Oct. 10, 2013

The No. 14/12 South Carolina football team returned to the Bluff Road practice fields on Thursday. The Gamecocks (4-1, 2-1 SEC) are preparing for Saturday’s SEC matchup with the Arkansas Razorbacks (3-3, 0-2 SEC).

Junior All-America defensive end Jadeveon Clowney practiced for the second-straight day on Thursday after missing the Kentucky game with a strained muscle around his ribcage. “If he’s healthy, he’s going to start,” said defensive coordinator Lorenzo Ward. “He’s practiced two days in a row and I think he’s getting better every day. He’s doing everything in his power to be ready to play. I think he’ll play, based on what we’ve seen the last two days. He’s gotten better. He’s still getting a lot of treatment and he will continue to get treatment, but I think he’ll play.”

Linebacker Kaiwan Lewis has been sidelined for the past few days with an infection in his leg. “Kaiwan will play,” said Ward. “He ran eight gassers during practice to see about his conditioning, so he’ll be ready to play. We’ve got to get him caught up with what we’re doing mentally on defense, but he’ll be ready to play.”

Ward has indicated there could be some changes in the defensive personnel this week, but declined to give any specifics. “I think they’ll be some changes,” noted Ward. “I’ve got to visit with the entire defensive staff. We said we’d have to see how they practice as to who will start. We’ll make those determinations after we watch practice, but there definitely are going to be some changes.”

Saturday’s game is set for 12:21 p.m. ET (11:21 a.m. local) at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium (72,000) in Fayetteville. The game will be televised by SEC TV, with Dave Neal and Andre Ware in the booth and Cara Capuano on the sidelines. The SEC TV package is picked up in the Palmetto State by WOLO in Columbia, WMMP in Charleston, WSPA in Greenville/Spartanburg and WWMB in Myrtle Beach/Florence.