Kai Kroeger calls his performance against Clemson 'unbelievable'

The son of legendary coach Frank Beamer, South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer has a deep appreciation for special teams. He showed that, bringing his star punt Kai Kroeger to SEC Media Days.

While at SEC Media Days, Kroeger opened up about his performance against Clemson last season.

“Yeah, I mean, that’s kind of like you almost just want to give it the MJ shrug,” Kai Kroeger said. “So many things just go your way. Obviously I can do my part to control the distance as much as I can, try to hit backspin and such. It kind of just seemed like every punt would go exactly where we wanted it, have the right balance. There were a few that were maybe like stingers. I need to get those up more.”

South Carolina beat Clemson 31-30. It was the Gameocks’ first win in the rivalry series since 2013 and Kai Kroeger was a key piece of that win. In that game, he showed off his leg with seven punts for an average of 53.7 yards per punt. On the season, he averaged 46.1 yards per punt.

“Definitely an unbelievable game.”

Kai Kroeger has been recognized for his dominance as a punter ahead of this season. He was named a First-Team All-SEC preseason selection following SEC Media Days. Phil Steele even named Kroeger a Preseason All-American. However, if Shane Beamer gets it his way, the Gamecocks’ offense won’t give Kroeger too many opportunities to show off his incredibly talented leg.

Pete Lembo on Kai Kroeger

South Carolina special teams coordinator Pete Lembo knows that having talented special teams players matter when you’re coaching under someone named Beamer. He also knows that the Gamecocks have a special player in Kai Kroeger, even if he was snubbed for the Ray Guy Award.

“Kai’s not the kind of guy to ‘woe is me’ about something that he knows is not really that important relative to the team winning games. I know he was very proud of some of the postseason honors that he earned, and hopefully there’s still some nice carrots for him to go after,” Lembo said.

“He’s also smart enough to know that he’s only as good as the rest of the guys on that unit. It’s good to see him working really hard, taking a leadership-type approach with our whole team to further the goals of the whole team, as well as the special teams units.”