Everything Shane Beamer said during his Sunday night teleconference

One day after South Carolina’s 38-10 win over SC State, head coach Shane Beamer spoke to the media in his weekly Sunday teleconference. Here’s everything he had to say.

Opening statement

“All right, back at it early this morning. Obviously, a late night for everybody, but it’s been a good day here. Looking back at the tape, our defensive player of the game, we decided on as coaches was Bryan Thomas. Our Offensive player of the game was Dre Jacobs. Our Special Teams Player of the Game was Vicari Swain. Our Defensive Scout Player of the Week was Quay Dodd. Offensive Scout Team was Chase Sweigart, and Special Teams Scout Team Player of the Week was Josh Smith.

“Looking at it from a health standpoint, we’re better today than I thought we might be last night when I met with you guys as well. Feel pretty optimistic on everyone as we sit here today, in regards to being able to play Saturday night against Vanderbilt. Brady Hunt is the only one that we’re doing some testing on today, and still getting some of the results back from that. So, keeping our fingers crossed and prayers for him that we get a good report here this afternoon. But everybody else is trending to be able to play this weekend.

Looking last night, as I said, postgame, thanks to the fans, they were awesome, and so appreciative for that. From an offensive standpoint, knock on wood, but two games in a row that we haven’t turned the ball over, that’s huge, and we’re going to be hard to beat if we continue to do that. That’s for sure. Field position, like I thought, was a struggle, you know, four straight drives, I think, started inside the 20-yard line. That’s tough sledding, but no excuse. We’ve got to be able to flip the field position when we’re in those positions. Two-minute drill at the end of the half was really good, to be able to go down the field and get points, and then to be able to follow that up with a touchdown drive to start the third quarter, and then to finish the game like last week, where the ball is in our hands with minutes left on the clock and and we don’t give it back. Certainly, we’ve got to be more consistent. Overall communication needs to be better. But a lot of signs of how close we are there from an offensive standpoint.

“Defensively, thought our short-yardage defense was better. Our whole mantra, just put the ball down, and our guys did a good job of that last night, no matter what the field position was that South Carolina State was taking over with or even they had a drive there where we held them to a field goal, where I think it was 1st and 6 on the six-yard line, if I’m not mistaken, and we held them to three. And then special teams-wise, everybody will want to talk about punt pressure and Vicari Swain’s two returns, and David Bucey’s block, and rightfully so, but a lot of good throughout that tape as well. The way we punted the football and flipping the field position with Mason (Love) was big. Covering punts was good. Covering kickoffs was good. Field Goal, William (Joyce), coming in there and knocking down a field goal to end the half gave us momentum going into the locker room. And then disappointing that, you know, when you look at the poor field position that we had offensively, I mean, a lot of that is complementary football and not doing a great job. Defensively, on the first drive, we busted coverage on third down and gave them an explosive pass and then they punt and pin us deep and then our offense has to start backed up, or special teams wise, we have a good return on a kickoff and get out to about the 40-yard line with Nyckoles (Harbor), and we have a holding penalty on the kickoff return, and we get backed up and whatnot.

“So we’ve got to play better. We’ve got to coach better. Got to be more consistent. But to be sitting here 2-0 knowing you haven’t played your best is encouraging. Got a lot of work to do. Finishing up meetings here this afternoon, and we’ll be on the field here in about 16 minutes.”

You’ve seen this team through two games now. How do you feel about the group going into SEC play? Do you feel like you guys are ready for what’s to come with league play starting?

“Yeah, we better be. I’ve seen flashes of being a really good team, and we’ve got to be better in all three areas. There’s no question about it. But we’re on the right track, and we’ve got to get better this week, starting with practice tonight. But I see a lot of really good taking place. We’ve just got to be more consistent. There’s no question about it.”

Are there any details you can share about what was going on with Brandon Cisse and why he needed to ultimately step out for the rest of the night?

“He had a kind of hit, a collision with Bryan Thomas there in the backfield. Thought he was good, and we looked at him on the sideline and thought he was good, and then he didn’t feel like he could go anymore. So that’s why he came out.”

Then, with Vicari Swain, was he banged up, too?

“Yeah, he was a little banged up and wasn’t able to return.”

Do you feel like you guys have been mixing it up well offensively and that you just need to execute better on those things?

