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Better chemistry excites players
USC hopes a healthier locker room will help lead to an improved record
USC's Eric Norwood laughs out loud as he is photographed during media day at Williams-Brice Stadium.
C. Aluka Berry/caberry@thestate.com
Written by JOSEPH PERSON
jperson@thestate.com
Posted on 09.02.09
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Moe Brown was leaving Williams-Brice Stadium around 11 p.m. Tuesday following a Fellowship of Christian Athletes gathering when the South Carolina receiver heard noises coming from the offensive line meeting room.
What Brown saw when he peeked in made him feel encouraged — and a little envious: a roomful of empty pizza boxes and a group of linemen calling out their blocking assignments as they studied video.
“This is the closest I’ve ever seen the offensive line,” Brown said Wednesday. “They’ve had a couple steak dinners, and I had to ask why wasn’t I invited. They said you had to be at least 300 pounds to come to the steak dinners.”
The linemen aren’t the only players having fun. USC’s strength coaches took players on a paintball outing at the end of summer workouts — a day Brown described as one of his most entertaining as a Gamecock.
Brown and defensive end Eric Norwood, the two senior captains, said team chemistry is much improved from the end of last season, when a three-game losing streak and a number of players with one eye on the door led to a fractured locker room.
“It seems like we had a bunch of guys going in different directions,” USC coach Steve Spurrier said. “Both quarterbacks that played a lot left the team, so that shows you where they were. Several guys left early for the NFL. It just all added up.”
Though USC won seven games and played in a New Year’s Day bowl for just the third time in school history, losses to Florida, Clemson and Iowa by a combined 88 points and the departures of several key players and five assistant coaches overshadowed the earlier successes.
The arrival of a handful of young, energetic coaches and several talented freshmen lifted spirits, and Brown said players are looking forward to a fresh start beginning Thursday night at N.C. State.
“Whenever you’re losing, football’s never fun. Winning cures all ills. That goes for about anything,” Brown said. “So of course it’s not fun when you’re getting blown out by however many points. ... Once you start winning and get back on the winning side, everybody has fun and everything’s a little easier. It seems like even your teacher’s a little easier on you.”
While new strength and conditioning director Craig Fitzgerald was not easy on the Gamecocks, Spurrier said the former Harvard strength coach motivated players during the summer with a style that was both challenging and encouraging.
And he digs paintball.
“That’s one of the most fun days I’ve had as a Gamecock,” Brown said. “You get to shoot a coach while he’s hiding. You get to run up on him and shoot him about 30 times with a paint gun.”
Brown believes players will benefit from those types of team-building exercises when the games begin.
Spurrier hopes so, as well.
“A team has to all get along and pull for each other. Again, we’re unknown. We’ve got to go prove it,” Spurrier said. “Hopefully our guys on the bench will be pulling for their teammates very hard Thursday night. We’ll show a lot of team spirit.”
But Norwood said spirit can only take a team so far. Players still have to execute.
“In terms of chemistry, I think we’ve gotten a whole lot better. We’re getting better prepared for the game,” Norwood said. “Hopefully, everything we worked on since the beginning of January works in our favor Thursday and the rest of the season.”
If so, there likely will be more pizza during film sessions and steak dinners on the menu.
Reach Person at (803) 771-8496.
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