Everything Shane Beamer said after South Carolina's win over Coastal Carolina

South Carolina head football coach Shane Beamer spoke to the media after the team’s 51-7 win over Coastal Carolina on Saturday. Here’s everything he had to say.

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Opening statement

“First of all, best of luck to Coach (Tim) Beck and Coastal. I know they got James Madison, I think, next week. That’s a team that we have a lot of respect for, a coach that we have a lot of respect for. It’s a good football team that had won four of their last five games going into tonight. They were playing their best ball. Had scored 40 points or more in four straight games, so we knew that tonight would be a challenge. But just really, really proud of our guys.

“This was not easy. And I know everybody just thinks, ‘You’re playing a non-SEC team. You’re just supposed to roll in there and win 51-7.’ Doesn’t work that way, guys. This is college football. And, especially, the emotions of last week, the disappointment of last week, responding, and people wondering how South Carolina’s going to respond, and how are they going to be motivated, and how do they come back from last week — we made a pretty strong statement tonight about what this place is about, and the culture this program, as I knew that we would. I think I said something about perception and reality earlier this week, and I was asked what I meant by that. Tonight was a great example of that — not just our team, but our fans and the way they showed up tonight.

“We did that thing on social media last year about the people on Bush River Road that, every single Friday at 5:55 p.m., when our busses roll by, they’re always out there — those sweet ladies and the people that live on that street — and they’re waving their Gamecock flags, and they’re cheering and clapping, just to watch our busses go by for 10 seconds, if that. And, sure as heck, they were there last night, just like we knew we would be.

“Then, we showed up today for Gamecock Walk. That thing was awesome with our fans, and I knew it would be. And then, to walk out into Williams-Brice Stadium for another awesome environment, and how loud it was, and the energy that our fans had in that stadium — it’s another example of why this place is so special. It’s another example of why we have the greatest fan base in America. So, thanks to them. When we talk about perception and reality, that’s what’s real: the greatest fan base in America, and a really strong culture within our locker room right now. You saw that.

“I want to thank the students that were here today in The Cockpit because they didn’t have to be. I know Thanksgiving break has started here, and they easily could have bolted out of town yesterday and hit it home. And they didn’t. They stayed out here tonight to watch us play Coastal. So, we’re so appreciative for them.

“And appreciate the troops. Salute the Troops Day was awesome, seeing those guys across waving their towels during Sandstorm and having a great time. We’re so thankful for them and all they do for our country. God bless the men and women in our military. And so thankful that we were able to honor them today.

“Just a great example of what this team is about. We’ve had a heartbreak all season, but today was an opportunity to go out and put our culture on display. And we did that. What a way to start the game with the opening touchdown on the very first play. Love the way that our defense played throughout the night — the stops that they made on fourth down, the responses our guys always had. It was just a great team effort. Extremely disappointing to get a freaking punt blocked. Makes me sick. But really good in two phases tonight, with the way that we played, and a lot to build on as we continue to get better.

“It was so awesome to get young guys in there at the end. You saw how excited our entire team got at the end of the game when Bradley Dunn scored a touchdown. And then, we also had Larry Scott and Chase McCracken in there lined up as receivers — two senior running backs that we wanted to get in the game. You saw how excited they got at the end of the game for so many of our young defensive guys that hadn’t played football before. DQ (Smith)‘s over there on the sideline trying to get me to call timeouts on defense on the last drive just to get more guys in the game and save time so they could have more plays to play. I mean, that’s what this team is about, and that’s what these players are about.

“To see Ryan Brubaker going in there and get to play tonight… Not many of you know his story, but there was a serious question about whether Ryan Brubaker would ever play football again with his injury. I can remember, when we had spring break last March, Emily (Beamer) and I were driving down to Kiawah for my spring break because our kids didn’t have spring break at the same time. I had Brubaker’s parents and Bru on speaker phone, and she’s in tears hearing them talk because we didn’t know what Bru’s future was. Not only did he get to play football again, he played tonight. And we thought, if he ever got to play football again, it might be sometime in 2026. So, for him to come back and get out there tonight and see how excited our guys were for that, it was really awesome.

“Great to see so many former players back. When you got a great program, your former players want to return. Coach (Steve) Spurrier used to say that. And to see Kevin Harris down there tonight on the sidelines, and ‘Boogie’ (Alex Huntley) to come back on his off week, and Bam Scott to be here on his off week, and Darius Rush to be here on his off week… When you’ve got a special culture and great people in your program, players in the NFL, when they could go anywhere in the country for their off weekend, they wanted to come back here and be around this, which makes a strong statement.

“Again, proud of our guys. Happy to get a win. It’s been a minute, and we certainly are going to enjoy the heck out of this one. We know what’s coming next Saturday at noon. Will be an awesome environment. Got a big challenge against those guys, but we’ll worry about them tomorrow and celebrate and really, really enjoy this one because our kids, our players, they deserve it. And our fans that were there in that stadium tonight, they deserve it.”

