Injuries taking a toll on South Carolina's secondary

South Carolina’s secondary is hurting, and Shane Beamer knows that.

After losing RJ Roderick to the transfer portal, injuries are starting to arise. David Spaulding is done for the year with a foot injury. BJ Gibson won’t play in the Florida game on Saturday. The redshirt junior sustained a hamstring injury against Vanderbilt, but Beamer is hopeful he’ll be back soon.

While multiple defenders are hurt, Beamer said he hasn’t thought about switching some wide receivers over to defensive backs.

“We’re not to that point yet where we have to start moving people over yet, but we are thin and thankfully, knock on wood, our starters for the most part are healthy,” he said.

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Clayton White met with Beamer about this potential idea, but he’s trying not to switch positions during game week.

“That kind of hurt us early in the season when we moved a couple of guys to a new position the week of the game and it was hard on the coaches and players,” White said. “So now we’re just trying to put them in the best spot for the week and just learn the position that week. But it takes a lot of communication because you may go out and play safety this week, and you’ve never played it before. It’s going to be 45 plays that you’ve never seen or had a chance to react to so that’s what makes it really hard to be honest with you.”

Others in the defensive backfield, Cam Smith and Devonni Reed are dealing with their own illnesses as well.

“Cam’s a little sick right now,” Beamer said. “Health-wise, physically, he’s fine. He’s battling a little bit of stuff like a lot of people are right now. He should be fine for Saturday.”

Beamer added that Reed practiced on Tuesday and was fine. He didn’t mention if he will be good to go for the upcoming game, though.

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There’s a good chance more young defensive backs and safeties will find their way onto the field against the Gators. South Carolina played eight different defensive backs in Saturday’s win over Vanderbilt.

“We’re just trying to make sure we have guys on the field at all times that practice and understand the defense and, more importantly, the offense that you’re going to face,” White said. “Those are two different worlds that you have to learn. You have to learn our stuff, and you have to learn what you’re going to get, and you have to really expect something that you haven’t seen.”

South Carolina’s defense will face a versatile offensive unit in Gainesville. Through the air, quarterback Anthony Richardson has completed 55 percent of his passes, with 7.8 yards per completion. The Gators also are averaging 208.8 rushing yards per game. Richardson has rushed for 488 yards and eight touchdowns, making him a player the Gamecocks have to stop.

“When anything breaks down and can get outside the pocket, he wants to run it,” Darius Rush said. “Eliminating that run game for him, keeping him contained, is something that’ll help us.”

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In the face of adversity, South Carolina isn’t concerned about plugging in newcomers on defense.

“There’s always the next man up mentality, whether that’s like in this emphasis when RJ went down at the beginning of the season—we had to start Nick (Emmanwori), a true freshman,” Rush said. “The guys that we’re developing right now, we’re not worried about anything because we know those guys are going to do what they can to help this team the best they can.”

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