Gamecocks practice Tuesday

The University of South Carolina football team held its 11th of 15 spring practices under sunny skies and warm temperatures in Columbia on Tuesday afternoon. The squad worked out for about two hours at the Bluff Road practice fields.

Head coach Steve Spurrier continues to be frustrated by the Gamecocks’ passing attack during the spring.

“I think we hit one out of 20 down there,” noted the Head Ball Coach. “It was ugly. I guess that’s why you practice. We have to start throwing and catching it better and see if we can’t look like a better passing team.

"I see why coaches close practice now,” continued Coach Spurrier. “They don’t want people to see how bad they are I guess. We were lousy throwing today. Hopefully we’ll get better as we go. We’ll keep working on it. It’s not near what we should be doing right now. It’s something we’ll keep working on. Damiere (Byrd) caught a couple of deep ones, that was encouraging.”

Thus far no quarterback has stepped up to put a stranglehold on the backup spot behind incumbent Connor Shaw.

“It would be good to have a solid backup for Connor,” admitted Coach Spurrier. “Who knows? We have Brendan Nosovitch coming in (during the fall) to compete with Dylan (Thompson), Seth (Strickland) and these guys. We’ll see how that plays out.”

Coach Spurrier confirmed that redshirt freshman wide receiver Shamier Jeffery has a small meniscus tear and will miss the remainder of the spring. He will likely need surgery. Redshirt freshman linebacker Cedrick Cooper had an MRI on his lower back, but the extent of the injury is not yet known.

The Gamecocks will practice again on Thursday at 4:15 p.m. All practices are open to the public.