Everything Shane Beamer said during his Sunday teleconference following Kentucky win

One day after South Carolina’s 35-13 win over Kentucky, head coach Shane Beamer spoke to the media in his weekly Sunday teleconference. Here’s everything he had to say.

Opening statement

“Like I said last night, I’m really proud of our performance. Going back, that was a physical football game last night, and our guys played with intensity, they played with energy, they played with effort. They played with a competitive spirit. It was fun watching it live, and then fun watching that tape again today. I knew it was physical. I mean, you could hear some of the collisions on the sideline last night. And if you go back and watch the TV copy, I mean, you can hear the physicality in that game on TV. It was a physical game, and I’m glad that we came out of it in pretty good shape.

“From an injury standpoint, I don’t think Markee Anderson’s injury is going to be anything significant, or at least, I hope not. He’s got an MRI coming up, but we’re optimistic on that one. Everybody else came out of it in pretty good health. The bye week is coming at a good time. There’s no question about it.

“Looking back at last night, we did the things that we needed to do to win the game. We knew we had to be the most physical team, and we were as the game went on. Our offense, you know, we were really productive on third down, which was key to be able to stay on the field like we did. We certainly left some yardage out there in the run game. That was disappointing to go back and look at today. Some of the yards that we left on the field. Feel like we left some things out there from a special teams standpoint. Also, we dominated the turnover battles. So when you win the turnover battle like that, and play clean football like we did, from a penalty standpoint, you give yourself a chance to win. And those are the things that we hadn’t done the last couple of weeks. We did them last night.

“And then probably most proud of just the fourth quarter. I don’t think people are talking about the fourth quarter enough, just to be completely frank. I mean, you look at statistically what we did in the fourth quarter, the way we controlled the ball. I mean, we got the ball back with 10 minutes left in the game, or a little over nine minutes, and never gave it back until the very end, where they had one play with about 20 seconds left and the game was over. We lined up and ran the ball 14 straight plays and ran the clock out. I mean, that’s how you finish. And it would have been 15 straight plays; we had a call to pass on second down. That was actually me. I told Coach Shula to call that pass play. We were trying to take a shot off of the play that Dre (Jacobs) had caught on the first play of the last play of the third quarter. So LaNorris (Sellers) ended up scrambling on it. But other than that, on that last drive, we ran the ball 14 consecutive times, and I got in big personnel and did it. So really, really proud of that, the way we finished.

“After any game, win or lose, there’s a lot to correct and get better at. We certainly do. But great momentum going into the off week. We will give our players off today. Coaches worked half the day reviewing this game. Players are off. We’ll come in tomorrow morning and review this video, lift, meet, and then the coaches will spend the rest of the day working on ourselves, because we have a lot to get better at getting a jump start on LSU, and then we’ll practice on Tuesday and Wednesday. Coaches will be out recruiting on Thursday and Friday. Players will be off for the weekend. Coaches will have Saturday off. That’s our first day off since the middle of August, and our coaches need it. And then everybody will be back in on Sunday, full speed ahead for the LSU week.

“A lot of guys played well for us last night. Defensively, our coaching staff felt like our players at the game were Bryan Thomas, JT Geer, Dylan Stewart and Brandon Cisse. Our offensive coaches felt like Rodney Newsom, Vandrevius Jacobs and LaNorris Sellers were our offensive players of the game. Our special teams player the game was Mo Brown. Scout team players of the week: offensively, Mike Tyler, defensively, Chris Hatfield and special teams was Larry Scott.

Going into the bye week, with a five-week sample size, is there one thing that you guys have to prioritize correcting before anything else, before prepping for LSU?

“I think anytime you go into a bye week, you’re almost at the halfway point of the regular season. We always self-scout, but you can really dive into the self-scout, not just tendencies, but as I told the coaches today, we’re five games in. We really need to do a deep dive on okay, these are the things that we’re really good at. We need to continue to do these things and find better ways of doing them. These are the things that maybe we’re not so good at, so maybe we need to lessen how much we’re doing or work on more to get better at it. And then overall, I think there are a lot of areas, but I think the biggest thing is one, ourselves continuing to get healthy and self-scout for sure. And then I know I said it before, but just the details of plays and doing things all the time, exactly how their coach will do in all three phases, and continuing to improve and all those areas.”

