Oct. 31, 2011

The University of South Carolina football squad returned to the Bluff Road practice fields Monday night. The Gamecocks (7-1, 5-1 SEC) are ranked ninth in this week’s BCS Standings. They are preparing for Saturday night’s top-10 matchup at No. 7 Arkansas (7-1, 3-1 SEC). Game time is set for 7:15 p.m. ET in Fayetteville’s Reynolds Stadium. The game will be televised nationally by ESPN.

Defensive coordinator Lorenzo Ward indicated that he expects both cornerbacks, C.C. Whitlock and Victor Hampton, should be ready to play on Saturday. “Vic’s calf is getting better daily and C.C. will be back from his concussion,” said Ward.

Defensive line coach Brad Lawing was pleased with the defensive performance against Tennessee. “Three points. That says it all right there,” said Lawing. “They had about 35 yards rushing. Anytime you hold a team under 200 yards you’re doing pretty good. We affected the quarterback the entire night. If you get sacks, that’s great, but the whole thing is affecting the quarterback. You want sacks, but anytime you make the quarterback move in the pocket and he starts throwing the ball high or throwing the ball wide, you are affecting him.

“Arkansas is a good football team, they really are,” said Lawing. “There is a reason why they’re ranked where they are. We’ve got to affect the quarterback. Our goal is every snap we do that whenever they drop back. Then we’ve got to stop the run game. We didn’t let Tennessee run the football, so we made them one-dimensional which helped us. I don’t know if you can do that to Arkansas.”

The Gamecocks will return to the practice fields on Tuesday afternoon.