The South Carolina football team will head to Knoxville, Tennessee, this weekend to face the No. 21 Tennessee Volunteers in its third SEC game of 2023. Last season, the Gamecocks beat the then-No. 5 Volunteers 63-38 in the first of two ranked victories to end the regular season.
Going into this game, South Carolina will be dealing with several major injuries on the offensive line after redshirt junior offensive linemen Ni Mansell was ruled out for the season with an injury sustained in practice on Sunday that required surgery on Monday.
Mansell joins a list of seven injured lineman that also includes redshirt freshman offensive lineman Cason Henry, freshman offensive lineman Markee Anderson and fifth-year offensive lineman Jaylen Nichols. Anderson and Nichols have yet to play this season after suffering injuries in the preseason while Henry remains out after leaving the Gamecocks' season-opener against North Carolina.
However, Beamer said redshirt senior offensive lineman Jakai Moore will play this week while dealing with a slight shoulder injury that occurred during South Carolina's win over Mississippi State last week and caused him to miss Tuesday's practice.
Elsewhere on the offense, senior wide receiver Antwane “Juice” Wells will miss his second consecutive game after an early injury against Georgia. Beamer declined to give specifics on Wells' timetable for return, but he said that fifth-year wide receiver Ahmarean Brown returned to practice after missing the Mississippi State game.
Despite last season's historic win over the Volunteers and the growing injury report, Beamer said that there is "definitely not any pressure" to repeat what the team did to end 2022.
"We were successful last year against Tennessee because of the way we practiced and prepared," Beamer said. "Last year's game really doesn't have anything to do with this year's game ... All we're worried about is having a great week of practice and preparing the right way."
Beamer said it is important that players practice and prepare both mentally and physically in the days leading up to the game so that they can execute when the time comes.
The team already has experience in daunting environments like a night game at Tennessee, Beamer said. In its first four games this season, South Carolina has already played a neutral game in Charlotte and a road game at two-time defending champion Georgia.
"We're battled tested in a lot of ways with the environments we've been in. Charlotte was electric, Athens was rocking like you would expect," Beamer said. "Then the teams we've played have three losses between them, and South Carolina gave those teams two of those losses."
The Volunteers have not lost at home since the 2021 season, when they fell to the eventual national champion Georgia Bulldogs. Adding that the Tennessee fans will have all day to prepare for the game, Beamer said that "game time does matter," but he knows there will be lots of garnet and black in the stadium and that South Carolina fans will have just as much time to bring the energy the Gamecocks need.
South Carolina and No. 21 Tennessee will face off this Saturday at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tennessee, with kickoff set for 7:30 p.m. The game will be available to watch on the SEC Network.