USC coach Will Muschamp said Sunday night on his conference call quarterback Ryan Hilinski suffered a sprained knee in the win at Georgia Saturday, but he expects the freshman to be fine and able to play this Saturday against Georgia. Muschamp said Hilinski was pulled from the Georgia game due to a lack of mobility thus reducing the opportunity to protect himself. The Gamecocks do not practice again until Tuesday morning, and Muschamp said he won’t know more about Hilinski’s condition until then, but he said multiple times he is expecting Hilinski to play against the Gators.

Muschamp also said the hit on Hilinski that caused the injury was not intentional or malicious. He said the Georgia lineman putting the rush on Hilinski tripped over a Gamecock lineman and that’s why he ended up hitting him low.

Here are more key notes from Muschamp (due to a technical issue, there is no audio available this week)

• Muschamp said if something were to happen at quarterback to Dakereon Joyner and Jay Urich, Corbett Glick would be the next in line.
• Pleased with Hilinski’s play, held up well under pressure, threw the ball into the right spots.
• They are playing better on defense on the back end and matching what they are doing up front. Said Kinlaw is playing really well, Smith and Sandidge played their best games ever.
• Chavis Dawkins has been playing really fast and has been doing the little things well, doing the dirty work, really pleased with how he’s played.
• Said the primary reason they did a good job against the Georgia run was their tackling was much better.