May 22, 2012

USC practice report and post practice audio

Report from USC sports information:

The University of South Carolina football team returned to the Bluff Road practice fields on Monday night after being forced indoors on Sunday. They are just three days away from opening the 2009 season with a Thursday night date in Raleigh with the NC State Wolfpack.  That contest will be televised nationally on ESPN beginning at 7 p.m.

Steve Spurrier Audio (4:04)

“Just a normal Wednesday night practice on Monday,” said head coach Steve Spurrier following the workout. “Hopefully our guys will be ready to play well Thursday night.”

There was some question earlier in the week as to why Tori Gurley moved ahead of Jason Barnes on the depth chart at wide receiver. “The reason Tori passed him up is because Tori practiced better than Jason. We got all of that straightened out. Guys that practice the best are usually the guys who are starting.”

“We’ve had good spirit the last couple of days,” noted Coach Spurrier about the mood of his team. “It’s getting closer. We don’t run or hit as much as we’ve been doing. We’re hopefully getting ready for a ballgame and getting ready to play our best.”

The Gamecocks will return to the practice fields again on Tuesday at 4:15 p.m. That practice is closed.

 GA Mangus Audio (0:59)

Clemson Monday practice report

From Clemson sports information:

Clemson practiced for less than 90 minutes on Monday evening on the practice fields behind the Jervey Athletic Center. Dabo Swinney’s team is preparing for its season opener against Middle Tennessee and former Clemson assistant coach Rick Stockstill.

The Tigers were in good shape physically as just two players were limited by injury. Wide receiver Xavier Dye was in a green jersey due to a pulled hamstring and backup center Dalton Freeman was in a yellow jersey with the same injury.

Everyone else was in their respective orange (offense) or white (defense) jersey, including preseason All-ACC receiver Jacoby Ford, the only ACC receiver on the preseason watch list for the Biletnikoff Award.

“Jacoby looked good tonight,” said Swinney..”He moved well, made his cuts.”

Ford comments on return to full practice

The players were greeted at the entrance to the practice fields with a sign in white paint on the green grass that said “Football Focus”. “We put that out there to emphasize that we want efficient practices. When you come on this field it is all concentration on football. We want them to hit it (the field) and get it.

We got better tonight. There was great intensity and attention to detail. You have to have that to be successful. I saw great spirit and energy on both sides of the ball.

“Monday’s will be a day of correction throughout the season. We had that some tonight even though we didn’t have a real game on Saturday, but we did correct some mistakes made in the “Beanie Bowl.”

Swinney told his team Tuesday’s practice would the last “physical” day of practice prior to the opener. He also talked about the importance of turnovers in the game. “Tuesday’s practice I want to see takeaways on defense and no giveaways on offense,” Swinney told his team in his post practice talk. “I want to see the offense treat the ball like it is 12 ounces of pure gold.”

SportsTalk Rewind 08.31.09

SportsTalk was in Myrtle Beach for Clyde Wren’s annual get together.  Here are the highlights of tonight’s show.

Trash talk out of NC State camp

Just days before USC and NC State face off in the season opener in Raleigh the trash talk has been elevated to mid-season form. Wolfpack senior defensive end Willie Young provided some quintessential bulletin board material today.

Apparently Mr. Young isn’t too impressed with Steve Spurrier’s coaching prowess and is even less impressed with Gamecock quarterback Stephen Garcia. He also made sure to take a few shots at USC tight end Weslye Saunders. In Young’s defense Saunders did lob the first shot a few weeks ago when he talked about getting a 15-yard celebration penalty if he scored a touchdown against the Pack.

Here are some of the highlights of Young’s comments:

 He answered “No,” when asked whether Steve Spurrier is an offensive genius.

Young’s thoughts on Garcia’s mobility: “Until he hurts us, I’m not worried about him. It’s as simple as that. Until he starts to hurt us, he can stand back there and juke and jive all he wants to. But until he hurts us, he has no effect on my pass rush or anything I intend to do.”

And Young made sure to let Saunders know that he and his teammates are well aware of the comments Saunders made earlier: “He just talked himself into the biggest MA (missed assignment) possible. I’ll just put it like that. That leads to nothing but mistakes. I think he’s trying to draw attention to himself. … Because I know, me and my goons, we ain’t seeing it.”

We will find out Thursday night who gets the last word.

Braves lose to Phillies but remain close in Wild Card

The Braves dropped Sunday night’s rubber game with the Phillies 3-2 but on a brighter note they remain very much in the postseason hunt. Atlanta is 8 games behind Philly in the NL East standings but they are just 3 ½ games behind the Rockies and Giants for the Wild Card. The Giants beat the Rockies Sunday and those two teams are tied for the Wild Card lead.

Catching the Phillies seems all but impossible but with the team may just have the pitching it takes to chase down the Giants and Rockies in the Wild Card. The Braves also get the advantage of having the Rockies and Giants beat up on each other in the NL West (as they did over the weekend). The Rockies and Giants also both still have to face the Dodgers, one of the league’s stronger teams, a few more times this season.

Back to the Braves pitching, the team expects Tim Hudson to make his return to the rotation tomorrow night against the Marlins. It will be his first start since having Tommy John surgery last year. Perhaps he can be the piece that gets the Braves back into the postseason.

The team opens a three game series with the Marlins tonight. Kenshin Kawakami will get the start on the mound.