How are Nyck (Harbor) and Dylan (Stewart)?

“Nyck and Dylan should be good for next week. Nyck was not able to go tonight, not totally cleared. He ran the other day — and ran fast the other day. So, we’re hopeful that he’ll be fine for next Saturday.

“Dylan kind of had something aggravate him. That was the question mark before the Ole Miss game, when we had him questionable on the injury report the Friday night before the game. He practiced in a limited role this week but just didn’t feel quite able to go. But I think he’ll be fine for Saturday.”

What’s been the turning point that’s gotten Jayden Sellers more involved in the offense this last half of the season?

“Guy’s just a player, man. He works; he competes. He’s tough. He does things right. He’s great on the field, and he’s great off the field. He’s the same person every day. I think, just, his consistency and his work ethic. Practice matters, and he’s showing how he’s improved in practice. And it’s led to more opportunities for him on the field.”

A couple of young freshmen — Jayden Sellers, Donovan Murph — got in the end zone early. What have you seen from them and their growth this season?

“As we’ve said all along, we really like that freshman group of receivers. They continue to work. And it’s been a work in progress. Early on, those freshmen receivers were a group. And then, some other guys kind of were ‘that guy.’ It’s been back and forth in a lot of ways.

“But practice matters. I’m sure you guys get tired of me saying that, but it really does. We started Jared Brown tonight. He hadn’t been playing much. And it wasn’t just because we were playing Coastal; he had a great week of practice. Jayden had a great week of practice, and Murph continues to really work and do some good things. So, practice matters. How you handle yourself off the field matters. Those are good young players.

“And there’s a lot of them. We got Jordon Gidron in the game tonight. Lex Cyrus is a young guy that’s redshirting and is going to be a good player. That freshman receiver crew that we brought in was highly recruited and decorated for a reason, and you’re seeing guys flash at different times. That whole group is going to be good. And it was nice to see them step up tonight and do what they did and help out LaNorris (Sellers) — 16-for-20, 274 (yards). Those receivers all made an impact out there tonight. It was really cool to see.”

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You referenced the emotions of last week. Did you know early on this week, leading up to this, that the guys had the right perspective going forward and put that aside to concentrate on what’s ahead?

“Yeah. I can’t express how hurt and devastated that locker room was last Saturday. I mean, that was really, really hard. And how quiet that plane ride was back from College Station on Saturday night… That was a really hard day and a really emotional day. So, I knew how much they hurt. But, I may have told you guys, but I say it all the time — I told the TV crew yesterday — we always practice after I get off the teleconference with you guys on Sunday. We always go out on the practice field. Is it the greatest practice ever when we go out there and start? Probably not.

“But at the end, we always do… Like, the young guys that you all saw out there tonight at the end of the game, we put them in for about a 15- or 20-play, basically, just scrimmage. That’s like a switch that flips, and that’s kind of when the emotions get going. It’s energetic; it’s competitive. It’s intense; it’s physical — to the point where, last Sunday night, I had to pull a couple guys aside and be like, ‘Look, man. We’re not trying to get our teammates hurt on Sunday night.’ But it was spirited, and the guys were into it.

“On the final play of the scrimmage, Jimmy Francis — our young, freshman quarterback — threw a deep touchdown pass to a receiver. The whole offense ran 80 yards down there, and it was like a celebration in the end zone — like we had just won the Super Bowl. And I walked off the field saying, ‘All right, we’re going to be okay.’ I feel that way every Sunday when we come off the practice field. If we didn’t, I’d be concerned. But you know how they’re going to respond.

“Then, the way we practice this week. Still, though, it’s your worry because Coastal has got a good football team that can score points. And they do enough on special teams, as we saw with the freaking blocked punt, to create some problems. They try to throw a double pass on us. They do things like that where they can junk it up enough and score some points where, all of a sudden, you’re in a dogfight.

“It wasn’t lost on me. We were in a dog fight with Old Dominion last year — same conference. We were in a dog fight with Georgia State back in 2022; we blocked two punts for touchdowns, thankfully, that night. But Jacksonville State… we’ve had some games in the last three, four years that we didn’t always go out and dominate like we did tonight. And what excites me is the way that our guys went out there and dominated tonight.”

You had a bulk of success tonight in getting guys out in space, whether it be screens or jet sweeps. What was it that you saw in the Coastal Carolina defense that you thought was going to be the plan for success?

“Well, they present problems with their structure of defense — with their, whatever you want to call it, 3-3-5 type thing. It’s a little bit different than what we see. We saw it a lot when I was at Oklahoma in the Big 12, and it’s a pain. But we really liked our matchup with our players in space. Getting the ball out of LaNorris’ hands and making them tackle our guys in space — that would be one thing. A lot of those were our RPOs that we pulled and then kicked the ball out there on the perimeter on some of those, too.

