USC vs. Southern Miss – Thursday
The Gamecocks didn’t receive any favors when North Carolina bailed out on USC to play LSU in Atlanta. ESPN officials helped USC land Southern Miss as a replacement, arguably a tougher opening-game draw for the Gamecocks than N.C. State the past two seasons.

(A version of the following ran in Monday’s editions, but figured I’d include it here for reader comments on what the Gamecocks need to accomplish over the next 10 days.)
Preseason camp is over, classes have started, and South Carolina opens its season Sept. 2 against Southern Miss.
The State examines the highs and lows from preseason drills:
Offense

Thursday was moving day at South Carolina as a number of additional players moved out of the Whitney Hotel a week after NCAA investigators questioned their living arrangements there.
Tight end Weslye Saunders, whose alleged dealings with agents drew the attention of the NCAA, was one of the players told to vacate the property. Officials want to know whether players received free rooms or discounted rates at a hotel that features limousine service.
If so, that likely would constitute an extra benefit.

Remember last spring when Steve Spurrier was calling out Stephen Garcia any chance he got while mentioning Connor Shaw as a viable backup quarterback who would push Garcia?
The armchair psychologists, this one included, surmised that Spurrier was trying to get in Garcia’s head to make sure the Tampa right-hander did not go through the motions again during the summer conditioning and passing drills.
Certainly, motivation was part of Spurrier’s message. But the part about Shaw being a legitimate option should Garcia falter?

Not going to try to do any in-depth scrimmage analysis here, since South Carolina’s players already had their shoulder pads off and were finishing their conditioning by the time the media was allowed into Williams-Brice Stadium on Saturday.
But one stat jumped out from Steve Spurrier’s post-scrimmage debriefing:
Starting quarterback Stephen Garcia was sacked “about five times” in the 14-15 plays in which he dropped back to pass.
Yikes.

Steve Spurrier didn’t drop any bombshells, announce any big news or take any shots at Lane Kiffin on Sunday at South Carolina’s media day.
But it was an interesting half-hour or so, nonetheless.
The big buzz word for Spurrier on this day was accountability: players being accountable to one another, “coaches … trainers, equipment guys” – you get the point.
Spurrier said in past years the Gamecocks would routinely have four or five guys fail to show for mandatory breakfast. That was supposed to result in a punitive conditioning session on the Stairmaster.

If Marcus Lattimore had his welcome-to-the-SEC moment during Thursday’s practice, the freshman tailback learned how sweet revenge can be during Saturday’s first full-pads practice.
Lattimore was knocked off his feet by safety D.J. Swearinger during a 7-on-7 (skeleton) drill Thursday, prompting a loud chorus of smack-talking from Swearinger’s defensive teammates.
On Saturday, Lattimore used all of his 6-foot frame and 218 pounds to exact a little payback.

South Carolina’s coaches had a pretty solid showing on the APR data for head coaches released by the NCAA on Thursday.
The NCAA has tracked APR (Academic Progress Rate) scores for schools since 2003-04, but this is the first time they have attached the data to specific coaches.
The idea is to make coaches more accountable, and create an online database to help recruits, administrators and the public keep tabs on how a coach stacks up academically. The scores will follow a coach who changes schools.

Throwing from a distance of about 25 to 30 yards, it took Stephen Garcia only 10 tries to drop a spiral into a trash bucket Wednesday night long after most of the other position groups had cleared out.
That drill, performed with the team’s other quarterbacks, followed a new conditioning regimen in which players go through different stations at the close of practice.
Doing conditioning drills after a two hour-plus practice isn’t generally greeted with a lot of enthusiasm, whether you’re talking about a Pop Warner team or an SEC squad.

They say you never forget your first … practice?
At least Steve Spurrier hasn’t.
Surveying the Bluff Road practice fields Tuesday night, Spurrier spotted freshman WR and Tampa native Ace Sanders zipping through the defense and was reminded of O.J. Murdock, the highly-regarded Tampa WR in Spurrier’s first season at South Carolina.