You mentioned both self-scouting and looking ahead to LSU during the bye week. How do you split that up?

“Joe DeCamillis, Clayton (White) and Mike (Shula) are handling their three units, their three parts of the ball, if you will. But I would say tomorrow is going to be primarily us, really. We’ll be with the players in the morning. We’ll have a team meeting at 8 a.m. and then the players will be in the building until 11-11:30 tomorrow. And so in the morning, we’ll be with the players. And then, really, all afternoon, I would say it’s primarily us. Like, let’s really dig in on how we can get better. Where are we not very good right now? What personnel do we maybe need to adjust? What schemes do we need to squeeze? And then preparing for taking all that and preparing for practice on Tuesday.

“Tuesday, we’ll introduce LSU a little bit. So there’ll be a little bit of LSU tomorrow as a coaching staff during it, but we’ll really grind tomorrow afternoon as a staff, primarily on ourselves, but being prepared to introduce LSU a little bit in practice on Tuesday. And then I would certainly say Tuesday and Wednesday, you know, still us, but really get going on LSU, Tuesday and Wednesday and after practice. We practice in the mornings, obviously, so in the afternoons, all LSU, and then Thursday and Friday, our whole staff, myself included, will be out recruiting. So for us, it’s really three days of work with Monday primarily being on us as a staff, I would say some individual work, but it’s the offensive staff in that room together, defense in that room together, and then Tuesday and Wednesday after practice more just LSU.”

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Where do you feel like you guys are at your best, and where are you guys still feeling like there is room for improvement?

“I think you look at every area and say that you can improve. I mean, even in a great win last night, where we did so much good, there are a lot of things that leave a lot of room for improvement. On special teams, doing things, you know, the way we’re coached to do them, we got away from that a little bit last night. Our special teams did a lot of really good things, but we left a lot out there, so we continue to emphasize the one shot or one down mentality with special teams, because you don’t get second down and third down on special teams, you get one shot.

“We didn’t take advantage of some opportunities last night defensively, particularly on that first drive. Kind of getting out-leveraged and letting the ball get outside a couple times where it didn’t need to happen, or overrunning a gap that results in a big play. So those details, and then offensively, we did some good things last night. We were physical. But when I talk about the details of the plays, I would talk about some of the runs that we left out there. And when I say that, I felt like our running backs did some good things last night, but particularly in the first half, I feel like we had some runs that were blocked pretty well and we didn’t quite read it, hit the right gap, whatever you want to call it, as well as I would like. So continue to emphasize that. And then our drop-back passing game, we did some good things last night, but we were all for a little bit of it as well. So, I mean, I think there’s plenty that we can correct. I don’t know if there’s just one thing, but when you’re five games in, there’s a pretty big body of work that you can look at to say, here’s areas to improve on.”

Can you take us through the fake punt pass play that you guys had there last night?

“Yeah, it’s a fake that we’ve been running in practice for five years. I mean, we’ve been practicing that fake since Coach (Pete) Lembo was here. It’s kind of a staple fake punt. So disappointing that we didn’t execute it better. I mean, to be completely frank, in my mind, it should have been a touchdown. It was one of those things that the look that we always practiced against in practice was the look that they gave us. It’s basically the perfect look for us to do what we wanted to do. I saw how they lined up, and I looked at it on the iPad, and I told Joe DeCamillis on the headphones, we’re going to run this before the night’s over. We were backed up, and we got it in a favorable field position.

“The reason I called it, I felt like one, it was there. It was exactly how we practiced it in practice; it was there. I felt like, at that point, I didn’t want to put their offense back out on the field. Felt like we had some momentum and really had a play that we thought we could execute. We called it, and give their guy credit, they made a one-on-one tackle on Mo in space. But ideally, the way that we’ve got it designed, that guy shouldn’t even have been there. So disappointed that we didn’t execute it better, especially after practicing it for five years. But again, we as coaches obviously got to coach it up a little bit better, because we were a little bit off and didn’t quite execute it exactly how we liked. And again, I mean, we caught the ball and Mo one-on-one with the guy in space, and I had visions of that ball he caught against Virginia Tech on the first play of the game, where he was going to run somebody over and go score, but their guy made a nice play. So you tip your cap to them. And then great job by our defense going out there and holding them to three points.”