“I wouldn’t say it was any one thing, as much as it is. They present some problems defensively. We wanted to get north-south and run the ball on them, but we also wanted to get the ball out of the LaNorris’ hands, get it out in space and make them tackle our receivers. I think they had a couple defensive backs that were out with injuries tonight, so we had a size advantage at the tight end position and the receiver position. Those guys did a really nice job blocking on the perimeter, too.”

What happened on the blocked punt?

“Just, for some reason, decided not to block somebody. I wish I had a better answer for you. It was a look that we worked Wednesday and Thursday in practice, and we had a couple older guys that just didn’t execute. When they don’t execute, that goes back on us as coaches that, in that moment, we didn’t execute. And we we got to be better.”

Travian (Robertson) was back with the team and up in the box tonight. What can you share about that?

“It was awesome. He had been out at practice a little bit more this week — actually, on the field, where he was able to stand. And then, I guess it was Thursday or Friday, George Wynn, our Director of Operations, came in my office and said something about, ‘Do you realize that Travian is planning on being at the game on Saturday and in the box?’ I’m, like, ‘No, I didn’t. Has he been cleared medically to do that?’ And he had been, and he wanted to be there. So, it was really cool.

“It’s been an emotional year, guys. Y’all, let’s be real. Whether it be from the heartbreaking losses, to your defensive line coach’s in a car crash and almost dies in August, ’til we’ve had some coaches that have lost family members recently — we had a coach that lost his dad during the Ole Miss game — it’s been an emotional year in a lot of ways. So, to be able to see Travian be back out there tonight, be at the hotel with us for the pregame meal today, go through Gamecock Walk, and then be on the headphones tonight, and then in the locker room after the game celebrating, was pretty cool.

“We’ve missed him — because our defense pitched the shutout tonight. So, clearly, wish he’d been here before now.”

What do you call the Brady Hunt “tush push?”

“I’m not sure if I’m allowed to tell you that. It’s not the ‘tush push.’ But, for the record, the punt that we tried to block against them, we did call that ‘tush push’ tonight because we had somebody that was literally behind Moe Brown trying to push him through the shield. So, that was ‘tush push.’ It’s one of those ‘I can tell you, but I’d have to kill you’ type of things because we ran it a lot tonight. I think we ran it, like, three times. And we may try it again next week, too.”

How would you grade the play calling of Mike Furrey through two games?

“Really good. 51 points and 579 yards of offense tonight. Last week against A&M, obviously, we did some really good things.

“I didn’t like the way that we finished the first half, outside of that deep ball we hit in the two-minute drive to get us in field goal range. The drive before stunk. I think we went three-and-out. And then, that drive was not very good outside the explosive pass that we hit and whatnot. So, I didn’t like the way that we finished. Not necessarily play call, I just didn’t like the way that we finished it.

“But I think Mike and that whole offensive staff has done a really nice job of just being creative, having some fun. I mean, we put a lot of stuff on tape tonight formation-wise, and guys have fun with it. We had some stuff that we didn’t run tonight that we’ll save for next week that our guys get creative with. We let them name some of it, which is scary. But they’re just having fun with it. Guys are playing with confidence. And LaNorris is doing a nice job. He did a really nice job tonight of managing things, too.”

Earlier in the week, Mike talked about, in that second half of the Texas A&M game, a lot of it was execution-based. How would you grade how your offense was able to execute a lot of what the game plan was?

“I thought, really good. Certainly, some plays that we’d like to have back. There were a couple passing game-wise, run game-wise, that weren’t quite exactly how we wanted to do it. But that’s going to happen in a game.

“Overall, I thought we did a nice job. We gave them some unusual formations and had to make them adjust to some things. And, for the most part, I thought our guys did a nice job of executing. A key for us tonight — offense, defense and special teams — was just doing your job and executing, because it’s true. You give A&M credit, but we lost that game last week because we did not execute well in the second half, just simply doing our jobs on certain plays. And again, that falls back on me. So, that was a big point this week of just don’t try and do too much. Just go out there and do your job and execute. And we did, for the most part.”

What was the process and conversation that led to you guys going with Brady as your sneak guy? Is he the most experienced guy on your roster in terms of taking snaps under center?

“I wouldn’t say most experienced, but he was a high school quarterback. He’s smart. He’s a really good football player. He makes all the calls on our punt team and can handle things on the punt team, for sure. He’s just a smart, heady guy. If you guys remember, last year against Kentucky, we had a fourth-and-one where we put him under center — it was about the 45-yard line over on the right hash near our bench — and I think they jumped offsides on the play, maybe, or something like that. But it wasn’t the first time we’ve had him in an under-center position. So, I think it’s more, just, high school quarterback, smart, tough, good football player, great athlete.”

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