Everything Shane Beamer said about Oklahoma loss during Sunday teleconference

One day after South Carolina’s 26-7 loss to Oklahoma, head coach Shane Beamer met with the media during his Sunday night teleconference.

Here’s everything he had to say.

Opening statement

“All right. Thanks for joining us. Looking back yesterday, guys who played well, we felt offensively, Jayden Sellers; defensively, Jalon Kilgore, Bryan Thomas, and Desmond Umeozulu, and then special teams-wise, Vicari Swain and Justin Okoronkwo. So proud of those guys in the way they played. Not nearly good enough. Too many self-inflicted mistakes for sure. We don’t see comfort around here and don’t make excuses, and we’re not about to start now, but certainly yesterday was the perfect storm of what didn’t need to happen. And you go into the game three starting offensive linemen out, and then you have three more that go out during the game and don’t finish, and then you lose Dylan Stewart in the first quarter, along with a couple of other defensive ends that got banged up and were able to return. That’s not the ideal scenario with where we were from a health standpoint. So no excuse. Next man up, and we got to continue to get those guys healthy and back to where they’re 100 percent.

“But not a good day to say the least. We all had a hand in it. I know everybody wants to talk about the offense. We all had a hand in that one, offense, defense, special teams, coaching, not nearly good enough. I’m fully aware of the expectations here, and right now, we’re not where we need to be, and I’m going to get it fixed. So starts with getting back to work today, which is what we did early this morning. Had a couple of recruits here on campus that were on official visits and spent a lot of time with them today. Excited about that, and then we’re hard at work on Alabama as we speak.”

After evaluating everything, was there any change in staff or staff responsibility after last night?

“No.”

Is there an update on Dylan Stewart or any of the other injured guys?

“Not right now. We’ll know more next week or know more after a day or so. Optimistic about all those guys. I don’t think anybody’s long-term and we feel optimistic on all those guys that either missed yesterday or left the game yesterday, or optimistic on their availability for Saturday.”

What would your evaluation just how things went with Coach Mike Shula and how he called the game yesterday?

“Obviously, we didn’t score enough points, but I see, you know, like any game, there’s calls you’d like to have back. Clayton White had some calls that he’d like to have back. Joe D had some calls he’d like to have back. Myself, as the head coach, had some, and I’m sure Mike had some also. But at the same time, what we call, we’ve got to go execute. Give (Oklahoma) credit, they made some nice plays against us and won some battles, you know, one-on-one battles, whether it be on the perimeter or up front. And we’ve got to continue to win our battles. But it wasn’t good enough. None of us were, but I also know what’s being called, and there are plays there to be made. We’ve got SEC football players too, and we’ve got to make them.”

With the playcalls that are made, are there any points during the game where Shula or anyone makes a call, and you just maybe disagree with and overrule it? How often do you feel like that happens during a game?

“I try not to interrupt the flow of the game in regards to what they’re calling and why. I’m on the headphones with the offense, defense, and special teams. I don’t know if there’s ever a call that’s made where I say no as it’s being made, because now I think it’s hard to get the next call in, and now you risk delay of games and personnel groupings that you got to get in the game and things like that. But certainly between series, communicating to all the coaches and during the series, I’m communicating with coaches, whether it’s, hey, you’ve got four downs here to get this, and I’d like to make sure we do XYZ over these next four plays, or whatever it may be.”

You probably could have gone with Luke Doty or Air Noland at the end of the game yesterday. Why did you go with Cutter Woods, and what did you see from him?

“Just to get him some experience. He hasn’t played in a game yet this year; it’s his first year of college. Luke’s played. He’s an older guy. We know what he can do. Air is still young. Obviously, he hasn’t played, but it’s his second year in college football. I told the TV crew, when I met with them on Friday before the game in the production meeting, that in regards to Cutter and Air, they got a great competition going. They split time between working with the scout team to help the defense, they split time working as the third quarterback. Those guys are competing. So I wouldn’t read too much into it. It was more just, you know, I said, let’s get LaNorris (Sellers) out of the game, and we just said, you know what? Cutter hasn’t played. Let’s just get him in a game and let him finish out.

