Starting lineups for next week's South Carolina-Texas A&M season opener still need to be filled out in soft pencil -- for both teams.
One of the top offensive guards in the SEC, Texas A&M's Jarvis Harrison, is still battling his presumed backup, Garrett Gramling, for the starting left guard job.
"Jarvis had a tough offseason. He missed the end of the bowl game [against Duke] with a calf, popped that deal, that's not easy. He had offseason shoulder surgery, really played the last three or four games with a bad shoulder, and missed parts of the offseason and that doesn't allow a big guy to be in the kind of shape he needs to be," coach Kevin Sumlin said, according to aggiesports.com. "We'll see where he is."
Harrison (6-4, 330 pounds) is a third-year starter at guard and a key figure on what should be one of the top offensive lines in the nation. Pressing his return to the lineup is the fact that TAMU opens the season against the Gamecocks two days before most of the nation begins play, next Thursday -- on the road, no less.
While Sumlin's comments came across as sympathetic to Harrison's recovery, other SEC coaches haven't been quite as nurturing. Already this week, South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier has suggested that his star running back, Mike Davis, might not be ready to start against the Aggies, himself.
Davis reportedly has a minor rib injury.
Between Harrison, Davis and Georgia linebacker Ramik Wilson, there are some big names legitimately on the questionable list for Week 1.
Or perhaps, simply some big motivational ploys at work.
*Follow Chase Goodbread on Twitter **@ChaseGoodbread.*
