Everything Shane Beamer said previewing South Carolina's matchup with Coastal Carolina

South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer spoke to the media on Tuesday to preview the Gamecocks’ upcoming matchup with Coastal Carolina. Kickoff on Saturday is at 4:15 p.m. on SEC Network. 

Here’s everything Beamer had to say.

Opening statement

“Sorry, I’m a few minutes late. I was continuing the fight that Clayton White and I had yesterday. I didn’t whip his butt enough yesterday, so I wanted to finish it before I walked in here. I told you all Saturday after the game, social media is going to be the end of us all. There’s another example. Y’all freaking kidding me, and you guys believed it because y’all were texting coaches and staff members yesterday to ask if this was true. Sent it to my own wife and a screenshot that I had Jessica Jackson send me of this rumor, and her response was, ‘Did y’all?’ And just like I told our players, put the phone down, Emily, not everyone else, I know she’s listening. I love you, babe.

“Having said that, this is our Salute to Troops game, excited for that. What a way to honor our military. So grateful for them and the freedoms they provide for us, the sacrifices they make. It’s always one of my favorite games, being able to look up in the stands and see them. So as we told our team this morning, we need to go put on a good performance for those men and women and play well in front of them. We’re going to do senior day this week. So we should be honoring our seniors at around 3:50 p.m. Kickoff is at 4:15, so at 3:50 is when we’ll honor those seniors, and we please ask our fans to be in your seats early and give those guys the recognition and honor that they deserve. There’s some special young men in that group that have given a lot to Gamecock football, some guys that were here before I even got hired as the head coach, that have now been here for five seasons with me alone, plus one with Coach (Will) Muschamp. So want to honor those guys. They’ve given so much to the University of South Carolina. They love being Gamecocks and and I would really hope that our fans will be in their seats early to show appreciation for those seniors that will be participating on Saturday.

“And then we need to go play well against a really good coastal team. Coach (Tim) Beck’s done an awesome job. They’re hot. They had a loss the other night when they had an injury at the quarterback position, but still had a chance to win. At the end of the game, they scored 40 points or more in what, four straight games, I believe, they were on a four-game winning streak before they got beat the other night. Playing some really good football, had some nice wins throughout the month of October. So there’s certainly a team that’s gotten better as the year has gone on. They present some problems defensively. They’ve got good personnel. The scheme is a little bit different than what we see week in week out in this conference. So we’ve got to do a great job of putting together a plan to go attack a defensive structure that’s a little bit different, and they’re very talented on the defensive side of the ball. Offensively, they’re running the heck out of the football. They’ve used three quarterbacks this year. All three quarterbacks are a threat with their legs. They’re really deep at receiver. Play a lot of guys at the receiver position, are talented at the running back position, and they have size on the offensive line, and they present a lot of problems from a schematic standpoint. Hence, the fact that they’ve scored 40 or more in multiple games here in a row. And then special teams, we better be on point. This week, the game against App State changed on an onside kick that they surprised them on. They’ve got fake punts in their past. They returned a kickoff for a touchdown the other night. So they present a lot of problems on defense, too. So we need to have a great week of preparation. Prepare well and get ready to go play a great game on Saturday.

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“I know it’ll be a great environment in Williams-Brice Stadium. I get it. Nobody’s happy about where we are from a record standpoint, but I know how great our fan base is, and I know that they’ll savor the opportunity to be back in Williams-Brice Stadium for two more opportunities in 2025 to be together as a fan base and finish this season the right way, because it’ll be September before we’re in there again. So excited about the opportunity to get back and get back home and play in our stadium. It’s been a while. Starts this Saturday.”

How has the mood been amongst the team the last few days since College Station, with everyone processing missing a bowl game and just the disappointment that comes with that? And what’s kind of been your message to the guys with two weeks to go?

“Yeah, I’ve been proud of them. I think early on Saturday, in the aftermath, that was a quiet plane ride home, as you can imagine. That was a quiet Sunday in meetings. I think there was very much a sense of ‘What just happened?’ I think we all feel that way. And then you look at the tape on Sunday and you’re really able to dive into it. Let’s give A&M some credit for the way that their quarterback and their team played in the second half. Simply did not play well enough or coach well enough in the second half, so we watched that tape on Saturday, but like always, and I know people don’t want to hear it, and I really don’t care, we went out on Sunday night and we had an awesome practice, and our guys responded just like I knew that we would respond, because as we talked about as a team in our team meeting on Sunday, our foundation is really strong. Our foundation is really powerful. Our culture is really strong. Our culture is really powerful. And that has been on display week in, week out, because if you don’t have that, we’re not in the competitive games like we’ve been in throughout the season. And I get it, I’m not in the moral victories. I’m not into how hard we play. We’re into winning football games, and we haven’t done it. I fully understand that, but I told our players Sunday night, I knew they would respond that way.

