Shane Beamer explains how South Carolina's run game can open up things for pass attack
Shane Beamer believes the South Carolina rushing attack can open things up for Spencer Rattler and the Gamecocks’ passing game.
Following their 50-10 victory over South Carolina State on Thursday, Beamer spoke about how improvement in running the rock will translate to success for his team’s offense as a whole.
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“It’s huge. We’ve got to be able to run the football. Every single week for us, what we always talk about as a team, running the ball and stopping the run. That’s where it always starts. It’s a line of scrimmage league in this conference, and you’ve got to be able to do that. We’ve done a good job of it. We’ve got to continue to get better. There’s no question,” stated Beamer. “I mean, it helps the passing game as well. Spencer [Rattler] was what, 24 of 30 tonight and two of those were interceptions that could’ve easily been catches, as well. So it allows us — the question about taking shots down field, it allows us to take those shots, because people have to commit more people to the box to stop the run, because people aren’t just going to be able to — we’ve got good backs that can make you miss. We’ve got running back depth, with MarShawn [Lloyd] and with CBS [Christian Beal-Smith] as he gets better and Juju [McDowell], you know is a talented running back. … We’ve got depth at the running back position. Those guys got to continue to get better.
“The other thing too is the perimeter blocking, I thought, was really, really good today with the receivers and tight ends. I’ve been here and I’ve talked about it before when it’s not good, they’ve been really good the last two weeks on the perimeter. Those receivers have been very unselfish and you see them blocking on a lot of those runs, bubble screens and things like that.”
At the moment, South Carolina is No. 91 in the nation in rushing offense, averaging 4.27 yards per rush. In total, the Gamecocks have amassed 15 rushing touchdowns and 691 rushing yards on 162 carries. With a slew of tough SEC competition remaining throughout the rest of the season, South Carolina will hope to lean on their rushing attack moving forward.
It hasn’t been the roaring start to the season South Carolina wanted, but perhaps Shane Beamer is on his way to righting the ship for the Gamecocks following a huge victory to kickoff Week 5.