Practice report: Gamecocks prepare for first full scrimmage

Williams-Brice Stadium gets its first taste of football Saturday evening as South Carolina will hold its first official preseason scrimmage at 5 p.m.

The workout is open to the public, and concession stands on the west side of the stadium will be open. All seating will be in the lower bowl of the west side.

“I don’t think we’re selling tickets to it, so it’s not that big a deal,” head coach Steve Spurrier said. “Hopefully, it’ll be a nice day and make some improvement, nobody gets hurt, that kind of stuff.”

It will be the Gamecocks’ 11th practice of the preseason. South Carolina opens the regular season Sept. 3 against North Carolina in Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte.

“I am ready to turn it loose and move the football a little bit,” offensive line coach Shawn Elliott said. “Situational stuff is all good and you’ve got to have that stuff, but at some point you have to turn them loose and let them go out there and run and emulate the game and see how it plays out.”

Elliott does not know how quickly his offensive line rotation will feature younger players, he said.

“I’ll tell you when the head coach tells me,” he said. “I do know we are going to play football, though. We are going to let them go out there and see what they know.”

Christmas in Carolina. South Carolina’s athletes received their first payout under the NCAA’s new cost-of-attendance stipend Friday.

Gamecocks athletes in any sport who are on full scholarship will receive 10 checks or direct deposits of $420.10 each this year after a change in NCAA rules allowed schools to increase the value of an athletic scholarship to the full cost of attendance, a figure derived by each university’s office of financial aid. Athletes on partial scholarships will receive a prorated amount equal to the percentage of a full scholarship they receive.

Holding it down. Junior offensive lineman Mason Zandi, 6-foot-9, 314 pounds, appears to be nailing down the starting right tackle job two weeks into camp. Zandi missed almost all of spring practice due to a hamstring injury.

“He’s moving around real well. He’s strong. He’s going to be an asset to our football team,” Elliott said. “He’s got to continue to work and get these reps to get ready for that first ball game, but I think he’s right on schedule. The thing we have to manage is the ups and downs of camp. It’s an ongoing practice. One day you are up here high. The next day you get knocked down. That’s what we have to manage.”

Injury update. Defensive end Gerald Dixon (lower leg), offensive lineman Malik Young (ankle), safety Antoine Wilder (knee), tight end Connor Redmond (back), defensive tackle Taylor Stallworth (pectoral) and kicker Joseph Charlton (back) were held out of Friday’s practice.

Official passing. Leonard Harrington, a former college football official who worked South Carolina’s football practices, died of a heart attack Thursday night, family friend Ed Kirkland told The State. Harrington worked the Gamecocks practice Thursday morning.

This story was originally published August 14, 2015 at 11:06 AM.