Everything Shane Beamer said during his Sunday teleconference following Missouri loss

One day after South Carolina’s 29-20 loss to Missouri, head coach Shane Beamer spoke to the media in his weekly Sunday teleconference. Here’s everything he had to say.

Opening statement

“Looking back at last night, offensively, felt like Dre Jacobs played well enough for us to win. Brandon Cisse was one of the standouts on defense, and then William Joyce on special teams. Disappointing night to say the least. I thought offensively to not turn the ball over was really good. Got to continue to protect the ball, and that was nice not to be able to not do that on the road in the SEC. Passing wise, we had six explosive passes in the passing game. We got to continue to build on that, which hopefully will open up the run even more. But when you fail to run the ball like we did, and then have the penalties like you had, that’s not an ingredient to have success. Defensively, we did a nice job not allowing a touchdown on the opening drive. (Missouri had) scored a touchdown on every opening drive this year. That was a good start for us. We forced field goals in the red zone. Think they were down there six times, and three of them we held on the field goals. That was huge. Those swings, and then, you know, in the fourth quarter, when we’re in, essentially get the ball back mode, meaning they’re winning and trying to run out the clock. Essentially, we were able to get the ball back for our offense with six minutes left in the fourth quarter, and I truly felt we were going to go down the field and win the game. So, pretty good job by our defense giving us an opportunity to do that.

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“Defensively, we didn’t tackle well, to say the least, against that back. You’ve got to get all 11 hats to the ball, and we didn’t do a great job of it, and we didn’t create enough negative plays, tackles for losses, sacks. And then their plan of attack was, like a lot of teams have been this year, is not to hang on the ball very long, catch it, and get rid of it and run the ball. And when they’re able to run the ball for close to 300 yards, you’re not going to get them in very many passing situations. And then special teams did some good things, but way too many missed opportunities. The opening kickoff to Nyck Harbor really had a great opportunity to be a touchdown. The roughing the punter, running into the punter, had a great chance to be a blocked punt. Just some missed opportunities on special teams. The punt return that Vicari (Swain) had, the guy that made the tackle on it is the guy that we were double-teaming, and that’s really disappointing when the guy you have two people on is the person that’s able to make the tackle.

“So we’ve got to get right back to work, which is what we’ve done today. Losing is agonizing, obviously, when you put the time that we put into it each and every week, players and coaches and the hours here in this facility, preparing for four quarters on a Saturday night, and then it doesn’t go your way. It’s a gut punch, and it’s agonizing, but it’s right back to work, and that’s what we signed up for. We’re the people in the arena, and no one feels worse than we do about it, and we’ve got to be a lot better.

“We’re a third of the way through the season. We didn’t think we’d be 2-2, but here we are. We’ll be defined on how we play these next eight games, starting with a really good opponent in Kentucky coming in here this weekend. Injury-wise, we got out of it fairly okay. I would say right now Gabe Dindy and Cason Henry are the two that we’re most concerned about, and we’ll have another update for you injury-wise on Wednesday night.”

You mentioned Tro Baugh last night, maybe aggravating an injury. Was the decision to start Nolan Hay and move Boaz Stanley to right guard made before Baugh’s injury? Or had you guys already decided to shake it up?

“It was a combination of both. Nolan did some nice things against Vanderbilt. We had a little package with him in the game and felt like he could help us, along with Boaz, with what he brings. And then Tro’s health was a factor as well. So, a combination of all that.”

When you look at the missed tackles last night, how much of it is technique, just simply whiffing on the tackle, effort, etc.? What all can you attribute the missed tackles to?

“I’d say it’s more just, you know, a couple of long runs where I think guys assume that the tackle had been made. We have a saying around here, ‘Nothing slows you down on the field, but the whistle.’ And there were some instances last night where we slowed down before the whistle, because we had guys that disappeared, you know, guys that just thought he was down and he wasn’t. And we knew that going into it, (Ahmad Hardy is) a guy that breaks a lot of tackles. You see it on tape week in, week out. So certainly we’ve got to get 11 hats to the ball and be better from that standpoint.

