Summer workouts

Obviously Steve Spurrier hs a method to his madness. He was not pleased with the attendance of several football players at the "voluntary workouts" so he called a team meeting to deliver a message. We must remember, Spurrier is a perfectionist. He demands perfection, as in PERFECT attendance. There are 8-10 players that have been missing some workouts. I was told by a player last week that 5 guys were consistently missing, and there are a few others that are not attending every workout.

Is there need for the gamecock nation to be upset? Not really. While it would be great if every player attended all the workouts, there are still a few guys that don't get it. For the most part attendance is great and the players are working even harder than last summer. Strength coach Mark Smith has developed a great program for the players and they are buying in. This is the case at just about every program. Hopefully the guys that need to step it up will and there will be positive peer pressure on these players to get it together and make it to every single workout.

What will make a difference is when there is competition at every position. When there is competition at every position, that is motivation enough for every player to bust his ass during the summer months to improve and win a starting position. USC is lacking key numbers at some positions to encourage competition. Also, there are just a few bad seeds in the program. Some of these players are left over from the Holtz era and some were in The OBC's first recruiting class, which has already lost half of it's 4 Star recruits in TE Jonathan Hannah and DE Shea McKeen. There are only two 4 Star recruits left, CB Carlos Thomas and WR OJ Murdock. So far neither has shown the off-season work ethic the coaches want to see. Thomas is critical to the gamecocks defensive unit, as he could develop in to one of the top cover corners in the SEC. Murdock is a speed receiver that USC needs in it's passing game to stretch defenses and take some pressure off of All-American Sidney Rice.

I have been told that if Spurrier didn't get their attention in the team meeting and subsequent press conference, he will go public with the names at a later date. Stay tuned to see what happens. I will be talking with a good source this week to find out the latest on workouts.