Head football coach Shane Beamer encouraged fans to be loud and disruptive heading into the Gameocock's second home game on Saturday.
South Carolina will face Mississippi State, which will be the Bulldogs' first away game of the 2023 season. Beamer said fans should show Mississippi State "what an SEC road game is like" during a press conference on Tuesday.
"We need that to be an advantage for us," Beamer said. "We know what a factor our crowd is. We know how loud it will be in there."
On the field, South Carolina is still facing injuries from the first three games. Beamer said most players on the injury report are questionable to play against Mississippi State, but senior wide reciever Antwane "Juice" Wells is out for at least this week.
Fifth-year wide receiver Ahmarean Brown, who sustained an injury against Furman, did not play against Georgia or practice on Tuesday. Despite this, Beamer said that Brown is "in good spirits" at practice.
Beamer and the Gamecock offense have had to rely on freshmen on the offensive line. Beamer said freshman offensive lineman Tree Babalade played an important role in South Carolina's game against Georgia last weekend. Babalade won the 247Sports True Freshman of the Week honors for his performance.
"We've got to continue to help them on and off the field, bringing them along," Beamer said. "But to see them get in there and have success, for Tree to be able to go in that environment Saturday as a left tackle, true freshman in the SEC ... was pretty cool to see."
Beamer said a lack of run game and defensive depth also contributed to South Carolina's loss against Georgia.
"The number one goal on our board is 'Run the ball and stop the run,' as far as what we want to do each and every week," Beamer said. "We've got to do a better job of it."
South Carolina punted the ball five times against Georgia, while Georgia only punted three times, which tired the Gamecock's defense out. Beamer said the team needs to be more successfull on third down on both sides of the ball.
"We certainly have to help our defense. One, defense has got to get off the field on third down. Two, we've got to stay on the field offensively on third down. But then, three, we've got to play other players on defense," Beamer said. "We've got to continue to develop depth."
Despite the possibility of being 1-3 after Saturday's game, Beamer said he is having his team focus solely on this matchup and what they have to do to get better this week.
"We have a pretty good understanding of where we are right now, what are strengths are, where we need to improve," Beamer said. "We're a fourth of the way through the season, so we're starting the second quarter. And everything we want is still out there in front of us."
South Carolina will host Mississippi State for the first time in a decade on Saturday at Williams-Brice Stadium at 7:30p.m. The game will be available to stream on SEC Network.