Gamecocks not taking The Citadel for granted

When The Citadel’s football players come into Williams-Brice Stadium on Saturday, they’ll be thinking they’ve got something extra to prove.

Shawn Elliott knows, because he thought the same thing when he was playing at then-I-AA Appalachian State in the early 1990s.

“We were thinking, ‘The guys didn’t want me. We were undersized. We were not good enough to play at that level.’ Anytime we had the opportunity to go out and knock one of them off, we wore it with pride,” said Elliott, the Gamecocks interim coach.

The Bulldogs (7-3 overall, 6-1 Southern Conference) will be playing their final game of the regular season at noon in Columbia.

“I know the mindset they are going to have, and I know they are a good football team,” Elliott said. “They are very capable of coming in here and playing extremely well. They are going to want to win without a doubt, and I will certainly address that issue and address the mind frame we are going to have to have in preparation for this team.”

The Gamecocks (3-7 overall) have lost three straight and five of the last six after Saturday’s 24-14 loss to Florida.

“We have to eliminate some of our foolish mistakes and slow starts, and put a full game together,” Elliott said.

The Bulldogs are second in the Football Championship Subdivision in rushing with 343.7 yards per game out of the triple option. The Gamecocks are 105^th in the Football Bowl Subdivision in rushing defense, allowing 202 yards per game.

“It’s a difficult challenge preparing for them defensively,” Elliott said. “It’s not something you’ll see very single day. This is a whole new element for us defensively. Assignments have to be carried out exactly or they will take advantage. We have a tall task ahead of us.”

Despite being in a higher classification than the Bulldogs, South Carolina can’t take anything for granted this week, Elliott said.

“We are not good enough to show up and beat somebody,” he said. “We have to prepare like no other.”

Need focus

Elliott remains optimistic that freshman quarterback Lorenzo Nunez can help his team despite two miscues the last two weeks. Nunez missed a signal and ran the wrong play against Tennessee two weeks ago, and then failed to hand the ball to Pharoh Cooper on a reverse call against Florida.

“The focus is something he has been lacking. We really can’t understand it other than just not being ready to go in there and play,” Elliott said. “We want to get him a little more involved, but we can’t do that unless he puts everything into it. We have to eliminate those foolish mistakes. He’s a great young man. He’s going to be a fantastic quarterback for us.”

Injury report

Wide receiver D.J. Neal (hip) and defensive tackle Taylor Stallworth (chest) are expected to return this week, Elliott said.

This story was originally published November 15, 2015 at 4:54 PM.