South Carolina tight end out for remainder of regular season, Beamer says
Following South Carolina’s 34-30 win over Missouri on Saturday night, coach Shane Beamer shared an injury update on his squad.
Most notable: Tight end Brady Hunt will miss the final two regular-season games with a non-contact lower-body injury, Beamer said. The No. 19 Gamecocks (7-3, 5-3 SEC) do expect Hunt to return for the postseason.
Hunt, the Ball State transfer, only has two catches on the season but his most recent was one of the biggest of the season. On third and 10 late in the fourth quarter, quarterback LaNorris Sellers kept his balance, wiggled out of a sack and found Hunt on the run for the first down.
With Hunt out for the Gamecocks next two games — vs. Wofford and at No. 17 Clemson — the tight end position becomes thin. South Carolina will have to rely more on starter Josh Simon, true freshman Michael Smith and sophomore Maurice Brown, who has primarily had a special teams role this season.
Simon and Smith also suffered more minor injuries on Saturday but Beamer seemed optimistic they’d be good to go against Wofford.
“I just finished up a meeting with a tight end recruit that’s here on his visit that I’d like to be able to keep around and have him play tight end this week,” Beamer said during his Sunday teleconference. “Because it’s concerning. We do a lot of multiple tight end sets. All those guys are involved on special teams as well.”
Elsewhere on the injury front, it seems the Gamecocks came out of Saturday pretty healthy despite a number of players going down.
Defensive back Judge Collier was one of them. He sustained an upper-body injury against Missouri and was taken to the hospital with his parents while the game was still going on to check on him.
“We feel like he’ll be OK,” Beamer said.
South Carolina will finish its home slate at 4 p.m. Saturday against Wofford. The Gamecocks will then conclude the regular season Nov. 30 at Clemson.
This story was originally published November 17, 2024 at 6:20 PM.
