South Carolina WR McKinley to play at Ole Miss

From NCAA College Football Information & Resource

October 02, 2008

McKinley could be ready to go at Ole Miss.

South Carolina All-SEC wide receiver Kenny McKinley will be suiting up this Saturday against Mississippi after recuperating from a pulled right hamstring.

McKinley has missed three games after getting hurt in the 17-24 loss to Vanderbilt on September 4. Gamecocks head coach Steve Spurrier has even considered putting McKinley on a medical redshirt a few days ago but the plan may be aborted altogether since the senior has been practicing extensively this week.

“Kenny was running around decently. He’s expected to play some. We’ll see much as he goes. But he’ll suit up and go play,” Spurrier said Wednesday. “He’s cutting OK. He didn’t do a lot. But what he did, he was OK.”

Without McKinley, the SC offense had gone south, placing eighth in the SEC and 79th in the nation. Despite missing time, he is still the no.2 receiver (tied) in terms of scoring catches, just behind Dion LeCorn who has two for the season.

“We’re not gonna blame our problems on Kenny not being there,” Spurrier added. “We blame our problems on a little bit of all of us. We’re trying to work our way out of it.”

Though he had offseason surgery on his big toe, McKinley has not sat out games due to injury until now. Last season, he caught 77 passes to set the school's single-season receptions record and is still very much on track to become the school's all-time leader in receptions and receiving yards, needing just 8 and 299, respectively.

Other injured Gamecocks include Larry Freeman (root canal) and freshman quarterback Reid McCollum (mononucleosis). Freeman will play against the Rebels while McCollum will be redshirting.

On the defensive team, cornerback Captain Munnerlyn will be serving a "light" penalty for missing a weightlifting session and special teams meeting. He will sit out out at least the first play of the Ole Miss game.

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