Wilds Back At Gamecocks Practice

COLUMBIA, S.C. (USC SID) — The University of South Carolina football team (2-3, 0-3 SEC) took advantage of another beautiful day in Columbia to prepare for Saturday‘s 3:30 p.m. ET contest at Tiger Stadium on the LSU campus in Baton Rouge, La. The Gamecocks will face the No. 7/5 LSU Tigers (4-0, 2-0 SEC). The big news of the day was the decision to move the scheduled home game to Baton Rouge in light of the recent flooding throughout Columbia and the Midlands. “This is what‘s best for our city and our community,” said head coach Steve Spurrier, “and I agree with our governor, our lawmakers, president and athletics director and so forth that this is the right thing to do. We‘re looking forward to having another roadtrip this year and get in the game with LSU this Saturday. “I did ask (LSU) coach (Les) Miles to tell the fans not to yell when we were on the field, so I think he‘s going to help out with that. I think we‘re supposed to be the home team. We‘re going to wear our white uniforms this game,” noted the Head Ball Coach. While moving a home game to a road game just days before the scheduled contest may be a distraction, Coach Spurrier knows his squad has bigger issues to deal with. “We‘ve got to worry about ourselves,” noted Coach Spurrier. “Somebody said, ‘What‘s your biggest concern?‘ I said trying to play against LSU. They‘re a big, strong team at every position. They have tremendous tradition down there, but hopefully we can go play the game better than we did the last time.” Athletics Director Ray Tanner has been on top of this situation for nearly a week. “When we landed last Saturday night coming back from Missouri, we anticipated that we could have some issues and we began to address them at that time and continued throughout the week until we came up with the decision this morning that we‘re going to move the game,” said Tanner. “It was a very critical decision. It was important for so many people. Ultimately, it was about our friends and family and the victims of the flooding. So that was paramount and was on our mind from the beginning. While this might not be a popular decision among a lot of people, I feel strongly it was the right thing,” added Tanner. “(University President) Dr. Pastides and his senior staff was with me every step of the way. We may a decision that we feel strongly about. While other sites were considered, Tanner is confident that the best decision was to play at LSU. “We had some conversations with Jacksonville, with Charlotte, with Atlanta and a couple other phone calls, but logistically they didn‘t take shape quick enough. At the end of the day, if we were going to move the game, the logical decision was to go to LSU,” said Tanner. Tailback Brandon Wilds (ribs) and defensive tackle Gerald Dixon Jr. (knee) returned to full contact on Wednesday. Among those who wore yellow “non-contact” jerseys were quarterback Lorenzo Nuñez (shoulder), center Zack Bailey (hamstring), wide receiver Deebo Samuel (hamstring), and wide receiver Carlton Heard (cut lip). Coach Spurrier indicated that he expects Nuñez to be ready by Saturday. The Gamecocks will return to the practice fields on Thursday afternoon before traveling to Baton Rouge on Friday.