Sept. 3, 2014

The No. 21 South Carolina Gamecocks (0-1, 0-1 SEC) step out of conference this week when they host the East Carolina Pirates (1-0, 0-0 AAC) at Williams-Brice Stadium on Saturday, September 6. Game time is set for 7 p.m. ET. The game will be televised nationally on ESPNU with Anish Shroff and Kelly Stouffer in the booth and Cara Capuano on the sidelines.

The Gamecocks continued preparations for the Pirates with a two-hour workout at the Bluff Road “Proving Grounds” on Wednesday afternoon.

On the defensive side of the ball, senior cornerback Brison Williams was held out of practice on Wednesday with a bruised right forearm.

Offensively, O-line coach Shawn Elliott said that Will Sport is penciled in to make the start at right guard over Cody Waldrop, while Alan Knott has been running with the first team at center over Clayton Stadnik.

“I’m not 100 percent sure yet (on who would start at center), but Alan Knott has had a good week of practice,” said Elliott. “These guys all work hard. They all deserve a chance to get in there and show what they can do. (Sport) had a great camp,” continued Elliott. “These guys have opportunities to play. They don’t come out here and bust their tails for two-and-a-half hours for it to be so even to not give one guy another chance. He’s worked hard and he’s going to be given the opportunity to go out there and get the job done.”

Elliott said that everyone associated with the Gamecock program was disappointed by last Thursday’s performance against Texas A&M. “It was a very disappointing outing for us. It gets your attention,” noted Elliott. “But we faced a very good football team. They came out well-prepared and took it to us. We expect the same thing from East Carolina this week. We have to hone in on some of the skills that we’ve set throughout the course of camp and bring them out on game day. We’ve got another opportunity. No one game makes or breaks a football season,” added Elliott.

Elliott knows the Gamecocks will need to run the ball more effectively to beat East Carolina. “We’ve put a little more emphasis on (the running game). We had some opportunities to run the football last week. It just didn’t work out. We’ve got some backs that want to run it. We’ve got some lineman that want to block for it. We’ll see how it pans out on Saturday.”

The Gamecocks will return to the practice fields on Thursday afternoon at 4 p.m.