Spurrier Votes Gamecocks In His Top 25

Head Coach Steve Spurrier addressed the media following Friday's evening workout, which took place on the University of South Carolina practice fields under very pleasant weather conditions ...

"I see not too many (media) people are here, but they're not missing anything particularly. Pretty good practice I think - a spirited practice. Hopefully we made some progress. A lot of guys did some good things, so I think it was a good one."

"Brook Antonio swapped over (from defensive tackle) to right guard. We're going to give him a chance to maybe be a starter there to compete with James Thompson. (Freddy) Saint-Preux is missing. Saint-Preux has some academic issues that may prevent him from playing football this year. I guess that will finally be settled in the next day or two. If he's not there, we've got plenty of players, so we'll move on."

(Running backs) Bobby Wallace, Taylor Rank and Mike Davis are all doing well. Those three freshmen are 1, 2 and 3. I don't know who's first right now, but they're all pretty good. You can almost be sure we're going to start a freshman tailback this year."

"I voted for South Carolina (in the Coaches' poll). I don't mind telling the media boys that. I'd be a fool not to. (I voted them) somewhere in the top 25. My first team at Florida wasn't in the top 25 either. A lot of things are falling in line. Let's hope they keep moving that way."

"(Quarterback) Blake (Mitchell) looked fine, Cade (Thompson) looked very good and Antonio (Heffner) threw some good ones. They're probably our top three right now the way it's shaking out. I told Antonio I plan on playing him. We plan on him playing in the first game, hopefully in the first half. Cade Thompson is going to play in it, too. It's the first game and generally we like to play a lot of guys. They may all play in the second game, too, I'm not trying to say UCF is a light team because they're a lot better. Their coach has already said they're a lot better than they were last year. And they'll be tough. "

Josh Brown

"We haven't covered all the phases of the kicking game. Right now it is looking promising. I'm comfortable handling kicking and punting. We haven't handled kickoffs yet. There's plenty of guys and some new players that are capable of doing things. They can step up and help the team."

"My summer went real well. It was probably the hardest summer, working out wise and running wise, not only for me, but for the whole team. I was working on fundamentals as well. Just like Tiger Woods kind of works on fundamentals (with golf), you have to go back, work and stick to it. Even if it means lowering the bar down before you get better, you have to do it."

Andy Boyd

"The SEC Media Day was a fun experience. Seeing everybody from all the different schools and media across the southeast. I didn't find out about it until a week before we went. I was sort of taken aback by it, but it's really a great honor to be selected by the head coach to represent your team and your university."

"The whole offense is a lot more balanced and it seems like we can keep the defense maybe off balance with both the pass and the run."

INJURY UPDATE: Wide receiver O.J. Murdock was limited with a bruised left shoulder; Cornerback Brandyn Young was out with a right hamstring strain; Defensive tackle Marque Hall was out with a left ankle bruise; Wide receiver Noah Whiteside was limited with an ankle injury; Wide receiver D'von Hill was out with a lower back injury.