Oct. 14, 2014

The South Carolina Gamecocks (3-3, 2-3 SEC) worked out Tuesday afternoon at the indoor facility, as rain crept into the Columbia metropolitan area. The Gamecocks will be hosting Furman (2-4) on Saturday, October 18, at Williams-Brice Stadium. That game is scheduled for a noon kickoff and will be televised nationally on the SEC Network. Tom Holt and Matt Stinchcomb will be describing the game from the booth with Kayce Smith on the sidelines.

Seniors Dylan Thompson, A.J. Cann, Sharrod Golightly and J.T. Surratt have been named the permanent team captains for the 2014 season.

Tailback Brandon Wilds (sprained knee), offensive tackle Corey Robinson (sprained ankle) and linebacker Bryson Allen-Williams (concussion) were among those who did not practice on Tuesday.

Following Tuesday’s practice, defensive line coach Deke Adams said that he has had to shorten his rotation due to some injuries, including those to defensive ends David Johnson and Cedrick Cooper. “We all have to (shorten the rotation) in some situations as we have some guys banged up a little bit,” said Adams. “We don’t have much of a choice when you get to a certain point. We’re going to try to keep guys in and see what we can do with certain guys in certain situations. It’s game 6, so we’ve got a lot of them banged up right now. We’ve got to get them healed. Some of the guys will be ready, some of them took limited reps today and they’ll be ready before the week’s over.”

The Gamecock coaches have also talked about simplifying things on defense. “We’re trying to play a little bit more base (defense),” noted Adams. “We have some young kids in certain situations that don’t have a lot of game experience. The easier we can make it for them, the faster they play. That’s our goal right now is to play fast and physical.”

“We’re just trying to play faster,” echoed linebackers coach Kirk Botkin. “Some of the young guys won’t be thinking as much. Anytime you’re thinking, you’re playing slow,” said Botkin.

The Gamecocks are scheduled to practice again on Wednesday afternoon at the Bluff Road practice fields.