“I thought he did awesome. He’s a gamer. A true freshman coming in in that situation, they weren’t exactly just sitting back and rushing four. I mean, they’re bringing pressure till the last play. They zero blitzed us, and he sat in the pocket that he was about to get hit a couple times and delivered throws. The very first play was pretty awesome. I mean, they jumped in cover two, and he hit the whole shot over there on the sideline, which, you know, you don’t see a lot of veteran quarterbacks across the country that are able to do that. So proud of the way he came in and played. He’s going to be a really good player. Air Noland is really working and getting better, and he’s going to be a really good player, and then obviously we have a really good player in Luke and LaNorris both.”

When the offensive line is struggling like it did on Saturday, what types of things can you guys do with the receivers and the running backs to make sure that the ball is getting out quicker?

“I mean, it’s a challenge when you’ve got six starting offensive linemen that are not playing yesterday. Other than just catching the ball and telling LaNorris to throw it in a half second, there’s really not a whole lot you can do. So we try and get the ball out of their hands quickly. We tried to max protect some yesterday, and we got beat inside on a max protection. Max Protection, meaning we were blocking with eight people, and a guy didn’t stay down in his gap, and we allowed penetration. The fourth down on the first drive, we communicated an adjustment in protection that we, you know, one person missed, and we turned a linebacker free when it shouldn’t have been free. We tried to mix up what we were doing, like I told you guys in the press conference yesterday, with some of the jet sweeps and perimeter throws and quarterback draws. I mean, we tried to do a lot of different things yesterday, but, you know, regardless of whether we got guys hurt or not, we got SEC offensive linemen and and we got confidence in them.

“We went against a good defense yesterday and got our butts kicked way too many times. And we have to be better and continue to look at how we can help those guys. One, get healthy, but then two, schematically, you know, if there’s ways to just continue to help these guys, which we try and do each and every week. You go back and watch the Texas game against Oklahoma there, they weren’t exactly just ripping and roaring up and down the field, or any team that Oklahoma’s played, and they had some tackles for some negative yardage runs last week, meaning Texas, but they just kind of kept staying at it. And then eventually they popped a couple late in the game and and we popped one on the fourth down that I went for at midfield, but we just didn’t do enough of it. And then when you get yourself in long yardage situations like we were yesterday, now you’re asking for trouble because it’s third down and they can eat you up and do what they do best.”

Heard a story last night by Brad Crawford of CBS Sports.com stating that Virginia Tech’s interest in you is more than just speculation. As he put it, according to sources, it has legitimacy. Would you like to take this particular time and give your commitment to South Carolina?

“I think I’ve said enough about that. One, I haven’t talked to Brad Crawford in like two years, and not discrediting Brad’s sources, but I have no idea where that story came from. I have conveyed publicly many times how much I want to be here. And I respect the question, I understand you asking it, and I’m not mad. I’ve conveyed many times how much I want to be here. This is my dream job. I said that when I came here. Nothing has changed. I am pissed off at the way we are performing right now, and it’s not acceptable.

“I came here to win a championship, and right now we’re not getting it done, and my focus right now is on getting it fixed. Going back to last year, we were two points away from being in the College Football Playoff, and I am working my rear end off to get us back to where we’re in that mix and playoff talk. And that’s the same thing I told our football team today, that I guess the gist of that article was that would be a parachute or something for me to get out of here and have a soft landing spot. Well, I’m not happy with where we are right now, and I’m determined to get it fixed. We’re in a storm right now that I’m going to get us out of.”

Did you address that story or rumor specifically with your team, or were you just talking in general, trying to get things going back in the right direction?

“No, I made sure our players understood that this is where I want to be, that I came here to because I love this place. I know what this place can be. This is where I want to want to be, and I conveyed that to our players regularly, but I wanted to make sure they understood that when you’re 3-4, there’s all kinds of noise and chatter and speculation out there about all kinds of things. And I ain’t clicked on social media today and not going to, but I know it’s not positive if I did click on it. Whatever different rumors are out there about different things that are going on, I just wanted to make sure that our players understood that I’m not focused on anything but getting this right and that I’m going to get it right because I’m responsible.