“We had a spirited practice, energetic practice. We always do a young guys scrimmage at the end of practice on Sunday nights, where the young guys that don’t play, they haven’t played as much, they get out there and play. We let the players, they’re basically the coaches. So I love seeing DQ Smith and Gerald Kilgore put on headphones, and they’re calling the defense during the scrimmage and going at it and supporting their teammates. And then yesterday was the off day, and then we came back in here this morning, had a really energetic and strong, powerful practice today, so they responded like I knew they would. Disappointed, no question about it, sad in a lot of ways, because we’ve only got 11 days left with this group, and no one’s happy about that, but very motivated to go finish this thing out the right way, and have an opportunity to, once again, put what we’re about on display Saturday. Because I know the narrative is, you know, I’m sure it’s ‘How is South Carolina going to come back from this? How will South Carolina respond?’ And we get an opportunity on Saturday to show that.”

How are Nyck Harbor and Brandon Cisse doing from an injury standpoint?

“They’re progressing. Cisse was full go today in practice. Nyck’s better than what he was a couple days ago. Jalewis Solomon missed the game the other day with an injury. He’s trending in the right direction, I would say, on those guys.”

Fans are fans. Social media, as you mentioned, is what it is, but is it possible to ignore all of the noise?

“If I don’t look at my phone, it is, which I’ve tried to do a great job of doing. Other than I’ve checked some NFL scores on Sunday, and I like reading Cole Cubelic’s takeaways each week. I think he does a pretty good job and kind of an understanding of what’s going on in the SEC. So I did click on it to look at that. I’ll be honest with you, the rumor that started yesterday about Clayton and I. I had no idea. I walked into the staff room yesterday at four o’clock, and everybody’s kind of looking at me funny and looking at me. Clayton sits next to me. I could just sense there was something in the air, and they informed me what was out there on social media about that. But yeah, I feel like I can, because my responsibility is to the coaches and the players and the staff in this building, and being the best version of myself for them to allow us to go be the best version of ourselves on Saturday.

“Typing in my name on social media is not going to do a lot of good. I know that win or lose. So for me, yeah, really, I can. Now, when this thing’s going off and I’m getting the, you know, praying for you, stay strong, all those text messages, it’s pretty good. I have an idea of what the narrative may be out there, and that’s okay. I love it. I love being in the SEC, and you have passionate fans that expect better, and we’re going to deliver them, deliver better here going forward. Easier said for me than it is for the players, because the players there, we just finished practice, and now they’re off to class, and we don’t see them again until tomorrow morning. So it’s easier said for me than for them. But it’s just part of it, and social media is a different aspect of it that coaches didn’t have to deal with 20 years ago, and it’s a different thing now. Everybody’s got a voice, and everybody gets clicks by being negative, and I understand that, but also know that there’s perception and then there’s reality and and I try and focus on the reality of what the mindset is in this building, and trying to help these men and women be better.”

When you have a season like this one, where the goals you had in the preseason come off the table, do you have to modify your motivating message or your technique, or even the tone?

“I don’t think so. We didn’t talk at the beginning of the season about the playoffs. I think that was an unspoken understanding that that’s what this team wanted to do, and it disappointed that it hasn’t happened. I certainly understand that. But each week, our goal is to go compete and be the best version of ourselves on that Saturday, and that’s what we’re trying to do again this week. Yeah, the playoffs were off the table, now bowl eligibility is off the table, and it sucks. I mean, it is what it is. It’s sickening. But like I told the team this morning, we still get an opportunity to go compete two more times together as a team, and I’d really be sick if last Saturday had been the last game, and now I’ve got to sit around for 10 months waiting to go play again. We get to go compete in front of the greatest fan base in America on Saturday, and that’s the message is senior day. You just send these guys out the right way. We get an opportunity to go compete.

“There’s a standard that we play with every single Saturday. We talked about last week before the game, at halftime, the scoreboard is irrelevant. Just go compete and go dominate. And that’s the way that we did things in the first half, and then we talked about it at halftime, and we didn’t do it in the second half in regards to how we played. But it’s the same thing this week. The record is what it is, but the opportunity to go compete that hasn’t changed and won’t. Also, understanding too that we’re all sick and we don’t want to feel this feeling again. And I realized that one year ago, we were sitting here tonight getting ready to play Wofford, and we’re all dialed into the playoff rankings to see where we’re ranked, and we’re not there right now, but I do know next year at this time, we’re going to be sitting here next year on this Tuesday night watching the playoff rankings to see where we are in the ranking show, and we’re going to be firmly in the mix for a College Football Playoff berth next year at this time. We’re all sick about this feeling, but we’re not going to go through this thing again. We’re going to go finish this season out the right way, send these guys out the right way, and then the minute that thing hits zero, hits zero on the clock after the Thanksgiving weekend game, we’re full speed ahead on 2026.”

