SOUTH CAROLINA GAMECOCKS FOOTBALL

It's no secret Ryan Hilinski was battling some elbow soreness this week, and his performance Saturday somewhat reflected that.

Hilinski finished his day with 13 completions and averaged just 5.5 yards per attempt in the Gamecocks' loss to Missouri Saturday. Now the question becomes whether this soreness will make him miss any extended time.

“He had some soreness in his elbow this week," Will Muschamp said. "We didn’t throw him on Wednesday. We’ll go back and evaluate. Certainly, he would not have played if he was hurt. He was not hurt. We’ll go back and evaluate the things we do.”

Also see: Instant analysis from Saturday's loss

That means Hilinski practiced Tuesday and Thursday, but to what extent is unknown. Dakereon Joyner postgame said he practiced with the first team offense no more than usual this week in preparation for the game.

Joyner did say if Hilinski can't play Saturday against Kentucky he feels more than capable of taking over as the No. 1 quarterback.

How the soreness happened is still up in the air and Muschamp said he didn't injure it last week against Alabama. Hilinski threw 57 times.

“I haven’t gotten a chance to talk to him but he did throw a lot of passes last week," Bryan Edwards said. "He did take a beating. He’s a tough kid. I’m not making any excuses for the guy. I’m going to talk to him and I’ll see what we’re going to do to fix it.”

The Gamecocks had a tough offensive day, putting up just 30 yards in the first half and finishing with 14 points Saturday with 16 yards rushing, the lowest since 2003.

Edwards finished with six catches for 113 yards, 75 of which came on one play. He was targeted 15 times.

“He’s having a tough start and we just have to make plays," Edwards said. "He puts the ball in our area and when you have a young quarterback you have to help him as much as possible.”

Also see: Everything Will Muschamp said after the game

This is the first real bump in the road in Hilinski's three starts after putting up 324 yards against Alabama, finishing with just 166 yards, one touchdown and an interception in the red zone.

Muschamp said he's not worried about Hilinski's confidence, though.

“I think Ryan will respond fine. He’s extremely bright, extremely intelligent and has a lot of confidence. This is part of being the quarterback at South Carolina and part of being the quarterback in the SEC. It’s not all going to be perfect. It’s tough. We can’t put him in tough situations, especially in the first half. We have to find some ways to run the football and take some pressure off him and we did not.”