Why Rashad Fenton sat the second half

SOUTH CAROLINA GAMECOCKS FOOTBALL

When South Carolina came out of halftime, the Gamecocks were down two scores and now without one of the team’s starting cornerbacks.

Rashad Fenton didn’t play the final half of the Gamecocks’ 28-0 Belk Bowl loss to Virginia with Will Muschamp just saying he was just out of the game. Muschamp implied that the coaching staff did not take him out of the game.

“It was Rashad’s decision,” Muschamp said.

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Fenton, who started all but one game this season, earned another start Saturday against the Cavaliers and didn’t have the best first half as the Gamecocks (7-6) gave up 14 points and allowed 102 yards through the air and allowed six yards per attempt.

He also had a pretty costly penalty on the Hoos’ second scoring drive, getting called for defensive pass interference on third down to give the offense a first down as part of a 14-play, 90-yard drive that ate up over eight minutes of game time.

On that play, one of Fenton’s teammates said the cornerback pulled his groin, which was the reason he didn’t go back into the game.

“He pulled his groin. On that penalty, he felt his groin pop. I talked to him, and he didn’t just pull himself out of the game,” Bryson Allen-Williams said of Fenton. “He wanted to come back into the game. I was in the training room with him. He wanted to come back in the game. He just wasn’t able to. He wasn’t able to go.”

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A.J. Turner, who moved to cornerback before the team played Akron, started the second half at that position. Turner finished with three tackles in his first real action in the defensive secondary.

The Gamecocks also played a lot of young players in the secondary, including starting three true freshmen in Israel Mukuamu, Jaycee Horn and RJ Roderick.

With Steven Montac out with an infected tooth, freshman Jonathan Gipson and redshirt freshman Jaylin Dickerson also played significant snaps at safety.

“We have a to go through some growing pains the latter part of the season and that’s extremely frustrating. But, these guys will fight their ass off. We’ve recruited the right guys, the talented guys, and they’re going to fight their ass off. That’s what’s bright about the future. They're not going to lay down, I’ll tell you that.”