How much have you seen the players that have been here through the rough times and have gotten to the other side of it, just get the younger guys through a season like this?

“I think they’ve done a great job. All of you know that we don’t have many seniors. When we announced that group on Saturday, I think there’s 20-something guys, but when you look at the number of guys that are starting necessarily on offense and defense, there’s really not a lot offensively and defensively. So those guys, there’s a lot of older guys that have been invested a lot into this program. Bradley Dunn has been here for a long time, and no, he’s not a starter on this team, but he is a valuable, critical member of this team, and I feel like he’s been a fantastic leader for this team this year and having perspective and being able to share with those guys, and even though you may not start him on offense or defense or whatnot, he’s playing on special teams. For us, you can really pour into your teammates and help them through the struggles from this season to help us be better. Going forward, we’ve got a lot of guys like that, but I hate it for them, and that’s what breaks my heart, is they sit in the front row of the team meeting room in the team meeting next door. It hurts me that this is how their last year is going, because we all wanted to send them out better than this, and it stinks that we’re going through this. But as I told them the other day, the whole team, we’re going to be stronger for it. We’ll be stronger as a team next season because of this, because we don’t want to feel this feeling again, and then the guys that don’t, that aren’t coming back, God has a plan. I don’t know why we have gone through this. Yes, there’s a football standpoint that we can fix. Here’s why we went through it. But just big picture wise, I hate that they’re going through it, but I do know that they’ll be stronger as human beings and going into life after their playing days are over because of this experience, for sure. I’m really proud of them and how they’ve handled it because if anybody had the right, if you will, to go out on the practice field and be a bunch of sad boys, it’s that senior class. And it’s been the complete opposite. They’ve been awesome, and I knew they would be.”

Where do you think you guys have kind of fallen short in the fourth quarter struggles? In your experience coaching, what makes a good fourth-quarter team?

“I think all that stuff, to me, starts in the offseason, January, February, all the things you’re doing in the wintertime, in the summertime, you’re building that mental toughness, that physical toughness for the fourth quarter, especially in this league where it’s going to be a dog fight every single week. It starts with the from a physical standpoint, making sure that you’re fresh mentally and physically as you get into the fourth quarter, that your bodies are in position to go be at your best, and that’s with the preparation that you have during the week, how you’re taking care of your body, and then during the game, talk about it with our coaches on Saturday, it’s 80 degrees out in Texas. We got to play our players and keep them fresh so we’re fresh and at our best as we go into the fourth quarter. So all of that is really important, and then when you get into it, I think everything is magnified. Got to make plays, and we got to execute. And that falls back on us as coaches. It starts with us in regards to putting our players in position to execute. But then, whether it be, you know, A&M, Ole Miss, Alabama, LSU, all games in the fourth quarter that we had opportunities to win and we didn’t get it done, there were plays where, just frankly, we didn’t execute. The little touchdown pass to the running back out of the backfield against Alabama, we didn’t execute. Some of the two long touchdown passes that they had in the fourth quarter, we didn’t execute. Some plays that we missed in the passing game on offense, we didn’t execute. And this ain’t me sitting here blaming the players, ‘Oh, they didn’t do their jobs.’ I’m not saying that at all. It falls back on me, and it falls back on us as coaches.

“But I think everything is magnified in the fourth quarter, and that’s why I was three minutes late. I wasn’t fighting Clayton. I was meeting with our leadership group, and that’s what we were talking about. It’s just, you know, in the fourth quarter, we got to make plays, and it’s you guys, particularly in this room, this leadership group has got to go lead us and make plays. And I’m not saying they didn’t, a lot of those guys made a lot of great plays on Saturday. We just got to make more of them. And as coaches, we’ve got to, in crunch moments like that, we’ve got to do a better job of putting our players in position to make those plays and coaching them up throughout the week, so when those times come, we make them. That’ll be certainly something, I mean, we always do it in the offseason, in regards to the weight room the offseason program, but, yeah, that’ll be a big point of emphasis next year as we go into the season, in regards to continuing to put our players in even more adverse situations where they got to communicate and be detailed at the end of weight room workouts, winter workouts, all that stuff like we do in the offseason.”

What have you seen from your leaders as a whole through adversity, and who have those leaders been?

