News and notes from Media Day

[Swayin]

https://247sports.com/college/south-carolina/Article/South-Carolina-gamecocks-football-2021-media-day-168770714/

 

[kingofnerf]

Two thoughts:

Jimmy Lindsey will open preseason camp Friday morning with Jabari Ellis and Zacch Pickens as the starting defensive tackles.

“It’s just a starting point,” Lindsey said. “We’re trying to see who can play. It’s wide-open competition. As a coach, I’ve got to do a really nice job, to foster that competition in a good way, so guys are pushing each other and see how guys play with each other.

Competition for PT will be a good thing if they do it right.

On the offensive side, wide receiver OrTre Smith went into detail about some of the Covid issues he dealt with around this time a year ago. He caught the virus around the time players were permitted to report back to campus.

“The first couple of days, I woke up and had a slight headache,” Smith said. “Told my trainer, got tested and it came up positive. First couple of days, got a headache, nothing crazy, but a little chest pain. … Going on, we had the conditioning test, every time I would run and it would get worse and worse.

“Every time I would run, I felt like I couldn’t catch my breath. I didn’t know what would happen. Covid being a new virus or whatever it was, so I wasn’t just being comfortable being out there, not knowing what it is and me just being out there.”

As a result, Smith opted out of last season, though he rejoined the team earlier this year.

“It’s not a thing anymore,” he said. “When I opted out, I was still going to stress tests and stuff. They thought I had asthma and I never had asthma a day in my life. In them middle of that season, I started to get back on track and just started focusing on me and things I could do to get stronger.”

It took a lot of courage for OrTre to talk about his Covid issues and recovery.  The shortness of breath and chest pains are something you wouldn't expect in any athlete at this elite level of physical fitness.  It seems to me that having to opt out/medical redshirt due to Covid issues or ACL surgery are about the same in terms of missing the entire season.

The Delta variant and any other Covid variants in the future will be the grain of salt with the 2021 season and not just with our team.

Our vaccination rate was the question in the back of my mind during the recent SEC media days, but I felt Shane's compassion for his players and attention to detail assured me it would get taken care of the right way.

Beamer and his staff have checked all the boxes so far.  Looking forward to watching the regular season play out with this bunch.