With a 4-4 record, head coach Shane Beamer said the bye week was a great opportunity for him to give the team a weekend off before facing Florida at home.
Beamer said he is happy with where the team stands from a practice standpoint.
“Practiced Sunday night, yesterday was the off day, and then had a fantastic practice this morning. Love where our guys are right now, the mindset that they’re practicing with and the way that they’re working, so can’t wait to get back at it," Beamer said.
Inconsistency at the quarterback position has been a lingering issue for the Gamecocks and will follow the team into its game against Florida as graduate student quarterback Zeb Noland is recovering from his recent meniscus surgery.
Beamer said he was pleased with Noland’s progress, but that he still needs to be able to do more in practice before playing.
"All the quarterbacks need to practice well and compete and show that they’re the best person for the job on Saturday night,” Beamer said. “From just a health standpoint with Zeb, I think the biggest thing is just the mobility."
South Carolina had three turnovers and only converted on the third-down three out of 13 times while punting on more than half of its drives during its last game against Texas A&M.
Being more efficient and cleaner is something Beamer said he wants to see from his offense.
“We’ve got to compete. We’ve got to win our one-on-one battles. We’ve got to stay on the field, we got to protect the quarterback, got to run the football, ” Beamer said. "Let’s start with just out-competing the opponent and winning those one-on-one battles.”
Florida’s defense ranks seventh in the SEC, allowing 193 passing yards and 147 rushing yards per game. Redshirt senior wide receiver E.J. Jenkins talked about what the offense has to do to be successful against Florida’s defense this week.
“We’ve got to start off fast. We got to play fast. We got to go hard straight from the get-go. We can’t wait until the second half to actually start playing. Really just go out-physical them and play hard. I don’t think anybody has a coach that practices as hard as we did today," Jenkins said.
Senior wide receiver Josh Vann talked about how avoiding negative plays can help the team get into a rhythm.
“On offense, everybody has to be as one, so if one person messes up, it’s bound to be a negative play. I would say no negative plays when it’s first down," Vann said. "It’s just little stuff like that. You just have to take care of the football more.”
The Gamecocks will host division rival Florida on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. The game can be viewed on SEC Network.