Shane Beamer reflects on 2019 South Carolina upset win over Georgia

First-year South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer doesn’t remember much about South Carolina’s upset win over Georgia two seasons ago, for good reason.

“I don’t remember much about it,” he said. “We were playing Texas at the same time that day. We were playing Texas which is a huge rivalry for us at Oklahoma. Georgia and South Carolina were playing the same day. We won, Jalen Hurts was our quarterback, had a great win against Texas. My family runs on the field after the game and I’m thinking they’re going to be excited because we just beat Texas and swear to goodness the first thing out of my kids’ and my wife’s mouth is ‘South Carolina just beat Georgia, South Carolina just beat Georgia.’ And I go ‘How about Oklahoma just beating Texas? I’m more worried about that one.’ But that’s what I remember about it. And obviously a great win.

Beamer went on to state he hasn’t compared the win against Georgia two seasons ago, to the Gamecocks upcoming matchup against the No. 2 ranked Bulldogs.

“A lot of the people are different. The coaching staff here is different for the most part. Some of the players were here that day…I saw where Kirby (Smart) said yesterday a lot of that was because of Georgia, the fact that South Carolina won that game. Again it doesn’t have an impact, I don’t think, on this year’s game.”

Shane Beamer is off to a hot start to his head coaching career, leading South Carolina to a 2-0 record with wins over Eastern Illinois and East Carolina. Now, Beamer and the Gamecocks open conference play against No. 2 ranked Georgia

Shane Beamer and Georgia head coach Kirby Smart have history as Beamer served as Smart’s tight ends coach and special teams coach from 2016-2017.

From 2018-2020, Beamer served as Assistant Head Coach and tight ends coach for Oklahoma before being announced as the head coach for South Carolina in December.

South Carolina’s conference-opener signifies the 2021 debut for starting quarterback Luke Doty.

“I know you guys will ask about Luke, he was at practice today,” Beamer said. “Did more today than he did on Sunday. More on this Tuesday than he did last Tuesday. So the biggest thing with him is to get the soreness out where he feels comfortable, and knocking off the rust. He hasn’t been in a lot of 11 on 11 situations against a full defense here for awhile. So, continuing to progress and get better every week.”

“Fully expect him and the rest of our guys to be 100% on Saturday night.”

Last week, Beamer was hopeful Doty would be able to return against East Carolina. However, that wasn’t the case — Zeb Noland started his second consecutive game for the Gamecocks.

Beamer isn’t worried about his starter, no matter who he plays against.

“When Luke’s ready to play, Luke will go,” Beamer said. “He has to go out there and get game action at some point. Whether it’s against Georgia, Eastern Illinois or the Green Bay Packers, whenever we need to put him out there, we’ll put him out there.”