South Carolina injury report with one week until preseason camp: 'Everybody is good'
South Carolina enters preseason camp next week as a healthy football team.
Speaking at his annual Birdies with Beamer event on Thursday afternoon, head coach Shane Beamer said that safety Zahbari Sandy, who tore his ACL in the spring, is the lone Gamecock who won’t be available when preseason camp starts next week.
“Everybody is good other than Zahbari Sandy who obviously had the knee injury back in spring practice,” Beamer said. “Everybody as of yesterday is good to go unless something happens this weekend, which pray to God that it won’t, everybody is healthy and will be able to practice next week.”
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Last week at SEC Media Days Beamer was specifically asked about talented running back transfer Rocket Sanders, who missed the entire spring while recovering from offseason shoulder surgery.
“He’s done a great job, was modified early on when he got here and then we’ve just slowly built that up,” Beamer said. “He stayed in Columbia the entire month of May. He didn’t go anywhere. So I was, you know, I go in the morning in the facility early each morning. I’m usually in the weight room at 6 a.m., and he was in there every day when I was in there and doing recovery and using the month of May to really get ahead. So when the whole team came back and started workouts in June, he would not be lagging behind.
“And he’s hit the ground running. He’s lost a considerable amount of weight and body fat since he got here. So when we talk about hunger on the football team, he’s a guy that’s very hungry. I mean, I think people forget how freaking good that guy was in 2022. I’m glad people have, but he’s really good. And when healthy, I’m optimistic that we’re going to see the best version of Rocket Sanders this upcoming season that the SEC ever has.”
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Looking back to the spring, Sanders was one of several South Carolina players who missed most or all of the spring including fellow running backs Juju McDowell and Bradley Dunn, linebacker Mo Kaba, wide receivers C.J. Adams, and Sandy.
Cornerback Judge Collier, offensive lineman Jakai Moore, wide receiver Debron Gatling, defensive back David Spaulding, and EDGE JT Geer were all also held out of the spring game.
But again all are expected back next week when the Gamecocks report to camp on Thursday and have their first practice on Friday.