It seemed like you guys ended up having to move a few pieces around on the offensive line, and you ended up having Tree Babalade play both sides. What are you able to learn about your offensive line when they face that kind of adversity, and also, just how tough is that for a guy like Babalade to have to bounce between both sides in the same game?

“Yeah, it’s not ideal, but it’s a testament to our offensive line that we’ve got some guys up there that are good athletes and are smart enough to bounce around and have some position flexibility, whether it be playing both tackle spots, whether it be playing both guard spots, or whether it be center and guard. We do a lot of work on that in spring practice and preseason, trying to train guys in different areas, and then you’ve got some swing guys that can do different things. So it says a lot about those guys and they need to continue to do that. I think the more you can do, the better. Vershon Lee is a great example of that in his career here at South Carolina. Vershon played center, guard and tackle for us, and now he’s on an NFL roster. We got guys like that that are good athletes and have position flexibility, and that’s a great asset to have when you have some injuries like we do right now on the offensive line.”

How do you feel the run of injuries has affected things on the offensive line, from a cohesion and execution standpoint? Do you think that’s been significant or not that much?

“I mean, I think it’s been a factor. I mean, I don’t want to sit here and seek comfort and say that we’ve had injuries and we haven’t been as good as we would like. But it’s not ideal. I mean, last night we started our third different center in five games, and then we had two guys that started against Missouri that weren’t even in uniform last night. Injuries are a part of it. We know that we got depth on that offensive line, and we got guys that have played a lot of football here before.

“We’ve got some continuity. We have guys with experience that have played on the offensive line. And it helps all those guys, for sure, but we need to get guys healthy. There’s no doubt about it. But really proud of those guys coming in last night and playing really, really physical. And that’s what I was proud of was just the intensity that they played with, the physicality they played with, the way they tried to finish blocks. I mean, I’m sure you guys obviously watched the game, and I’m sure you’ll go back if you haven’t already. I mean, watch the TV copy. Just watch the way guys are finished and downfield, whether it be Mo Brown at tight end or Tro (Baugh) or Rodney Newsom, just the mentality those guys played with last night was pretty cool to watch.”

I know how much you talk about the SEC schedule being just a bunch of opportunities for your team. Do you allow your guys to look at what’s coming up in the month of October as a big opportunity? Or do you want their mind to just be focused on LSU?

“I think you’d better be focused on what’s in front of you. I mean, they’re not dumb. I mean, I think it’s pretty realistic that we’re going to face five straight top 10 teams, or four straight, whatever it is. I don’t even know who the next five are, but I did see something that it conceivably could easily be all top 10 teams, which is great as a competitor; you want that. That’s life in the SEC, man. Coach (Mark) Stoops and I were talking about that before the game last night. I mean, you just look at (Kentucky’s) schedule, who they have coming up, and there’s nobody in this league with an easy schedule.

“And that’s why I just chuckle when I hear people talk about how all conferences are the same. They’re not. I don’t see another conference out there where teams play as many ranked teams in a season as we do in the SEC, and that’s what you sign up for. If you don’t love to compete, you don’t want that, then you’re in the wrong conference. So we understand that aspect of it. Look forward to competing, starting with LSU, and then after LSU, we’ll worry about what’s next. But in my mind, too, those teams got to play us. That’s our mentality, and that’s the way it always will be. If we continue to get better and improve, we’re going to be a problem for a lot of opponents here the rest of the season.”

It just seemed like Sellers played like his 2024 self in a lot of ways. You’ve talked about him running the football a lot this season, but it just felt like he was a lot more effective in the ground game last night. What did you notice that was the biggest difference for him?

