45 am on Saturday before making their way from the football complex to the stadium.