“A lot of people are counting on me, and I understand that, and I’m going to get it fixed, also knowing that we’re not that far off either. Let’s not act like we’re, it isn’t good enough, and I’m not patting myself on the back, but let’s not act like we’re 0-7 either. We’ve had an opportunity to essentially win every game, and yesterday was ugly as heck, and making no excuses for that. But also, it’s week to week in this business, and we got a group of kids that are fighting their rear ends off and doing everything in their power to get in the fight, meaning play the game and their beat up and also stay in the fight, like so many of our guys did yesterday, that just were beat the hell up but just refused to come out of the game. I love these kids, and it hurts me that I’m not able to do more for them right now, but I’m going to get it right for them.”

With the offensive linemen injured, how much does it shorten the playbook when those guys are out and you’re having such struggles about what you guys actually can do to kind of get the ball moving?

“I don’t know so much if it’s the playbook. I mean, Damola (Ajidahun) was in there as a true freshman yesterday. That’s his real first live, you know, extended game action. Shed’s a true freshman. But you know, we’re talking about guys outside of the transfers, obviously, guys that have been in the system. So you don’t have to like shrink too much. Where all these injuries really affect us the most is our ability to practice. With the injuries we have right now on the offensive line and the defensive line last week, it’s just, it’s hard to practice. And when you talk to start talking about being able to do good on good, and you start talking about the little bit of scout team work that we do, and you start talking about having the physical practices that you want to have. I mean, you know, with Davonte Miles, we knew last week he was going to be out, so we had our four defensive tackles that we practiced with all week, even though Gabe (Brownlow-Dindy) was extremely limited in practice. We needed to get somebody else ready to play, and that’s Caleb Williams. He has a great week of practice, and Caleb Williams is getting ready to play for us on Saturday, and then he breaks his leg in practice on Thursday. And you start looking at bodies and how you’re able to practice the way that you want to practice.

“It’s a challenge, but it’s something that all of us as coaches have to figure out. With every school in America, they’re cutting their roster sizes, which would say you can’t replace guys in season, which makes zero sense to me. So it’s one of those things that when you lose guys in practice, when you lose guys to injuries, it affects everyone, not just their side of the ball, but the whole team and the ability to practice. And that’s something that we’re struggling with right now. So we’re not having to shrink the playbook as much as it is trying to figure out how we can continue to be a team that gets better in practice, like we’ve always been here since I’ve been at Carolina, a team that gets better as the year goes. And that’s how we practice. But we’ve got to tweak a little bit of how we do things in practice, which is the biggest challenge.”

Have you and Jeremiah Donati been talking more or less since the 4 a.m. call last week? How have the conversations been? Do you feel pretty supported right now by him?

“Extremely. We talked the same that we always talk. He’s on every trip. He’s in the locker room after games. He and Jeff Crane both are extremely supportive and have been since the day both of them have arrived. Feel fortunate to have them as my two bosses.”

How much do you guys practice or have in your playbook, like a quarterback sneak, tush push type of play?

“We have it. We practice it every week.”

Going back to something you said last week, to where you got home off the plane, and maybe got an hour of sleep before going to the office. How do you just handle that lack of sleep?

“It’s a great question. I mean, you’ve got to be at your, you want to be at your best. It’s a long season, and I’d say every coach in America is dealing with it, and it’s, you know, getting back late from games, and then just the things on your mind. Luckily, we had a 12:45 game yesterday, so I was home by whatever time it was after the TV show. I think fair traffic was easy getting home, but I think I walked in the door like 6:30 last night and watched football, and sat outside on my back porch and built a fire and watched football games all night outside. But it’s not like you can just take a day and say, I’m gonna sleep till nine today and catch up. You really can’t. You’re back at it today. I’ll be in here early tomorrow morning and then the rest of the week.