“Probably just his aggressiveness in running the ball. I mean, there were a couple of times last night that we had some called runs that were supposed to be automatic handoffs that he pulled anyway. So the headline does not need to be ‘LaNorris Sellers has gone rogue and is doing his own thing.’ That’s not what I said. But there were some plays that they were called runs to a running back, but he realized that maybe it wasn’t an ideal play because of what they were doing, and he ended up pulling it. I’ve been around coaches like that before, whatever times we had called runs that Lincoln (Riley) told the quarterback, Kyler (Murray), Jalen (Hurts), whoever that if you have to call run, but it’s not really a zone read, but if you know it’s there, you got the option to kind of do it.

“He did that a couple of times last night that resulted in some runs for us. And then certainly, he was aggressive on some passes that we had that he felt a little bit of pressure, and then he took the ball and ran and made big plays out of it. So that’s the biggest thing that I would say was the difference in last night was just his aggressiveness. I don’t know if willingness is the word, but his desire to run the ball, he did that last night, and he was going to continue to do it till the end of the game. I mean, I took him out, I told him, ‘You don’t need to take any more hits,’ because that’s just the way he plays football. But he was going to continue to compete and continue to play physical and run the ball as much as he could.”

Do you consider that he audibles at the line, or is that something he doesn’t even need to tell the offensive line, like he can read the defense and make a decision?

“Just kind of read the defense and make the decision. Don’t get me wrong, we have called some reads, whatever you want to call it. We certainly have plenty of it. We had those last night, but then we also had some runs where he just knew it probably wasn’t a great look to run the ball into. He just kind of made a decision on his own that was the right decision and got positive yardage out of it.”

How do you think Fred Johnson has played so far this year? And Nick Sharpe, is he healthy or just behind some other guys?

“I think Fred has played really well. He’s active, he’s athletic. One thing I love about our defense is just our linebackers’ ability to rush the passer. They’re added pass rush guys for us. You watch (Justin Okoronkwo), you watch Shawn Murphy, you watch Fred, they missed a couple sacks last night where we brought them all pressures, and they were one-on-one, and they beat the running back, and it should have been a sack, but the quarterback slipped out of there, and we missed it. We’ve got to collect those sacks for sure, but they do a nice job. Fred’s a guy who just continues to get better and better each week with experience; he’s still very young as a linebacker, as you know. I mean, this is a guy who was basically playing wide receiver and tight end most of the time in high school, and he continues to get more and more comfortable out there. Thought he did some really good things last night, and will continue to get better.

“Nick is behind some other guys right now. Nick is somebody who is a good player, and we have high hopes for. He had an injury coming out of spring practice that kind of got him behind a little bit. He’s not hurt anymore. He was more involved last week in practice and did some good things. He’s somebody we want to continue to bring along, who we want to be able to help us. But right now we’ve got some other guys that we feel like give us a better opportunity to be successful right now.”

It seems like the freshman wide receivers, especially, have brought a lot of young energy. Could you give us more of what you’re seeing every day, and the fact that you know that there are young guys on the field who are fearless, and how that’ll help with the gauntlet that you guys have coming up in October?

“Really like this freshman class that we have, and you’re exactly right. You see it that we’re playing a lot of freshmen. You see it at the receiver position with those guys. They did a good job last night and continue to get better. And then there are other ones that you didn’t see last night, Malik Clark and Jayden sellers and Jordan Gidron, that continue to get better, Lex Cyrus. That receiving class is really good. Matthew Fuller, I know he’s not a true freshman, but he’s still young, and the energy that he brings, and Mike Tyler is really doing some good things for us on special teams. And like I said, he was the scout team offensive player of the week. He continues to get better.

“And you saw Anthony Addison playing some defense last night. Donovan Darden was playing more special teams. Jaquel Holman did a great job on that kickoff return. Damarcus Leach, just playing corner, those guys. Kendall Daniels was on more special teams last night. So those guys do bring great energy. And they’re freshmen, and you want to pull your hair out sometimes on some of the things they do, but they do have youthful energy and a competitive spirit that continues to mature. They’re continuing to realize that this isn’t high school, where some Friday nights you can just show up and you’re going to beat the other team by 40. It’s hard to win games at this level. And they’re realizing just how much goes into winning, and those guys continue to get better.”

How’s Travian Robertson been doing?

