Nov. 15, 2011

The University of South Carolina football squad returned to the Bluff Road practice fields Tuesday afternoon. It was the squad’s first practice session since its 17-12 win over Florida on Saturday.

The Gamecocks (8-2, 6-2 SEC) are ranked 14th in both national polls and come in 12th in this week’s BCS Standings. They will be facing a Citadel Bulldog team that is playing its final game of the season. The Bulldogs are 4-6 overall and finished the 2011 season with a 2-5 in the Southern Conference under seventh-year head coach Kevin Higgins.

Following Tuesday’s practice, defensive coordinator Lorenzo Ward indicated that safety D.J. Swearinger’s status for Saturday is uncertain. “We’re going to treat him like we did last week. We’ll rest him a majority of the week, then we’ll probably give him some reps on Thursday and we’ll either decide to play him in this ball game or we’ll sit him out. He’ll be ready to play if we need him to play. DeVonte (Holloman) will be fine. I think he’ll be back practicing tomorrow. He passed the concussion test today, so I think he’ll be out here tomorrow.”

Brison Williams made his first start on Saturday. “I thought he played like a freshman,” said Ward. “Brison knows that. He should have made some tackles he missed. He was in the right place for the majority. He had one bust in coverage, but other than that he was in the right place. He just didn’t play the game as physically as we’d like him to.”

The Gamecocks are scheduled to practice again on Wednesday afternoon at 4:15 p.m.