More than anyone, Sherrod Greene understands the feelings swirling through South Carolina’s locker room this week.

The team’s elder statesman is in his sixth season of college football but only played in four games over the past two seasons due to a pair of major injuries. Greene suffered a hip fracture in the 2020 season opener against Tennessee and an ankle injury in the third game of the 2021 campaign that cut another season short.

Greene’s most recent injury came on the second play from scrimmage against Georgia almost a year ago to the day. Now in a twist of fate almost straight out of a script, Greene will be stepping back into his starting role against that same Georgia team after Mo Kaba tore his ACL against Arkansas.

“It’s just motivation for me, especially the fact that I got hurt a year ago against Georgia,” Greene said. “It’s kind of a bit of a revenge game for me — I definitely have a chip on my shoulder this week.”

Kaba’s injury was the one that opened the door for Greene to return to the starting lineup, but it was not the only one South Carolina dealt with on Saturday. In addition to Kaba, starting edge rusher Jordan Strachan tore his ACL. Both Kaba and Strachan are scheduled to have surgery at some point in the next four to six weeks according to Shane Beamer’s update in his Tuesday press conference.

Beamer also mentioned five other players who are still questionable for the Georgia game, and four of the five were listed as starters on the original week one depth chart. In just two weeks, the Gamecocks have seen more than half of their starting defense go down with injuries, an alarming early number with a game against No. 1 Georgia on the horizon in four days.

But if anyone can help lead his teammates through this challenging period, it is the player who had to do it himself twice in consecutive seasons.

“Just making sure he’s got his head on straight,” Greene said is his biggest responsibility when helping Kaba specifically work through his injury. “I’ve been through that multiple times on multiple occasions. Just making sure you’ve got a positive mindset because a positive mindset really speeds up the recovery time.”

Kaba’s injury also puts Greene under the microscope. Greene does have a lot of experience at South Carolina — 35 appearances and 24 starts in his first three seasons in Columbia to be exact — but he is still yet to play an SEC game from start to finish in the Beamer era.

Linebacking struggles were a particular issue against Arkansas and its power running game, and the Gamecocks will undoubtedly see another heavy dose of ground action against Georgia. It is something Greene himself said South Carolina is “really dialed in on” after last week, but it will make his return to a more featured role a huge challenge.

“I think Sherrod’s been great,” Beamer said. “He worked hard to come back; that’s not easy to do mentally when you’re coming back from multiple injuries on that knee. But he overcame a lot mentally. I’m proud of him because as he was working his way back Mo [Kaba] and Brad [Johnson] continued to elevate their games as well. So he probably was not in the role he exactly wanted to be early in the season, but he continued to work and got better.”

The ripple effects of the injuries also reverberate through the entire roster. When your starters go down for the year it of course elevates the back-ups into their roles, but it also creates new roles for depth players elevating into increased snap counts as rotational pieces.

On the official depth chart, Terrell Dawkins is now listed as Gilber Edmond’s backup at edge rusher, and in Greene’s case, the backup MIKE linebacker role he occupied last week now belongs to true freshman Stone Blanton.

Blanton has never played a defensive snap in college football but is now one play away from possibly having to step into the middle of the defense if there are further injuries at linebacker. For Greene and his experience, it is up to him to provide leadership in case it happens.

“He’s one of those guys that will get a lot of playing time eventually,” Greene said about Blanton. “He’s a guy who can find the ball; he’s a ballhawk.”

But in the midst of everything else — the injuries to his teammates, trying to help lead players behind him, patching up the run defense, and trying to get himself back in game flow — Greene is trying to take it all in. He has spent significantly more time watching his teammates play than making an impact himself over the last two years.

Now facing the same opponent his season crashed down against last year, he is ready to go.

“I’m really excited to play these guys and show what I can do,” he said.