Everything Shane Beamer said during his Sunday night teleconference

One day after South Carolina’s 31-7 loss to Vanderbilt, head coach Shane Beamer spoke to the media in his weekly Sunday teleconference. Here’s everything he had to say.

Opening statement

“Obviously, a really disappointing game last night. Everyone here is hurt and is extremely disappointed. Put a lot of work into it, like you do every game, had a good week of practice, and just did not perform well enough, consistently enough. No one feels worse about it than the people here in this building. Told the team today that that’s sports, that’s life. You have adversity, and you get to control how you respond, and we need to respond the right way on Saturday night. Looking at the game, guys that we felt played really well offensively: Jordan Dingle, Nyck Harbor and Rahsul Faison. Really proud of the way they performed. Defensively, Nick Barrett, Justin Okoronkwo, Peyton Williams all had really good games, we felt like. And then on special teams, Nyck Harbor and Mason Love did a nice job flipping field position on a couple of those punts.

Looking at the game, just not enough good offensively. The first couple of drives, we were moving the ball and running the ball and did a lot of really, really good. But at the end of the day, when you have four turnovers, you’re not going to win football games when you turn the ball over four times. Defensively, did not tackle well, and that was disappointing. We’ve been a good tackling team, and have been for a while, and missed too many last night and didn’t create enough takeaways. Got beat four to one in the turnover battle, and it’s hard to make a living that way. So we’ve got to take the ball away better. We’ve got to tackle better. We’ve got to be better from that standpoint. Did a nice job, I thought, defensively, in some sudden change situations where we had the interception, held them to zero points. We got stopped on the first fourth down, we held on to zero points after, and then on the second fourth down, we held them to a field goal. So good job by our defense stepping up in some of those situations.

“But a lot to correct when you watch the tape today. Certainly give Vanderbilt credit, but we helped them a lot, and they’re too good a team for us to be helping them. Not enough winning football, as I told you last night, that starts with me. Eager to get back on the practice field this evening and get back to work and continue to try and get better. We’re 25 percent through the regular season, and three-game body of work is not good enough, but we’re a team that’s always gotten better as the year has gone on. Started three true freshmen last night on offense. They’ll just continue to get better, along with all the new faces that we have on defense and special teams, they’ll continue to get better. Injury-wise, LaNorris (Sellers) and Cason (Henry) obviously did not finish the game last night. We’re optimistic on both those guys for this week, and then, fortunately, no other injuries to report from last night.”

Was there any clarification on Dylan Stewart for next week after his unsportsmanlike conduct penalty?

“As far as I know, he’s good to go. That’s what we’ve been told by the SEC league office, that it was an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, not a targeting, so it doesn’t affect the next game.”

Did LaNorris Sellers have a concussion last night?

“I don’t get into specific injuries.”

With the way things were going on offense before Sellers had to leave, what did you see that gave you confidence that when he is back and full go, the offense will be able to pick up where things were and continue on a positive trajectory?

“Well, not to be rude, but did you watch the game when he was in there? I mean, we moved up and down the field. He sat in the pocket. I thought he did a hell of a job last night, sitting in the pocket and making throws. I thought our receivers did a good, nice job of running routes. I thought he did a good job of running the football. I mean, we were operating efficiently, mixing in formations, mixing in the misdirection, taking some throws downfield. He did a lot of really good things in his time in there during those first two possessions. The third possession, obviously, was not good enough. We were backed up. We got a first down where LaNorris, if you were watching, sat in there in the pocket and made a great throw downfield to get a first down. And we were in a backed up scenario. And then, disappointing next three plays, we had our next two plays, we had a first down where a running back misses a blitz pickup. We get sacked. And then on the next play, we roll a snap back there. And then on the third play, we run the ball and just trying to get some room to punt, and we pop it out of there, and we’re about one block away from that play, maybe scoring. So there was a lot of good when LaNorris was in there last night and confident that will continue to improve offensively when he gets back healthy. But again, this is a heck of a team we’re getting ready to play out in Missouri, just watching their tape today before I got on with you guys. So we’ve got to get a whole lot better. But there were a lot of good signs last night, too, when LaNorris was in there.”

On those last two drives of the game, were there any thoughts of putting Air Noland in there? Can you explain the reasoning for keeping Luke Doty in the entire second half?

“I thought Luke was doing some good things operating the offense, and certainly, he needs to be better. He’ll be the first to tell you that, but he did some really good stuff, managing the offense, making calls direct from traffic, making throws. Mike (Shula) and I had some discussion about both backup quarterbacks, Cutter (Woods) and Air, both in regard to potentially putting them in at some point as the game went on. Not necessarily because Luke was playing bad, but just to get some experience, but we didn’t.