“There’s certainly some technique issues where we don’t wrap or we don’t run our feet on contact, which is what you’ve got to do against that guy. And then certainly some where we’re supposed to be boxing a run, meaning taking on a blocker and turning it back inside, but we spill it, meaning we make it bounce outside and to somebody that’s not there, or to somebody that’s not in a great position to, you know, make a tackle because of the leverage we fit it with. So a combination of those. But really, it was just that we needed to gang tackle more consistently than what we did last night.”

What do you attribute the -9 rushing yards to?

“A little bit of everything. I wish you could pinpoint it to one thing. Sometimes it’s perimeter blocking. Sometimes it’s like I just mentioned, defensively, you know, boxing it when you should be spilling it and vice versa. From an offensive standpoint, having your head outside on a counter play when it should be inside, because the play is designed to go in the A gap, north, south. Give (Missouri) a little bit of credit, too. I mean, (Josiah Trotter) is a really good player that they spent a lot of money on in the portal to get him there, and he was hard to block. I mean, there were times where he just recognized the play and got to the ball carrier before we could get there for sure. And so again, teams are going to load the box and make us throw. And we did that last night. Like I said, we threw the ball successfully. And you would hope that would open up the run game, but we didn’t do it consistently enough. Talked to the staff about it today, got to take a step back and really look at everything. And that doesn’t mean blow stuff up, but it means, you know, really, there’s a four-game body of work right now of evidence that we’re not anywhere close to where we need to be, and it’s our responsibility as coaches to get it right.”

You ended up playing some of the reserve safeties a lot more yesterday. What did you see from them, and what were they able to give you?

“They did a nice job when DQ (Smith) was not able to go. The next two up were David Bucey and Gerald Kilgore. They played a lot for us last year on special teams, so they had experience playing, and they did some good things. They didn’t expect to play as much as they did. And we ran out of the tunnel to take the field, and DQ was unable to play. So they went from not even knowing if they’re going to be playing defense to starting in a span of about five seconds. But I thought they came in, they’re both smart young men, they’re both tough, they’re both dependable, and they did a nice job for us flying around to the ball. GK obviously had the interception.

“David’s a tough, physical football player. You go back to the kickoff against Alabama last year, we went down there and knocked the ball loose on kickoff coverage over in Tuscaloosa. He’s a tough kid who is competitive and a really good player and will continue to get better. And it’s good to see those guys in there. We’ve been rotating them in there a little bit this season already. I mean, they’ve played, I believe, safety in every game. Just trying to keep DQ and Peyton (Williams) fresh. But there’s great competition in that room, and those two guys continue to get better. And Chris Hatfield, a young freshman for us, Kendall Daniels, a young freshman for us, there’s a lot of competition in that safety room, and those two you just asked about, plus some of those freshmen, they can continue to push the ones that are getting the majority of the playing time right now.”

What happened on the first and goal sack with Rahsul Faison? It looked like he was supposed to pick up a defender, but he looked like he kind of just fell to the ground and didn’t really. Maybe he was going for his legs, but wanted to get your thoughts on that. And then if Faison’s able to pick up that block, how much of a difference does that make? LaNorris Sellers needed to probably throw that ball away, but does that make the play set up for success if Faison was able to get that block?

“Yeah, there’s no doubt. There’s a combination of things. The detail of one of the routes wasn’t quite what we wanted, so we’ve got to coach that better. Just the technique on how we ran one of the routes that caused a little bit of, allowed them to fall into the coverage, probably a little bit better than they should have, because of the detail of one of our routes. And on that one, it’s a full slide protection. That means the first person outside the tackle, the offensive tackle, is going to be the back’s responsibility. And a lot of teams there, they cut that player, big cut, meaning go below his waist, because you typically don’t want the running back blocking a defensive end. So most teams, if you watch them run that, they’re going to cut the defensive end, which is what ‘Sul was trying to do, which I’m fine with, but we didn’t do it with quite the right technique. When you do that, you want to go more through his thigh to not allow him to have penetration. But certainly that guy was not supposed to be in LaNorris’ face. And LaNorris knows. I mean, when that happens, it’s not there; they did a nice job, get rid of it, and you’ve got three more downs to get it in the end zone. But again, the combination of the route details and not getting that guy blocked caused that guy to be in his face, and you saw the result.”

