Tuesday injury report: The latest on Luke Doty
South Carolina football coach Shane Beamer remains hopeful that quarterback Luke Doty will be available to play this Saturday against Georgia after missing the first two games of the season with a midfoot injury.
Beamer said in his Tuesday press conference that he "fully expects" Doty to be able to return to action this week as the sophomore signal-caller has continued to take more reps in practice each day.
"Luke was out there," Beamer said. "He was throwing balls, as far as the exact number of reps and all of that stuff, I'm not even sure, to be honest with you. As soon as I walk out of here I'll go in there with the offensive staff and we'll watch practice from today, but from meeting with Clint (Haggard) each day, it's kind of, 'Okay, he's going to do these periods and work a little bit more each day,' and he did a lot more today than what he did last Tuesday."
This time last week the Gamecocks felt they were close to getting Doty back for the East Carolina game. But the soreness he experienced in the following days kept that from happening with Zeb Noland getting the start for the second straight week.
"Last Tuesday at this time we expected him to be able to play in Greenville and he had a little bit of soreness during this time last week," Beamer continued. "He doesn't have that today; he didn't have that yesterday after practicing Sunday, so he continues to do more and more. We fully expect him to be ready to roll on Saturday night, but let's also recognize the fact that Zeb Noland made some fantastic throws down the stretch against East Carolina too."
Through the first two games of the season, Noland has completed 26 of 45 passes for 346 yards and five touchdowns with one interception.
The Gamecocks are also still without defensive tackle Rick Sandidge who missed the first two games with a lower leg injury.
Other than Doty and Sandidge, the team finds itself relatively healthy with no new major injuries suffered against East Carolnia.
The Gamecocks and No. 2-ranked Bulldogs square off this Saturday in Athens, Ga. with kickoff scheduled for 7 p.m. on ESPN.
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