“I was confident that we were going to go down the field, score a touchdown, get the two-point conversion, and make it a two-score game. Almost returned the kickoff for a touchdown or a play away or a block away from returning that one all the way. Really felt confident about us being able to win the game in the fourth quarter, and felt like Luke gave us the best opportunity to do that as we got into the fourth quarter. But yes, we did discuss it briefly, but in order to win the game, I felt like Luke gave us the best chance at that point.”

You’re three games into the season now. The offense did look pretty good in the first half there, like you said, but just overall body of work, you guys are last or 15th in the SEC in a lot of major offensive categories. Do you have any concerns about the offense at this point in the year? And what are your overall thoughts on the play calling and the job that Mike Shula has done so far?

“I think he’s done a good job. We all can be better. I think you can look at stats. We’ve played two Power Four teams. We’ve played an SEC team defensively. I think stats even themselves out as the year goes on. Our level of competition through three games, I mean, we’ve got some teams that just played their first Power Four team of the year yesterday. So I don’t put a whole lot of stock into stats. After three games, there’s no question we’re not good enough right now. The body of work is not what our standard is, and we all have to be better. Me, Mike, the offensive staff, the players.”

On the Sellers interception, the TV commentators seemed pretty convinced that he was supposed to read it up to that post. Is that a case where you say to Sellers that you’ve got to kind of look up to the post, or is that just a case where Vanderbilt threw something funky?

“I mean, they did something a little funky, but I mean, it wasn’t new. If you watch their game against Virginia Tech from the week before, I mean, they did something very similar in the red zone against Virginia Tech, where they brought pressure, and then they had people that popped out. The pressure they ran was a little bit different. But against Virginia Tech, they did something very similar, you know, something that we do on defense as well, when you get everybody up there on the line of scrimmage, or bring pressure and pop pressure and pop out. So they did something that teams do, and their guy made a nice play. Don’t think LaNorris saw him. So sometimes they get you, but yeah, I mean, if you’re watching the tape, he, you know, you had about three people you had the choice of throwing to on that one. So don’t necessarily fault him where he threw the ball, but if you want me to say the tight end was wide open, running up the seam, yeah, he was, but so was Oscar (Adaway), and so was a receiver out to the field as well. So there were multiple places we could have gone with the ball there.”

Your GamecockCentral membership starts at just $1 for the first week – and we’ll throw in a complimentary year of access to The Athletic.

Brent Pry was let go at Virginia Tech earlier today. Of course, within five seconds, your name is all over a bunch of hot boards and stuff. Is there anything you want to say now about interest that could come your way about that job?

“Not really. I think the week of the Virginia Tech game, I told everyone how I feel about South Carolina and my love for this place. That’s where my focus is right now, getting our football team better, because I don’t like where we are right now, and that’s my responsibility, and I’ve got to get it better without a doubt and confident that we will. And then I certainly hate it for Brent. He’s somebody that I’ve known since I was in college and had a lot of respect for. Days like this in the coaching profession suck because that’s a good man with a family that’s got daughters about the age of my daughters, and I know how hard losing is on your family, seeing that right now with mine. But different too when a guy loses his job, also. So I feel for Brent, the people that I know on that staff, and hate that decision was made.”

When Sellers goes out, and you see the way the offense is moving the ball in the second half, what do you feel like were the biggest issues in terms of being able to finish off those drives with points?

“No, we didn’t (finish with points). We had drives where we moved the ball, but just didn’t finish. Maybe it’s, you know, a fourth down that we got stopped on. It’s another fourth down that we got stopped on. It’s a pressure where they’re bringing seven rushers and we’ve got six blockers and we’ve got to get rid of the ball, or it’s a pass that might just be a little off, or a route that might just be a little bit off. We were moving it, but we’ve got to finish, and you’ve got to be able to score points. You’ve got to be able to finish in the red zone, especially against a team like Vanderbilt. So I don’t know if there’s one thing necessarily that I just look at, but it’s just too inconsistent. Moved the ball well at times, but just not consistent enough.”

What did Brian Rowe show you last week to kind of earn that sort of bigger role yesterday?

“Just playmaking ability. And again, that receiving group is a work in progress, and there’s a lot of true freshmen, and there’s returning guys. It’s great competition in that room. Practice matters. And Brian had a good week of practice, and a lot of those guys did. The competition in that room has made everyone better, I believe, and increased the urgency, there’s no doubt about it. But in regards to Brian, he’s just been a guy, go back to spring practice, spring game, and then this preseason, he makes a lot of plays. He had a nice week of practice and showed that he can make an impact with the ball in his hands.”

You mentioned yesterday that there’s going to be a lot of outside noise and negativity, and you guys as the team need to keep it positive. But, obviously, the fan base wasn’t pleased with what happened. What would your message be to those fans who are disappointed and saw the way you guys performed yesterday?

“Nobody’s more disappointed in the way we perform than we are.”

