Shane Beamer updates extensive South Carolina injury report

South Carolina football coach Shane Beamer said Saturday night following the Gamecocks’ loss to North Carolina that the injury list was too long to run down and that he would address it more extensively later on.

A day later, on Sunday night, Beamer said that safety Nick Emmanwori and wide receiver Juice Wells were considered questionable for the Gamecocks’ home opener this Saturday against Furman.

Then on Tuesday, during his usual weekly press conference, Beamer provided another update.

“It was a physical game last week,” Beamer said. “(I) would say that Markee Anderson is doubtful this week. I would say that Nick Emmanwori is doubtful this week. I would say that J.T. Geer is doubtful this week. I would say that David Spaulding is doubtful this week. Cason Henry is out this week. And everybody else practiced today and should be good to go.”

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Beamer added that Wells practiced on Tuesday.

“Juice was good,” Beamer said. “I asked him early on in practice, ‘How you feeling? What’s your mindset in practice this week?’ He said, ‘I’m playing and don’t even try and limit me in practice today,’ is what essentially he said.”

Wide receiver Ahmarean Brown played most of the UNC game but did exit early with a rib injury but practiced Tuesday and was fine.

Beamer added that he fully expects freshman linebacker Pup Howard, a former four-star prospect, to make his South Carolina debut on Saturday.

“He could have played last week in Charlotte,” Beamer said. “We didn’t have him really going on any special teams because he hadn’t been practicing a lot and we didn’t want to throw him in there on a special team when he hadn’t done a ton of practicing leading up to the game from a special teams standpoint. Defensively, it just got to be one of those games, we wanted to get him in the game and get him some reps, but then Mo gets hurt and the game was kind of crazy. The longer the game went, the less you want to put a guy in there for his first college reps ever at the linebacker position.”

Beamer said on Sunday that Henry, who made his first career start at right tackle against UNC, is “probably going to be out for a while.” He suffered a lower-body injury when he was rolled up from behind.

Earlier on Tuesday, South Carolina announced via release that linebacker Mo Kaba was once again out for the season after suffering an injury to his left knee in the opener.

That news comes nearly one year after Kaba was lost for most of the 2022 slate due to a knee injury he suffered in Week 2 of that season against Arkansas.

“Heart breaks for him,” Beamer said. “Obviously a fantastic human being, first and foremost. Fantastic player for us. Really hard deal when he tore his ACL last year against Arkansas. And it was tough for us, obviously, to deal with from an emotional standpoint. Kid worked his butt off throughout the offseason, spring practice, was practicing with great energy. And was truly loving being back out there, as you can imagine, smile on his face every day at practice.

“So really hurt for him, but we’ll wrap our arms around him and we’ll see what the future holds. But I would ask everybody that’s affiliated with Gamecock Nation to please think about Mo, because this is tough on him, tough on our football team.”

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Geer, Bam Martin-Scott, and Connor Cox all missed the Gamecocks’ opener but Martin-Scott and Cox were added to South Carolina’s updated depth chart on Monday. Beamer said he expects Martin-Scott to play Saturday.

Emmanwori, the Gamecocks’ leading tackler last season, left on the first defensive drive of Saturday night with a hamstring injury.

A visibly frustrated Emmanwori tried to return to the contest a drive later, but was clearly not himself physically and ultimately had to leave the game for good.

Wells missed most of preseason camp with a foot injury he suffered during the summer but was cleared to play during the lead-up to Saturday’s game. Wells played in just 17 snaps before exiting early and did not return.

Henry missed all of the spring with a knee injury before returning to full-go early in preseason camp and then winning the starting right tackle job. Making his first career start against the Tar Heels on Saturday, Henry exited after just four plays after getting rolled up from behind and suffering a lower-body injury.

South Carolina (0-1) and Furman (1-0) are set for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff Saturday night at Williams-Brice Stadium with SEC Network Plus and ESPN Plus carrying the action.

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