With 14 days until South Carolina’s season opener against Old Dominion, head coach Shane Beamer is feeling much better about the injury status of his football team than he did at the same point last season.
EDGE Bryan Thomas Jr., TE Reid Mikeska, TE Nick Elksnis, OL Jakai Moore, and EDGE Elijah Davis were all held out of Saturday’s scrimmage but several key players who missed last week’s scrimmage were all able to participate in this Saturday’s scrimmage.
“All of those guys should be fine; expect them back this week for sure,” Beamer said of the players who were held out. “Nothing long-term. During the scrimmage, had a couple of hamstring issues that some guys weren’t able to finish in the secondary. Nothing long-term.”
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Running backs Rocket Sanders and Juju McDowell, linebacker Bam Martin-Scott, and wide receiver Vandrevius Jacobs — all projected contributors who missed last week’s scrimmage — were back in action at Williams-Brice this week.
“So from that standpoint, knock on wood, but really in so much better health than we were last year,” Beamer continued. “Looking back at last year on this day last year, we had I think it was 11 players that did not participate in this scrimmage that started the preseason healthy. And this year, most all of those guys — Reid hasn’t really healthy since we started, so other than Bryan, Jakai, Nick, and Elijah — I mean that’s four guys and they’re all going to be back — so we’re in good shape from a health standpoint, which is especially gratifying after a physical preseason camp that we’ve had.”
Sanders, the Gamecocks’ All-SEC transfer from Arkansas, made his scrimmage debut this Saturday after the staff chose to limit him to just the 7-on-7 portion of last week’s scrimmage.
Sanders used the spring to rehab a shoulder injury that required surgery but is now 100 percent with two weeks until Game 1.
“Today, we wanted him to get tackled,” Beamer said. “That happened some in practice this week — he got tackled a couple of times and then it happened today and I thought he looked great. He’s a pro, ran the ball hard. People don’t talk enough about him in pass protection but he’s really good in pass protection and that’s so critical at the running back position. He runs good routes, he can catch. He’s just a really good overall running back. We got him some carries in there today and I thought he showed that he was Rocket Sanders.”
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The Gamecocks are, however, still taking it easy with redshirt freshman Markee Anderson who missed all of last season with an injury and then was banged up in the spring too.
“He’s coming along,” Beamer said. “Nothing really related to anything in the past, just kind of banged up and aggravated. He didn’t do a whole lot today. He was out there and did a little bit but hasn’t done a whole lot this week.
“Trying to get him as close to 100 percent before we go into this week and hopefully we can really have a good week Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday because he’s a guy that we need out there. Like I said, if he had been healthy last year, I feel confident in saying he probably would have been a starter for us at one of the guard spots and certainly would have played. He’s a really talented guy if we can just get him where he’s 100 percent healthy and get him rolling.”
With class starting this week on campus at South Carolina, the Gamecocks will work through a mock game week as a trial run for the lead-up to the first game during the week after.
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