South Carolina to move game against SC State to Thursday due to Hurricane Ian

Hurricane Ian hasn’t yet made landfall in the United States, but it’s already making an impact on the sports world. South Carolina is already making preparations, according to a report.

The Gamecocks are planning to move their Week 5 game against SC State to Thursday, GamecockCentral’s Wes Mitchell confirmed. The State’s Lou Bezjak initially reported reported the news Tuesday morning. Kickoff would be at either 7 p.m. or 7:30 p.m. ET and an announcement could come as soon as Tuesday morning.

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Hurricane Ian made landfall in Cuba Tuesday morning as a Category 3 hurricane, but is expected to strengthen as it approaches Florida. Preparations are happening across college football, including at USF, which is planning to now play at FAU in Boca Raton, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

South Carolina is coming off a big bounce-back victory over Charlotte last week 56-20 at Williams-Brice Stadium. The Gamecocks will now have a shorter turnaround than initially expected for the in-state rivalry with SC State before the SEC schedule gets fully underway.

Shane Beamer provides injury updates on Dylan Wonnum, Terrell Dawkins

South Carolina got back on the right track Saturday evening, settling in to eventually beat Charlotte 56-20, but were without key players: Offensive tackle Dylan Wonnum and edge rusher Terrell Dawkins. After the game, head coach Shane Beamer shed some light on the duo and what kept them out.

Wonnum tweaked his foot in a similar manner to the injury running back Christian Beal-Smith sustained in camp, but less severe, according to Beamer. Dawkins will be out for an extended period for South Carolina after having surgery on his knee, but is expected to be back this year.

“Dylan, late in the week of practice hurt his foot. Not severe,” Beamer said. “It’s a similar injury, I think, to what Christian Beal-Smith had, but not nearly as severe as what Christian’s was. I would hope that Dylan Wonnum would be back this week. If not this week, definitely, who’s that? Kentucky in two weeks. Dawkins is going to be out a while. He had a knee injury. He actually had surgery on Friday — Thursday or Friday. Hopefully we’ll be able to get him back.

“It’s not his ACL. Hopefully we’ll be able to get him back. It’ll probably be a month, six weeks at the most. You know, so as we go in to November, I would hope that he’d be able to get back.”