“Yeah, I would think so. I mean, we’re like any team that we want to be able to get the ball and our different playmakers’ hands and be able to get the ball on the perimeter, and run the ball downhill and mix it up, and be able to keep people off balance. So, yeah, I thought we’ve done a good job of mixing it up. And we’ve got to coach better. We’ve got to execute better. If we don’t have the whatever you want to call it, poor pitch or poor catch of the pitch, you know, LaNorris (Sellers) or Jared (Brown), whoever has the ball has a chance to run for a long way there. So, yeah, we’ve got to be more consistent and clean that up. We didn’t play enough winning football last night, particularly offensively, but certainly on the right track.”

What would you say you’re most pleased with so far through these two games? Where do you feel like you guys need to be better moving forward here?

“Most pleased? I think anytime you don’t turn the ball over, and you’ve gone through two games and you’ve scored what, four times without your offense on the field? You’re going to win a lot of football games if you don’t turn the ball over, and you’re scoring on defense and special teams pretty regularly.

“Where do we need to improve? I mean, I think you look at every area, and I could go through every position group and talk about areas where we need to improve, but certainly we’ve got to be able to score more points on offense and be more efficient and more consistent than what we’ve been. So that would certainly be a thing. I mean, I’m sitting here in my office right now watching on my computer the (Virginia) Tech-Vandy game from last night. I think Virginia Tech had six plays in the third quarter alone, and I think 19 total in the second half. And if you’re not staying on the field and you’re sustaining drives, it’s going to be hard to win football games, whether it be against Vanderbilt or anyone else.”

You’ve mentioned how tough it can be to find film on teams. But to have Vandy coming off and playing a team that you guys have already seen this year, does that help at all in preparing for a team?

“I think it helps. It’s definitely not a negative. I know that it’s hard. I’m sitting here watching it right now, and all summer, all my eyes are doing is watching Virginia Tech. And here I am watching Vandy, and my eyes are on Virginia Tech, because I’ve been doing it since January in a lot of ways, watching tape. But it definitely helps in understanding Virginia Tech’s personnel. Understanding, you know, here’s what Vanderbilt saw against Virginia Tech when they played us, and here’s how they’re maybe trying to attack it. And being able to look at Virginia Tech and say, well, they were a little bit different here, offense, defense, special teams against Vanderbilt than they were Virginia Tech. Just kind of a cat-and-mouse game from that standpoint. And then the other thing too, I mean, Vanderbilt certainly has our full attention, because I think Virginia Tech is a really good football team, and got beat by 24 points last night at home in a hostile atmosphere. So that certainly gets your attention when you turn on that tape.”

Had a question about a particular play. Right before the field goal, it was like a 3rd and 10. It was an RPO that I think ended with Sellers kind of sliding as he was going for the boundary. What was kind of the approach there, and what did you kind of see happening on that play?

“Wasn’t an RPO, it was a miscommunication. Goes back to what I said in the opening statement, just about we’ve got to communicate better. There was a miscommunication. One guy thought he heard one thing, and another guy thought he heard another thing, and we weren’t on the same page, which can’t happen. But the thinking right there was, you know, 3rd and 10 was not against going forward if we got it in the fourth and manageable position, but we were already in field goal position as well, if I’m remembering where we were on the field correctly.

“Also, Vicari Swain was absolutely in the right last night on that play. I think it was Hale who asked me about it in the press conference. What a heads-up play from him. So I know all the people on television were like, ‘Man, what a dumb decision,’ and all that. He made absolutely the right decision. That was a big-time heads-up play. And credit Colin Bryant, too, because you see Colin Bryant out there on the play, realizing the ball hit the South Carolina State punt team guy and making sure Vicari knew that he could touch that ball, and no matter what happened, it was going to be our football. So really proud of him for being alert situationally, which we spent a lot of time, offense, defense and special teams, coaching and emphasizing.”

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Now that you’ve had a little bit of time to dissect the tape, what did you think of the offensive line’s performance, and where can they be better moving forward?

“Just continuing to be consistent, and it’s every position. I mean, there were times when we were good on the offensive line and weren’t quite right in the backfield. There were times when we were good on the offensive line, and maybe LaNorris flushed out of the pocket earlier than he needed to. There were times when we were good on the offensive line, maybe not great at the tight end position. There were times when we weren’t good on the offensive line. So I thought Shed Sarratt, a true freshman coming in there and starting his first game, he did some good things, and he’ll be better for Week 2, and all those guys will be as we continue to get more and more consistent and get the right five in there.”