“But I think the biggest thing is just making sure that you, and every coach is dealing with this across the country, it’s just a long season, and you’ve got to take care of your body. I could sleep in an extra hour, but instead, I choose to come in and work out every morning at 6 a.m. during the season. Hopefully, from a physical standpoint, that keeps me where I’m going, and making sure that when I do get home at night, I’m not sitting up all night watching television. I’ll try and see my family if they’re still awake, and then get to get to sleep. But it’s a question that coaches have been dealing with forever and will continue to, but there’s got to be a balance, and you’ve got to make sure that you don’t grind yourself down. It’s something that I’ve got to be cognizant of with the coaches, too. Because I mean, I see how hard Clayton White works, and I see how hard Joe DeCamillis works, and I see how many hours Mike Shula is up here working. You want to make sure that you’re not trying to do too much, and it’s diminishing returns, because you’re just wearing yourself down, and you’re not at your best for your players each morning when they come in the building.”

There’s been a ton of coaching turnover and head coaches getting fired across the sport. One, just your thoughts on it, especially with the ones recently, like Billy Napier today, James Franklin last week. And then, as someone who’s in this industry, is that something that ever crosses your mind as concerning the pace at which coaches are getting fired?

“I hate to see it. I mean, you don’t want to see anyone ever lose their job, whether it be James last week, or Brent Pry when he got let go at Virginia Tech, or Mike Gundy, who did so much at Oklahoma State, or Billy today. I mean, those are all good men. And the people that I immediately think about are the families involved, their own family, and then the families of the people that are on the staff, the other coaches and whatnot. So that’s part of it. But you also understand, when you get into this profession, you know what you’re signing up for, and there’s high expectations. Certainly, it’s been alarming to see that across the country this year, particularly so early, but there’s a lot of money invested in these programs and a lot of expectations. We as coaches all understand what we’re signing up for when we get into this business. But I tend I try and focus on what I get to do, and that’s coach at an amazing place right here at South Carolina, and what I get to do, getting to coach great young men that are doing everything that we ask. I focus more on how I can help them, because right now I hurt because I can’t, I feel like I’m not doing enough to be able to help this team get over the hump. We are so close.”

Who are the six offensive linemen who are injured?

“I consider Nolan Hay, Shed Sarratt, and Cason Henry as three who were out because they started a game and they didn’t play yesterday. And then yesterday, during the game, we lost Tro (Baugh), came out, and was out. We lost Nick Sharpe, who wasn’t able to finish. And we lost Tree (Babalade) during the game as well.”

How is Shula handling some of the criticism that has to be finding its way into his ears? There were some pretty audible chants yesterday during the game and certainly plenty of chatter outside of the building. How have you seen him handle things?

“I think he’s been great. I think he’s been great. I think he’s been the same way that he’s been since, you know, day one. Look, man, the guy was the head coach at Alabama, so he’s dealt with scrutiny before. He grew up the son of the winningest coach in football history. He’s dealt with scrutiny before. He has called plays in the NFL for a long time. He coached an offense or called plays for an offense that went 15-1, I think, and went to the Super Bowl and lost. So this isn’t his first rodeo. He’s a true pro and will be the first to tell you that it’s not good enough right now. But I see the guy, a guy that comes in here and is the same guy each and every day and working his rear end off to try and make us better, along with the rest of the staff.”

A check in on vocal leadership and where you feel some players are in that regard?

“Yeah, I think guys are continuing to develop. I mean, we brought back some of our, you know, ‘Top leaders’ from last year, and then you see more and more guys developing. You guys see us at the beginning of every fourth quarter, we come together on the 50-yard line and talk, and break it down. I was proud of Jalen Kilgore. He spoke on Friday night at our hotel and at the hotel and Saturday, yesterday, on the 50-yard line at the beginning of the fourth quarter, he spoke, I mean, there’s a lot of guys like that that are, you know, as I said, I mean, everybody’s got to be your own, you’ve got to be who you are. You can’t be somebody that you’re not. But to me, those guys that are the best leaders, they’re guys that they’re their actions. It’s the old analogy, you know, your actions speak louder than your words, and there’s a lot of guys whose actions are people that, hey, they’re setting the example of, we need to follow you. And then there’s guys who were continuing to talk vocally. Proud of those guys, and it’s important to them, and they hurt, and they want to get it right. I see those guys doing those things that they need to do to try and help us get it right.”

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