Practice cut short after Norwood's hit

By Joseph Person - Joseph Person

COLUMBIA -- The biggest hit of South Carolina's preseason camp came in a non-contact drill Monday night, knocking receiver Moe Brown out of practice and prompting Gamecocks coach Steve Spurrier to rip into his defense and cut the workout short.

Linebacker Eric Norwood's hit on Brown in a 7-on-7 "skeleton" passing drill triggered a scuffle between a few offensive and defensive players and caused Spurrier to kick the defense out of the remainder of the drill.

A short time later, Spurrier made the entire team run for 10 minutes and ended practice, which was not a full-pads workout, before the 11-on-11 period.

Spurrier was upset with both the hit, which resulted in a bruised hip for Brown, and the fact that a few defensive players reacted by giggling about the play.

"We don't do that in pass skel. It's not going to be offense versus defense as long as I'm coach. We're going to learn to practice against each other the right way, protect your teammates. I've always believed in that and always will," Spurrier said.

"You practice against each other. You don't try to beat each other up. We had some bad collisions in a non-contact drill. So we're not going to do that. And then the worst part, we've got giggling little guys that think a hit like that's cute. That was the worst part, the gigglers."

Fifth-year linebacker Dustin Lindsey said Norwood did not mean to hit Brown as hard as he did, but he was not surprised by Spurrier's reaction.

"He loves his wide receivers. That's all he's about," Lindsey said. "He's a quarterback, wide receiver guy. He doesn't want none of them hurt, especially a guy with some talent like Moe Brown."

Lindsey and defensive end Cliff Matthews said the defense wants to play aggressively without hurting their offensive teammates.

"Things happen. We need to learn to pull up a little bit more on our offense," Lindsey said. "We want to hit people. It sucks we can't get a practice squad out here that we can hit on."

n MOVING ON: Walk-on quarterback Zac Brindise, whose brother, Noah, walked on and played quarterback for Spurrier at Florida, plans to transfer to a smaller school. Spurrier said Brindise, a redshirt freshman from Fort Myers, Fla., mentioned the possibility of first going to a junior college.

"Zac Brindise wants to transfer and play hopefully at a place where he's got a chance to play, transfer down a little bit," Spurrier said. "That's his decision. He was a good scout-team quarterback. We'll miss him, but (we) wish him the best and hope he gets a chance to play somewhere."

n SPURRIER ON REAVES: Spurrier said it was disappointing to hear about the arrest of former Florida football star John Reaves, who faces gun and cocaine charges in Florida. Reaves, the father of Gamecocks recruiting coordinator David Reaves, worked as an assistant under Spurrier at Florida from 1990-92 and again in 1994.

"We knew he had some problems. But it was very sad, disappointing," he said. "But it's no reflection on his children. They're all good people. It's unfortunate."

n EXTRA POINTS: Spurrier was uncertain why defensive lineman Clark Gaston, who recently switched from tight end to defense, was not at Monday's practice. ... Wednesday's scrimmage will feature mostly younger players and will be open to the public.