Shane Beamer addresses health of South Carolina roster

South Carolina enters fall camp in solid health, based on the assessment of head coach Shane Beamer. As the Gamecocks start building to what they hope can be a breakthrough season, the bulk of any injuries in camp to start aren’t long-term issues, Beamer said.

No one will be in danger of missing the first game other than players already known to have long-term injuries. Anyone banged up heading into camp will be ready for the first game and at worst limited in practice, Beamer said.

“We’ve got some guys that are — everyone will be out there. Now we’ve got some that are going to be limited but there’s nobody that’s not going to be on the field for any reason other than they may be limited from an injury standpoint. Nobody really new,” Beamer said.

The extent of the limitations was unclear and Beamer didn’t specify, but he did offer an inkling of why a few players might be hampered as camp kicks off.

“It was a physical-as-could-be, gnarly, nasty grueling summer. So there are certainly some things that flare up throughout the summer that guys may be a little bit limited as we go into preseason camp. Nothing that’ll keep anybody out, long term. So they’ll be certainly some people limited but nothing long-term where they wouldn’t be ready for game one other than guys that we’ve previously, already talked about,” Beamer said.

Beamer said freshman will play a role for South Carolina in 2023

It’s not exactly ideal, but Beamer’s been recruiting well and the roster simply calls for it this fall.

“I think the biggest, I wouldn’t say it’s an issue, but challenge, something we need to get done certainly is just we’re going to have to rely on more freshmen earlier than any time that I can remember,” Beamer said as fall camp opened. “That’s an exciting thing. These guys are really talented. Whereas before you may say well this guy may figure in a little bit on special teams and maybe by Game 4, 5 contributing a little more on defense, this year more than any other that I can remember, we’re saying we know true freshmen are going to have to figure in right now in Game 1.

“So that’s exciting as a coach, and that’s what I told the staff this morning. We’ve got to do a great job of coaching and getting these guys ready to play in a short period of time for sure.”