Shane Beamer describes where South Carolina's RB room stands after Mississippi State game
South Carolina secured their first conference win of the season over the weekend defeating Mississippi State 37-30 at home. The passing attack of both teams may have stolen the show, but the run game was particularly crucial in South Carolina’s offensive attack.
Gamecocks head coach Shane Beamer was asked about his running back room following the game and where they stand regarding their rotation, as Beamer specifically evaluated the performance of Mario Anderson and Dakereon Joyner.
“Yeah I mean we felt like going into it that we knew Mario was going to play no matter who went out there first,” Beamer said. “And DK did some tonight, I know nobody’s more upset about that fumble than he is, but DK did some good things. In the running game certainly it takes all 11, so maybe some runs DK had that weren’t blocked well and things like that.”
Williams joined the team this offseason from Division II Newberry College where he accumulated 3,301 rushing yards in three seasons of play. And on Saturday he proved he belongs on the SEC stage, receiving 26 carries for 88 yards and a touchdown. Those are all career highs for Williams in his short tenure with the Gamecocks, looking like a solid option out of the backfield that South Carolina’s offense can rely on throughout the season.
Joyner on the other hand didn’t have his strongest showing, rushing for 24 yards on 10 carries but still managing to find the end zone to give the Gamecocks the lead in the second quarter.
The two may have had varying performances, and were the only two running backs featured in South Carolina’s offense on Saturday, but Beamer believes that improvement is the name of the game for each and every one of the Gamecocks’ ball carriers.
“He’s gotta continue to get better, Mario’s gotta continue to get better,” Beamer said. “But we just gave Mario a game ball in there for the way he ran the football, so we’re proud of him like al of our running backs as well. We feel like we got four really good ones in Mario, DK, Juju [McDowell], and DJ [Braswell], and all those guys gotta keep coming along but certainly Mario showed what he can do tonight.”
The Gamecocks currently rank first in the SEC in passing and last in rushing, and it will be interesting to see if they try to achieve more offensive balance and feature the run game more with their stable of backs moving forward this season.