Where South Carolina is turning with Juice Wells, Trey Knox banged up
While neither seems to be a long-term injury, two of South Carolina’s key offensive weapons will miss some time this preseason.
Both Trey Knox and Juice Wells missed Saturday’s scrimmage and have been banged up, giving other players opportunities to step up in the first scrimmage of training camp.
“Depth at tight end now it’s a little bit thin right now because Reid Mikeska is out as well. But it’s a great opportunity for Josh Simon to step up, which he has,” Shane Beamer said. “It’s a great opportunity for Connor Cox and Nick Elksnis to do some things. Saw those guys flash today…So all those guys are stepping up.”
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Simon is the other portal tight end expected to start or, at minimum, play a key rotational role for South Carolina this season. Mikeska–a three-star freshman tight end–is dealing with an injury that could keep him out a few weeks.
With Knox, though, Beamer said the plan is to get him back in practice after the Gamecocks’ off day Monday. Wells, Beamer said, should be ready for the North Carolina game.
Cox is another freshman who’s now gotten more run with injuries along with the Florida transfer Elksnis.
At receiver, it seems like Wells’ snaps are being divvied up between a pair of receivers, one a veteran and another a five-star freshman.
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“With Juice being out right now, that gives more opportunities for Nyck Harbor and O’Mega Blake. Nyck and O’Mega mainly. Xavier Legette is an older guy,” Beamer said. “He didn’t get a ton of work today but that gave opportunities for Eddie Lewis. Ahmarean (Brown) is doing some really good things. So it’s a solid group.”
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South Carolina just wrapped its first scrimmage of the preseason Saturday afternoon. The Gamecocks are off Sunday before practicing every day this week.
The second and final scrimmage of the preseason is Saturday. But today’s scrimmage was about getting a lot of the younger players reps and seeing what the Gamecocks had.
So really today was again, let’s get these younger guys in there, these freshmen. See what they can do as well. Let’s figure out who our top you know five, six, seven receivers are going in the game.”
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South Carolina has veteran returners like Legette and Brown while also bringing in Eddie Lewis, who was productive over his career at Memphis.
The Gamecocks also brought in Harbor to the receiver room–a five-star talent who was a top-35 prospect in the 2023 class–and in-state talent Elijah Caldwell.
