Shane Beamer gives brief Tuesday injury update: 'We're trending in the right direction'

South Carolina was already without key contributors Judge Collier, Jalon Kilgore, and JT Geer entering this past Saturday’s matchup with SC State, and the injury report only got longer from there.

Brandon Cisse, Vicari Swain, Brady Hunt, Josiah Thompson, and Jaquel Holman all exited the win over the Bulldogs with varying degrees of injuries and did not return.

After initially saying the list of injuries was too long to even name on Saturday night, head coach Shane Beamer was more optimistic on Sunday night that most of that group would return for this Saturday’s game against Vanderbilt.

During his Tuesday afternoon press conference, Beamer provided another quick update.

“On the injury front, we’re trending in the right direction,” Beamer said. “Obviously, it’s an SEC game, so we’ll have to release an injury update as the week goes. We’ll do that then, so I’m not going to talk about injuries today, other than just to say we’re trending in the right direction and we’ll release the report like we do every week for SEC games when the time comes.”

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Beamer said on Sunday that he was most concerned about Hunt, the Gamecocks’ senior starting tight end who exited the game early Saturday night.

“Feel pretty optimistic on everyone as we sit here today in regards to being able to play Saturday night against Vanderbilt,” Beamer said Sunday. “Brady Hunt is the only one that we’re doing some testing on today, and still getting some of the results back from that, so keeping our fingers crossed and prayers for him that we get a good report here this afternoon. But everybody else is trending to being able to play this weekend.”

The fifth-year head coach said during last week’s call-in show that he expects Collier and Geer back for the Vandy game.

Since this is an SEC matchup, South Carolina and Vanderbilt will both release availability reports throughout the week, with the first official report expected just after 8 p.m. on Wednesday.

The next availability update will come Thursday at around 8 p.m. followed by another on Friday and a final report 90 minutes before kickoff on Saturday.

Beamer also typically provides an injury update on his Thursday night call-in show as well.

Last season the SEC approved a player availability injury report system for football, men’s and women’s basketball and baseball.

SEC school personnel must submit availability reports three days before each football game, with daily updates leading to a final report 90 minutes before game time. For basketball and baseball, reports are filed the night before, with an update on game day.

According to the SEC, penalties for inaccurate or late reports will range from $25,000 to $100,000 for football and anywhere from $15,000 to $25,000 for basketball and baseball.

When schools submit injury reports, players will be designated as available, probable, doubtful, and questionable before game day. On game day, designations will be available, game-time decision or out. The model follows injury reports similar to the NFL.

Both off to 2-0 starts, the Gamecocks and Commodores are set for a 7:45 kickoff Saturday night at Williams-Brice Stadium on SEC Network.

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