You mentioned perimeter blocking. Is there one issue there that is standing out about why you guys just can’t get those edges set consistently?

“I think we’ve had our moments this year on the perimeter. Last night wasn’t great. The third down where we ran the quarterback over on our sideline in the fourth quarter, we didn’t block either defender out there. I think the first play of the game was a screen, but we came back on the second or third play, and we threw the little pass out to their sideline, and we just didn’t get the guy blocked. A lot of those, I mean, not to make excuses, they’re young receivers. They’re not freshmen anymore, but they probably didn’t do much, a ton of perimeter blocking against SEC defensive backs. I know SEC defensive backs, obviously, but they didn’t do a lot of perimeter blocking, probably in high school, and it’s something that we worked the crap out of in practice. I mean, we do a period of just perimeter blocking against the defense, offense versus defense, every Tuesday in practice, and have since I’ve been the head coach. I thought they, at times, tried to with more intent last night and tried to be physical. But there’s a technique aspect of it, and we’ve got to be better.”

Is there some benefit of doing some things differently, rattling the cage, so to speak, when there are some of the same problems consistently over the course of a few games?

“Yeah, I think every week, like we talked about this in the team meeting, when I’m on these calls with you guys, and I’m in postgame press conferences, I’m going to have our guys backs, and I’m the head coach and paid to stand up there and be responsible, and I’m going to defend our players and have their backs. But there’s also what happens in this building behind closed doors, and accountability is a core value of this program, and we hold one another accountable. And there was a lot on that tape last night that was not good and was not football that we’re proud of on all three phases. And it’s on me to correct that. Each team is different, each week is different. But there’s no coming in here on Sunday and patting everybody on the back and ‘Hey, good job guys.’ We went on the road, and we were a two-touchdown underdog, and we had a chance to win it. There’s none of that today. It’s a sick feeling today, and our guys are well aware of what the standard is here. And our guys are well aware of my feelings about where we are right now.”

I only counted four times where LaNorris threw the ball outside of the pocket. Was there something Missouri’s defense was doing to keep him from going into a bootleg or rolling out or shifting the protection, or is that just something that you guys just don’t do a ton of?

“I think every week the plan of attack is different, but you know, certainly LaNorris is good when he gets out of the pocket, and he’s good when you get him on the move. But when he goes 18-for-28 and throws for 302 yards, I’d say he’s doing some pretty good stuff from inside the pocket as well.”

What’s the biggest issue with the penalties right now, specifically the pre-snap penalties that continue to happen? I know some of the guys were talking about how the noise affects things and it’s hard to hear. But in your opinion, what can you point to as the reason all these penalties continue to happen?

“I mean, certainly the noise is an aspect of it. In 2022, Texas A&M came here and had whatever it was, seven false starts because they couldn’t hear. No disrespect to the crowd last night in Missouri, but it’s going to be a hell of a lot louder in Baton Rouge, College Station, and Oxford, Mississippi, when we go there the rest of the season. So we better not be leaning on the crutch of crowd noise, because that’s what the SEC is, and it’s only going to get louder from here on out. I wish I had a better answer for you. I mean, it continues to happen, and it can’t. There are some where the crowd is loud, and we know the D-lines coming after us, and we jump before we’re ready. We had a pre-snap penalty on a punt because the snapper couldn’t hear the personal protector making the calls back there and couldn’t see him signal, because the personal protector got lined up a little too far out of his vision.

“There were a couple of times where the receivers are out wide and they’re trying to get lined up, and LaNorris has got to give those guys time to get set before he motions them. And they’ve got to have the urgency to get out there and get their butt set. We lined up offsides at defensive back one time. It’s a host of things; it’s way too many. I’m not one of those guys who sits there and says, ‘Okay, if you have the fewest penalties, you’re automatically going to win the game.’ I mean, penalties are going to happen. There were some of them last night. There was some on us. But the pre-snap penalties are the ones that just are the ultimate kick in the you know what, and that’s what we’re having too many of. I mean, we emphasize it, we show videos of the penalties every Sunday and talk about them, teach them, try and learn from them every single week after. Clearly, that’s not getting through, so we’ve got to find other methods of trying to get that cleaned up.”

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