“He’s been in practice the last two Wednesdays, not at practice, well, at practice, but not on the field. He’s been at practice with headphones on, sitting up on the balcony overlooking the practice fields from the assistant coaches’ offices. So he’s been out there the last two Wednesdays. We’re texting with him and talking with him regularly, and he continues to get better and is still involved. And I know he’s looking forward to being back here with this full speed as soon as possible.”

Does he help with scouting reports or anything like that, breaking down film, and passing along notes, or what does that look like?

“Not really. We want him to do what he’s comfortable doing. I mean, as soon as the accident happened, I talked with Joe Lisle from video and Clayton and Clint Haggard, our trainer, about when he feels able to, let’s get him the technology that he needs to be as involved as he feels comfortable being. So yes and no. Jordan Dove is coaching the D-line. Travian’s involved to a certain degree. He has an iPad that has all the video on there, and he can interject as much as he wants. But our priority, and his priority certainly, is getting healthy. But I know he’s still involved, and misses being out there with us, and wants to help in any way that he can currently.”

Going back to the recruiting stuff you were talking about for later on in the week, how important is it for you guys to be able to get out and do that?

“Yeah, that’s great. Obviously, when you have a win like that, and we had a lot of recruits here last night, we thank our fans. I had a friend from Atlanta that was here last night, and his daughter is a senior in high school, and they’ve been going around the different colleges in the ACC and SCC, and he told me, he’s been to football games and a lot of the schools that we recruit against. He named all of them and said, ‘That the environment in that stadium last night blows the doors off of anywhere that I’ve ever been with my daughter,’ and he’s exactly right. And he said that’s got to have an amazing impact on recruits, and it does. The ones that were there last night, that’s all they could talk about before the game was just the electricity in the stadium and the Gamecock Walk. So our fans are amazing. The energy they created at Williams-Brice is a huge advantage for us. We have momentum now, going on the road after a win. There’s a lot of excitement.

“The recruiting class that we have right now is going great. The ’27 class, we’re off to a great start with them, and it’s great to be able to get on the road. Our assistant coaches are out on those Fridays. And we had, I think, five coaches that were at high school games in South Carolina on Friday night a couple of nights ago, but I’m not able to get out on the road during the week because I’m with the team at the hotel on Friday nights. So it’ll be great to be able to get out on the road recruiting this week. I think I’ll be in five states on Thursday and Friday, recruiting and trying to see a lot of guys. As a head coach, you’re limited because the month of December is now a dead period, so you’re limited on how many times you can go out recruiting. So really, for a head coach, it’s the month of January and the off weeks. Some head coaches use the off week to not recruit and rest up, and that’s their prerogative, but I like to get out on the road, so I’m looking forward to being in high schools and being at some high school games this week.”

What do you think about December being a dead period? Is that easier for you all to navigate? Or do you feel like it would be beneficial to them?

“I mean, I think it’d be nice to be able to get out on the road, but I think it’s the right thing for it to be a dead period. There’s just so much going on in the month of December. I mean, I think I told the story to you guys. There was a day last January, or last December, when we had a bowl practice, and our offensive coordinator at the time wasn’t there because he had just taken the head coaching job at another school. I think we were hosting, I think Justice Haynes was here that day, the running back that ended up going to Michigan. I think Gabe Brownlow-Dindy was here that day on a visit. We had a high school recruit who was here on a visit. We had a couple of our current players who were missing because they decided not to play in the bowl game, and they had already opted out. It was just like a snapshot of what college football is like in 2020, I guess it would have been 2024 at the time, with all these different aspects or dynamics going on at practice.

“So I think it’s nice that you can focus on your team. You’re not hosting transfers. Guys aren’t entering the portal as soon as the season is over, because the portal doesn’t open till January. So I think it’s a positive for sure. I mean, I’m glad it’s what we as coaches wanted, and I think it’s the right thing to do for your current team, which is our priority in the month of December. And signing day will have already happened, because it’s early in December, so that’s behind you, and what you don’t get is home visits. I mean, two Decembers ago, I think I was in 20 homes of our prospects, the guys that are out there playing for us right now. I was in like 20 homes in a two and a half week span. Well, now they all sign in December, and they come to school in January, so the days of home visits are likely over for head coaches, at least. So that’s a different aspect of it, but it all evens out.”

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