Shane Beamer: No one can ever question the fight, culture of South Carolina's program
After suffering a painful season, South Carolina found a sliver of satisfaction on Saturday night. Head coach Shane Beamer soaked in every minute.
“What a win. What a testament to the fight of our football team,” Beamer said. “No one ever can question the fight of this football team and the culture of this football program ever. Doesn’t mean we are going to win every game but this group of young men that we have on this football team and what they are about was on display tonight against a really good, physical Kentucky team.”
South Carolina’s grueling 17-14 win over Kentucky was a war. After securing a 10-0 lead in the first quarter, the Gamecocks did not score for two straight quarters. Trailing Kentucky 14-10 in the final period, South Carolina stepped up.
The team put together an unwavering 74-yard march to the end zone to secure the lead. Neither team scored again in the contest. It wasn’t pretty, but a win is always beautiful.
“It was ugly and our guys just kept playing over and over again,” Beamer said. “So proud of our defense. For all the crap they have taken this season, they played their rear ends off tonight. Kept making stops more than we needed them to.”
South Carolina’s defense was pivotal in the victory. The Gamecocks only allowed 293 yards of offense while squeezing three turnovers out of Kentucky. UK quarterback Devin Leary connected on just 17-of-his-34 (50%) pass attempts.
The stellar defensive performance was a nice change of pace for South Carolina fans. Opponents have averaged 27.3 points per game this season against the Gamecocks. After the game, Beamer discussed the team’s offensive struggles.
Shane Beamer has hope for improvement
“Offensively, obviously, we have to be a lot better than we were tonight,” Beamer said. “Could not run the ball. Could not block [Deone Walker]. It was a struggle but nobody panicked. We knew it was going to be a four-quarter war and we were going to have a way to win it in the fourth quarter and we did.”
Despite walking away with the win, South Carolina only tallied a mere 257 total yards. The team’s ground game was nearly non-existent. The Gamecocks rushed the ball 33 times only to pick up 50 yards, averaging 1.5 yards per carry.
Of course, Beamer won’t ever complain about adding another tally in the win column.
“Was an awesome night,” Beamer said. “Had a heck of a celebration in that locker room as you could imagine. Really proud of these players and the way they battled tonight because we have a bunch of fighters on this football team.”