July 17, 2008
Columbia, S.C. -
South Carolina head football coach Steve Spurrier met with the media on Thursday afternoon (July 17). The Gamecocks open the 2008 season on Aug. 28 hosting NC State on ESPN.
(Opening Statement)
"Appreciate everybody coming out today. We thought it would be about time for our late summer report. Two weeks from today, our players officially report and six weeks from today we will be playing NC State right here at Williams-Brice, ESPN, National TV. We are getting pumped up. Our players have had a good summer. Some of the groups have done very well. The offensive line, from what we hear, has had close to 100 percent attendance. They have really done well in the off-season program. Running backs have been very good; I think our two quarterbacks have been close to perfect (Tommy Beecher and Chris Smelley). We've had a good summer workout. It could have been better by a few players as always but overall we think a lot of guys have made some nice improvements physically as far as getting ready for the 2008 season. Proud of a lot of young guys. Guys like Kyle Nunn and Quintin Richardson; those are a couple of young guys that have gotten with our program now. As we know, sometimes those freshmen are not perfect but work with them and hope they get the message soon about the commitment level it takes if we are going to compete at the highest level in the SEC. Certainly, that is what we want to do, compete at the highest level."
"Again, want to reiterate, Tommy Beecher is going to have a chance to be our quarterback. He has not had a chance, going into his fourth year now and we are going to give him every opportunity to be the quarterback. Chris Smelley has, again, had a good summer and done everything from what I hear, but Tommy Beecher is going to get a chance. Barring injury, he should go the distance and whatever it takes, the first game, second game and down the line. This is not, he goes bad the next guy goes in, Tommy Beecher right now is getting his shot. He's first-string quarterback and we are going to do all we can to help him; offensive line, receivers, tight ends, running backs and so forth."
"This year, I know there has been a lot of talk this summer about play calling. Let me just get that straight. I will be responsible for the play calling. Steve Jr. has been coaching with me going into 11 years now and together we will get the play calling done. The plan right now is for him to sort of put it all together and we'll get it in there. I will oversee all the play calling. I'm still the offensive coordinator. In fact, I plan to spend more time with the quarterbacks and offense this year than maybe I have in three years. There is one reason, Ellis Johnson. Ellis Johnson can run the defense. We are in good hands with Ellis Johnson running the defense and we are in good hands with Ray Rychleski running the special teams. As most you guys know, historically, I coach the heck out of the quarterback and offense and away we go and hire some good people to do those other things. That is what we are going to try to do. That's our game plan, right there. I will be hanging with Tommy Beecher and Chris Smelley as much as possible and try to get them ready to play. Again, I say that because I believe that our other positions are in good hands. With Ellis running the defense and Ray running the special teams."
"Summer recruiting has gone well. We have gotten a few commitments, here and there. We have a big day tomorrow, a bunch of top guys coming in for a little Junior Day tomorrow. We are going to show them our campus and so forth and bring back a few NFL guys from South Carolina. We are looking forward to tomorrow and showing a whole lot of top recruits the University of South Carolina and our facilities. We have the Ladies Clinic on Saturday morning. Looking forward to all the ladies coming to the Colonial Center."
"I have been impressed with some of the new freshmen that have come in. Been impressed by T.J. Johnson, looks like he really might be ready to play this year. Aramis Hillary is here now with Reid McCollum. Devin Taylor has come in and is a good hard worker. Our freshmen have come in, in good shape and look forward to getting those guys on the field as soon as possible."
(On the quarterbacks)
"Right now, Tommy Beecher is our quarterback. He is the first guy and Chris (Smelley) is the second guy and we'll see how it goes from there. Everyone has to earn their way as they go. All the positions."
(On linebacker Dusty Lindsey)
"One player that has had an excellent summer, academically, as well as the workouts is Dusty Lindsey. Dusty hasn't been the model A student-athlete since he has been here, but according to Raymond Harrison, our academic advisory, Dusty has done an excellent job getting himself eligible and ready to graduate, hopefully within a year. He has worked hard to get his knee back into good health, so Dusty Lindsey, shoot he could be one of our starting linebackers inside there. Three years ago he was, he hasn't really played since 2005, but Dusty Lindsey is ready to go."
(On the quarterbacks)
"Chris Smelley has had a really good shot several times in there and it is time to see if Tommy Beecher can go and play. We need to quit all this, well if he doesn't go, next guy, next guy. I'm not in favor of that. Some of you guys think I like that but we are waiting on a player to step forward and prove that he is our best quarterback. When one does that, shoot, he is the quarterback all the way through. Tommy has not really had a good chance yet, so we are going to give him every opportunity to run with it. That means he will get 50, maybe 60 percent of the snaps in the preseason. We got to try to get him ready to play. Chris should be better but this is the direction we are headed right now."
(On building the program)
"We knew there was some building to do. Some people say, `Well Spurrier can't win in four years than he is never going to do it.' That's negative guys that like to quote guys and sometimes I don't understand why some of you people quote negative guys. They don't care about me or the Gamecocks. Why do you quote people that are negative? I don't understand that. Anyway, I got that off my chest. Positively, we had our big recruiting class two years ago. You know that, and I think around 26, 27 of those guys, depending on Garcia, I guess, they are all still with us. And they are doing well. They are on pace to graduate. Our graduation, our attendance is the best ever around here. Those guys are going to be just sophomores next year. Cliff Matthews, Travian Robertson, going down the list, Clifton Geathers, you can go on and on. We have got a good nucleus of young players; we are still not a whole bunch of seniors. We have had five guys drafted in the last three years. Did you know that? So we are not going to win a lot of SEC (Championships) with one or two guys drafted every year. During Pro Timing Day this year, I told those scouts you come back two-three years from now and we'll have some ball players. I certainly believe that. We didn't have that big recruiting class until the third (class) and that was because we won our last three games. That was certainly helpful. We didn't win our last three last year. Lost a bunch of them at the end there. That's just the way it happened. We are where we are but we can get out of it. We can get out of it with a little better coaching and a little bit better play. We can get out of it."
"We know why we lost a lot of games. We will try our best as coaches to show how we lost a lot of games. It wasn't all the players fault. It's coaches, me, some other guys, if we would have made some better calls, taught this defense or that run play a little bit better, but it happened and there is nothing we can do about it instead try to learn why and hopefully we can show our guys why we failed in some of those close games. We'll try to do that."
