clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Mangus: Connor Shaw 'will be ready to go' against Mississippi State

Connor Shaw is expected to play, Ronald Patrick will be closer to 100 percent, and Brandon Wilds will be available in case of emergency.

By Connor Tapp
Peter Aiken

South Carolina's quarterbacks coach G.A. Mangus, in addition to tweeting our #2sprainz meme, indicated on Wednesday that Connor Shaw will be ready to play against Mississippi State on Saturday.

He got out here today and got to run around and actually probably practiced a little bit more than I thought he was going to. He'll be ready to go. He feels a lot better today... If he gets a good night's sleep, he'll be ready to roll tomorrow and get a lot of reps.

Mangus, regarding Shaw's status heading into the Missouri game:

He was good to go and cleared and all that. It was very similar to the Clemson week last year... And last year was probably a little worse. He's a competitor, and he likes to play. And there was never a time of him not reminding us of, "Hey, I'm ready to go."

Offensive line coach Shawn Elliott was dissatisfied with the push created by the offensive line and is hopeful that his unit will perform better against Mississippi State:

We've got to play well. We've got to move them off the football, which is something we didn't do last week. So we've got our work cut out for us to see if we can run the football a lot better than we did last week... We didn't run block very well. Shoot, we couldn't get Mike Davis nothin'... We've got to open some lanes up. Them backs are good when they've got some holes to run through. They're not very good when they don't. I told 'em last week we didn't make him look very good. So we've got to do a much better job. We've worked on it this week, and we've got more of a focus. And with [Ronald Patrick] being back with a stronger ankle, we should be able to get that push this Saturday.

Elliott on Ronald Patrick, South Carolina's wounded right guard:

I think he's a lot better than he was last week. I'll tell you what: I was really proud of him because he went out there and played his guts out on a bum ankle, and that's hard to do up front... He should play much better this week.

Elliott on the availability of Cody Waldrop, who was projected to be the starting center entering the 2013 season:

I think he'll be back next week. I think he's making progress. He's moving around out here. He's running in the pool. I expect him to be back next week.

On the two awkward snaps that Clayton Stadnik transferred to the quarterback in Columbia on Saturday.

He said both of them got caught in the ground. He said he lifted the tip up and he could never get the tip out of the ground, so it just kind of rolled back there. It's unfortunate, but we'll try to get that corrected.

Running backs coach Everett Sands on the health of Brandon Wilds:

Right now, he's actually in emergency use for us. Today was his first day out in pads where he could hit a little bit. Hopefully we're not going to have to use him on Saturday, but he is there in an emergency situation. I'd like to get him a couple more days of some live contact so he can get a little bit more comfortable before I just throw him out there... He was fine. I saw him with the ball in that hand [the one connected to the injured elbow] and with the ball in the other hand. And he looked comfortable... If he carries the ball correctly, it's not going to be on the brace but between the brace and his body. And it looked like he had it pretty good. We did some ball security drills and he was able to hold onto it pretty good with it. We'll see it in a live situation with somebody trying to rip it out. But we'll hopefully get that in practice next week.

Behind MIke Davis and Shon Carson is...

Jamarri Smith is [number] three... He's still learning. Some of the things he was able to retain from preseason camp. And a lot of it he's back learning again. But I think he's a guy that -- if you put the ball in his hands -- he's going to be fine.

Sands, on how much Mike Davis' fumbles have affected their preparation for week ten:

Huge. With all of our guys. I wasn't a happy camper, as you can imagine. And he knows I wasn't a happy camper, and I don't think he was a happy camper, which is good. But we've got to make sure we do a better job with ball security.

More from Garnet And Black Attack:

More From Garnet And Black Attack