Final South Carolina injury report before Mississippi State
South Carolina is getting healthier but is still very much a banged-up team entering the Gamecocks’ SEC home opener. And Shane Beamer got to update the health of the team for the final time before hosting Mississippi State.
Speaking on Carolina Calls with Todd Ellis, Beamer said Ahmarean Brown, JT Geer and Tyreek Johnson might not be 100 percent but “absolutely will be available. The hope is they’ll be able to make an impact Saturday against the Bulldogs.
“Ahmarean practiced today. JT practiced today. Tyreek practiced today. Are those guys going to be 100 percent? Probably not. Will they be able to play? Absolutely. We’ll kind of see where they are. The good news is it’s a night game,” Beamer said.
“We have over 48 hours from right now until we play. It’s a lot of time for those guys to get treatment and get even healthier than what they are right now. Hopefully, they’ll be able to get in there and give us something. But those guys practiced this week and did more today than they have at any point.”
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Brown was off to a very strong start to the year, catching nine passes for 86 yards and forcing a team-high 11 missed tackles before injuring his hamstring.
Johnson has three tackles on the season–0.5 for loss and 0.5 sacks–with a trio of pressures and a quarterback hit. Geer, a Syracuse transfer, hasn’t gotten to make his South Carolina debut yet dealing with an injury from the preseason.
Johnson and Geer had done some work in practice over the course of the week while Brown had been more limited than him based on what Beamer said on Tuesday in his weekly press conference and again Wednesday on the SEC Teleconference.
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Beamer already mentioned earlier in the week South Carolina will be without all-SEC receiver Juice Wells this week with the plan to continue evaluating him.
“Juice will be out this week. He will not be able to play. He did see a specialist this morning in Charlotte. And it was a good visit as well. Nothing that is season-ending. Is something that I feel like the best thing is just to rest it for this week,” Beamer said Tuesday.
“We’ll see about next week for Tennessee, and then we have an open week after that. So we’ll certainly reevaluate things as we get more into next week. Let’s just let the foot settle down a little bit, see where we are, and then we’ll go from there.”
South Carolina will be without Jaylen Nichols, Cason Henry, Markee Anderson and Ryan Brubaker for an extended period of time. Anderson was recently ruled out for the year dealing with a knee injury.
Henry, though, could start the next steps in his rehab soon.
“Cason is out but won’t be out for the year we don’t think,” Beamer said. “We’re hoping he’ll be able to start jogging next week. that would be awesome if he continued to come along and progress.
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The Gamecocks host Mississippi State this week and travel to Knoxville to play Tennessee (7:30 p.m., SEC Network) next week before their bye week.
South Carolina is 9-7 all-time against the Bulldogs but has won seven of eight dating back to 2000. The only State win was the last meeting, a 27-14 Gamecocks loss in Starkville.
South Carolina is 5-3 all-time at home against Mississippi State and has won four straight in the series in Columbia.
The Gamecocks are coming off a 24-14 loss to Georgia while Mississippi State lost 41-14 last week at home to LSU.
Kickoff is scheduled this week for 7:30 p.m. on the SEC Network.
