USC coaches hope extra practices bear fruit

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When he was the coach at Delaware Valley in Pennsylvania, South Carolina quarterbacks coach G.A. Mangus said making the Division III playoffs came with a bonus – and it had nothing to do with an extra paycheck.

“I thought that was always great,” Mangus said. “It was another week of practice that we got that everybody else didn’t get.”

The Gamecocks are scheduled to practice 14 times prior to facing Connecticut in the Jan. 2 Papajohns.com Bowl in Birmingham, Ala. – nearly the equivalent of the 15 practices the NCAA allows in the spring.

And while most of the bowl workouts will focus on the Huskies, Steve Spurrier and his staff also will use them to look at younger players who were either redshirted or played sparingly this season.

The third- and fourth-teamers scrimmaged twice this week. And though a couple of reserve tailbacks were injured Thursday when Eric Baker likely tore ligaments in his left knee and Bryce Sherman sustained a concussion, Spurrier plans a couple more scrimmages when the weather is nice.
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