South Carolina center Alan Knott injured in second quarter against Georgia with sprained ankle

The South Carolina Gamecocks suffered a tough loss on their offensive line. Alan Knott, the team's starting center, went down early in the second quarter against the Georgia Bulldogs after a teammate inadvertently slid into his legs.

It's bad news for an O-line that's already thin. Knott's backup, Cody Waldrop, was injured during practice two weeks ago and is done for the year. Current backup Zack Bailey, a true freshman, entered the game in Knott's place in his first action as a Gamecock. While Bailey entered Columbia with high accolades (the #1 player in South Carolina, the 5th best guard in his class in the country and a top-100 player nationally regardless of position), you ideally would prefer someone with a little more experience in such an important game.

Knott is a redshirt sophomore who was called into action last year and made eight starts while recovering from a knee injury. It's possible that he re-aggravated it today, but not much about the extent of the injury is clear at this point.

We'll update this post as we learn more. Hopefully Knott is OK and can return to the lineup in short order for this Gamecocks team that is in need of a veteran presence up front.

UPDATE: The official Gamecocks Twitter feed says it's a sprained ankle.