Did you foresee any of these communication and consistency issues coming on the offensive side of the ball?

“When you say communication issues, there was one play that I just mentioned where we didn’t communicate and one guy heard him. We have a play call in our system that sounds, I don’t think, similar, but they thought it did the other night and whatnot. But certainly that can’t happen. But it’s a word that we’ve had in our offense for multiple years as well, and it hasn’t come up before. And then some of the other stuff, the inconsistency, I wouldn’t say I foresaw it necessarily, but I do think it’s early in the football season, and you’ve got a lot of new players and trying to get everybody on the same page. And we played two good football teams, in my opinion, and we haven’t been consistent enough. We get another opportunity here this week to be better.”

Is Tree Babalade healthy? And if he is, why hasn’t he been able to get into a game yet?

“Tree’s healthy. We’ve got a lot of confidence in Tree. Tree’s a really good player and brings a lot of value to this team. And we’ve had the five out there that we feel like give us the best chance to be successful, and Tree’s got to continue to come on like the rest of our guys on our football team.”

I think you rotated three offensive lines; three different sets of offensive linemen went out there. Is Babalade that far behind?

“I wouldn’t say that. It was three groups. We had some backups that hadn’t really had a chance to play in a lot of South Carolina football games that we got in at the end of the game last night as well. So no, he’s absolutely not that far behind. He’s absolutely one of our top guys. Just didn’t feel like last night was the right moment to put him in the game.”

How do you kind of talk Sellers through those situations where the offense is backed up, and what guidance do you give him when you guys are backed up in those spots?

“The goal of the offense is to flip the field position and be able to get first downs, and we’re not doing a good enough job of that backed up. You don’t want to overcoach it, because we all know how many spectacular plays he’s made by improvising at times back there. But we also need to understand when we can step up in the pocket, typically, good things happen, and that’s the way that we’re protecting. We’re trying to build a pocket where he can step up in it.

“A great example of that is the throw that Luke Doty made at the end of the game, down towards, I think it was to Jordan Gidron, going in towards the end zone to our right. Luke stepped up; the tackles were blocking those guys where they needed to block them. Luke stepped up and made a throw. There’s a great example of LaNorris doing that, I think it’s the first third down of the second half where we hit Mike Smith, a little mesh concept, and great job by LaNorris of stepping up in the pocket and then delivering that throw to Mike for a big-time third-down conversion. So yeah, I mean, from a passing standpoint, we want to continue to emphasize, you know, stepping up in the pocket and trust in that protection and delivering a throw like he did to Mike without taking away, what makes LaNorris Sellers so great, too, and that’s his ability to make things happen when he gets out of the pocket.”

If Vicari Swain and Jalon Kilgore are both healthy, is Swain your punt returner?

“Yes.”

Just wanted to clarify something. When you guys were doing that late end of half drive, and you were facing that 4th and 1, you guys let a bit of clock run. I assume that was just to make sure that in case something did happen, if you had to give them the ball back, South Carolina State wouldn’t be in a good position for their own drive?

“That’s exactly what I was doing. It’s one of those that, you know, made sure the staff was aware of what I was thinking today in our staff meeting, but yes, it’s leaving yourself enough time where, if we convert, I think we had two timeouts still at that point. So leaving yourself with enough time where, if you don’t, if you convert, you’ve got plenty of time to, I mean, I wouldn’t settle in for the field goal, but you get the first down, because I was going to go for it on fourth down no matter what. And saying, okay, if we get the first down, we still have enough time to score a touchdown, but at the minimum, get a field goal. But if we don’t get this thing, we don’t leave them with over a minute of clock to go down the field and potentially kick a field goal or score a touchdown. So that’s what I was thinking on that. You’re correct.”

Is Jared Brown dealing with an injury as well, or is that just something that kind of kept him out last night?

“He’s battling him with a little something. I wouldn’t say he’s necessarily 100 percent. He certainly wasn’t against Virginia Tech, and he was a lot closer to it last night. We got in the game and just felt like those receivers that we played with were the ones that needed to be out there last night. But we talked about it in our team meeting today that we’ve got a lot of talented receivers, and we’re still trying to figure out what this receiver rotation looks like. And practice matters, and you’ve got guys that are slowly starting to separate themselves. But there’s a lot of great competition going on in that room. Guys need to continue to solidify their roles with how they help, with how they perform in practice and in games.”

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