Sept. 1, 2015

The University of South Carolina football squad worked out for about two hours on Tuesday afternoon as they continued preparations for Thursday’s season opener with North Carolina.

Newcomer Dante Sawyer is listed as a probable starter along the defensive line. “He’s had a good camp,” said co-defensive coordinator Jon Hoke. “He’s going to play as hard as he can, I know that.”

Coach Hoke believes he has been able to accomplish what he hoped to during the fall camp. “I think they’ve done a good job through training camp trying to understand what we’re looking for. We’ll see how it works (in the game). I’m just excited to see them play,” continued Coach Hoke. “Football is an exciting game. We’re all fortunate to be coaching it and all of our coaches have great passion for it, so we’re excited to see them play.”

Chaz Elder has transitioned from safety to cornerback this fall. “He’s a good athlete and obviously you like his height and his length,” noted Coach Hoke. “We wanted to see what he looked like (at cornerback). We knew we had Isaiah Johnson coming in (to play safety).”

Coach Hoke confirmed that he plans to rotate a lot of defensive lineman. “Especially up front, we’ll try to rotate as many guys as we can.”

On the injury front, tight end Jerell Adams (hamstring), offensive lineman Cody Waldrop (knee) and linebacker Jonathan Walton (back) all returned to practice on Tuesday.

The Gamecocks will have a short practice on Wednesday before bussing to Charlotte late in the afternoon.