Shane Beamer provides injury updates on Dylan Wonnum, Terrell Dawkins
South Carolina got back on the right track Saturday evening, settling in to eventually beat Charlotte 56-20, but were without key players: Offensive tackle Dylan Wonnum and edge rusher Terrell Dawkins. After the game, head coach Shane Beamer shed some light on the duo and what kept them out.
Wonnum tweaked his foot in a similar manner to the injury running back Christian Beal-Smith sustained in camp, but less severe, according to Beamer. Dawkins will be out for an extended period for South Carolina after having surgery on his knee, but is expected to be back this year.
“Dylan, late in the week of practice hurt his foot. Not severe,” Beamer said. “It’s a similar injury, I think, to what Christian Beal-Smith had, but not nearly as severe as what Christian’s was. I would hope that Dylan Wonnum would be back this week. If not this week, definitely, who’s that? Kentucky in two weeks. Dawkins is going to be out a while. He had a knee injury. He actually had surgery on Friday — Thursday or Friday. Hopefully we’ll be able to get him back. It’s not his ACL. Hopefully we’ll be able to get him back. It’ll probably be a month, six weeks at the most. You know, so as we go in to November, I would hope that he’d be able to get back.”
In light of Dawkins being out for a major stretch of games, Beamer knows South Carolina is thin at the edge. The Gamecocks will need to work younger players into the fold to try and keep an edge rushing threat. Along with Dawkins, South Carolina has also missed edge rusher Jordan Strachan for the past two games as he, too, is injured.
“Which is why you saw Bryan Thomas [Jr.], a true freshman, out there tonight,” Beamer said. “And what not. The depth, obviously, at defensive end is a concern right now. We’ve lost Jordan Strachan and now Terrell Dawkins to a position that was very thin to begin with. So we’ve got to continue to get these young guys to come along and we’ve got to be creative with what we’re doing defensively.”