What were your thoughts on how the offensive line performed? Specifically with Nolan Hay, I think it was late in the second half, he got in at center and took over for the rest of the way, if I’m not mistaken…

“I thought the offensive line did some really good things. Thought the protection was really good last night. We had two sacks, and one of those was when we had the errant snap, and the other snap was not on the offensive line. So I thought they did a nice job from a protection standpoint. I thought they were playing with physicality early in the game, trying to finish on people, opening up lanes for the running backs to run. And definitely, like always, there are plays they’d like to have back. And then Nolan’s a guy we got a lot of confidence in. And the same with Boaz (Stanley). Done some good things, and Nolan was in there some. We had an extra offensive lineman package that we got in some last night, and we were in that on that 4th and 1 that we got stopped on. Did some good things. It continues to get better. And Boaz is a good player as well that does some good things, and he’s done a lot of good things, but we all got to be better.”

On those two roughing the passer calls, it seemed like those were kind of towing the line of that rule. Have you sent any of those to the SEC? How do you coach that when a guy is kind of moving into the quarterback and it seems like it’s pretty hard for them to stop? How do you coach that?

“Yeah, my question exactly. Yes, we did send both those in, honestly, just to get some clarification on how exactly we’re supposed to coach that, because Bryan Thomas had already initiated the act of going to tackle the quarterback as the quarterback jumped in the air to throw the ball. So, other than Brian Thomas being able to, while in mid air, turn his body to avoid landing on the quarterback, I don’t know how to coach him. I’d like clarification from the SEC on what exactly we’re supposed to be telling him. And then the one on Dylan, I thought was, if we’re going to call that a late hit or whatever it was, I can send in plenty of worse things being done to our guys. But again, I’m sure there are plays that Vanderbilt disagreed with, also, but those were two we understand, I mean, we’ve talked to our players endlessly about showing plays where the quarterback is getting hit going back to last year, that we’ve got to be smart here, and this play right here last year it was legal this year. They may call this on you, some of the hits that we had on quarterbacks last year. So we’ve really tried to emphasize it, but there were some tough ones last night.”

Will Sellers and Henry practice tonight?

“I’m not getting into who’s out there for practice. That sounds like a question on an injury update, and I just told you that we’re optimistic on them, and we’ll have an injury report for you later on. They’ll be at practice, though.”

What stood out about the first drive for Doty? How did you kind of come away feeling that, especially having a veteran guy that gets thrown into a pretty high-leverage situation?

“I thought he did a nice job. It was funny, right before LaNorris got hurt, I was standing on the sidelines talking with Luke and LaNorris, and Luke made a comment to me and LaNorris that this situation is easy compared to some of the situations you put us in in practice. When we do the two-minute drill, we always do two minutes on Sundays and Thursdays, and I try to create really tough situations for the offense. And Luke’s like, ‘Shoot. We got just under two minutes, and we got plenty of timeouts. This is easy.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, this is nothing compared to what you see in practice. So we should go down there and get points.’

And little did I know, whatever it was, two plays later, one play later, Luke would be in there. But kind of the same thing; that was his belief. He’s played a lot of football. He has great confidence in himself. I thought he did a nice job during the third-down play. They played a coverage where, you know, we had the seam kind of coming open down the middle. We threw three verticals, and he threw it up to give our guy a chance. And they’re, you know, the D-back safety when the ball is snapped, he’s on the line of scrimmage trying to disguise it. So that’s a tough play for that guy to make. And we’d love to, obviously, love to put a little bit more air on the ball, let that receiver go get it, but he took it down the field and gave us an opportunity to kick a field goal. Probably could have been better there on second down and third down and make it a little bit easier on the kicker when he came out, but got us down there with an opportunity to score points, and that’s all you can ask for.”

The sack numbers were low, but the tackles for loss were high again. Is it just something in the run blocking scheme, or is it execution? How are those things consistently a problem?

“Yeah, something that we talked about today as a staff, that we’ve got to fix the things that are issues, and we need to enhance the things that we’re doing well. That’s what we’ve got to look at. It’s a combination of everything, all positions, and it’s a pattern I’m not happy with. Needs to get fixed.”

Have y’all identified some places already where you want to do so and work on that this week? Or how does that evolve and come about?

“Yeah, every week you look at what you need to fix and what you did well, what you didn’t do well, what you need to improve on, and what gives you the best chance to go perform well in the next game.”

Is Shula comfortable down there coaching from the sideline where he is?

“I think so. I mean, if he wasn’t, I don’t think he would be down there. We’ve had a lot of conversations today about how to be better, and we haven’t discussed that. But if he feels more confident in the box, great. If he’d rather be on the field, great. He’s called a lot of plays and coached Super Bowls, called plays in Super Bowls. So wherever he feels like he’s most comfortable is where he’ll be.”

Discuss South Carolina football on The Insiders Forum!