“I think those guys have done a great job of being consistent and helping our guys through this, and staying even-keeled and poised, and just leading the way from a work ethic standpoint, and coming to work every day in this building with the right mindset. And it’s a lot of them, a lot of those guys that will be walking through Senior Day ceremonies on Saturday, a good bit of that group, and then some really good, talented, you know, younger players that have stepped up in roles. I’m sure you pay attention to who our captains are each and every week. That’s a pretty good example of who we feel like the leaders have been on the team each year or each week.”

You mentioned a lot about the goals for 2026. What needs to happen between now and mid-January to be able to put yourself in a position to reach those goals?

“Well, one and I get it, no one wants to hear it, I don’t care. We’re not far away. I think when you show when we’ve had the fourth quarters, we haven’t been getting out, to use a Coach (Shane) Spurrier term, getting clobbered every week. We’ve had a chance to win literally every game this season, and we haven’t gotten it done. So in my mind, it’s very much that we’ve made a lot of progress in the five years that I’ve been here, and this year is absolutely not what we want, but we’ve done a lot of things for the very first time in our four years here. We’ve made progress. We’ve elevated this program from when I got here. In so many ways, the hardest step is now the next step to take, where you’ve made progress, you’re on the verge of the College Football Playoff last season, we’re two points away from being in it, and then the hardest step, in so many ways, is that next step to get there. And we didn’t take that step this year. But it’s not like we didn’t take that step and we just came crashing back to Earth, and now we have to dig our way all the way back up. We’re right there.

“So what has to happen? Obviously, there’s some coaching hires that have to happen, and that’ll happen as soon as possible after the Clemson game. That’s the first part, getting the staff in order, in regards to how it’s structured going into 2026, that has to happen. We’ve got to be able to close out this recruiting class that we’ve got committed right now, which those guys have been awesome. Some of the first text messages I got after the game on Saturday were from those recruits that with awesome messages, so grateful for them. And as I’ve told them, they’ve got a chance to impact our program the moment they walk in this building, not because of the kind of players they are, but the people they are, too. We’ve got to be able to get our current roster in order as we go into 2026. Some guys have NFL decisions to make. Guys have other decisions to make. We’ve got to be able to retain that, and my conversations have been good with guys. Frankly, there’ll be some guys, I’m sure, that don’t want to be a part of this going forward. And that’s okay too. We’ll cross that bridge if somebody decides to move on for another opportunity to go play somewhere else. And then the portal opens in January, and I don’t think we need to go out there. I had this conversation with one of our starters on defense last week, one of our key players that will come back next year. We talked about the portal in some ways, and he said it, he’s like, ‘We don’t need a lot in regards to the portal.’ It’s not like we need to go outside 40 portal guys and flip this roster. We don’t. That game on Saturday, we were about two or three plays away from winning that and we’ve got the people in our program to do it, and then we’ve got to be able to go out and have some other people from the outside in the portal to be those 2-3-4 difference makers, whether it be on the line of scrimmage or whether it be skilled positions, whatever it may be and strengthen what I think is already a solid roster going into 2026. And then you got to look back and you know, I just can’t sit here as the head coach and say, okay, the season’s finished up with whatever record it finishes up with, and we’re going to add a few more players, and we’ll be a year older, and everything’s good. No, I mean, there’s other changes you have to make in regards to looking at things. But I’m also not going to just, you know, say that last year meant nothing, when we went 9-3 and won six games in a row and almost got in the playoffs, to think that everything worked. Okay, then it doesn’t work. Now we just blow everything up. That’s not the case, but we always use the term around here, course correct. And we got off course a little bit with some different things this year, and it’s my job as the head coach to get us back on course, and that’s what we’re going to do, whether it be tweaks to the schedule or tweaks to some things that we train, tweaks to be better in the fourth quarter, tweaks to be better in September than we have been. All that you look at that.

“It really, really, really stinks not being in a bowl game in December. But I’ll be able, you know, we play Clemson, and then I think the last day of class is the following Friday, and then our players got exams, and they’re not really in the building. So it gives me and our coaching staff, really, the month of December to, it’s a dead period, so we can’t go recruit. And last year, transfers could come visit. They can’t come visit this year because it’s a dead period. So it really gives you a whole month of December to, really, I don’t wanna say get a head start, because I want to be playing, but in so many ways, really dive into how we can be better. And those are things that I’m already doing right now myself, but to be able to include the staff and get hard to work on it, this ain’t going to be one of those ‘Alright, the season’s over. Let’s just go to the beach and kick our feet up till January, and let’s get ready to go.’ Bull crap. I mean, we’re gonna finish the Clemson game, and then we’re immediately to work on 2026.”

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Following up on what you’re saying earlier about perception versus reality, aside from the culture stuff and being in the close games, like you said, are there any other realities that you feel like are maybe necessarily talk about or obvious to the folks on the outside?

“No, because I feel like anything that I say, perception reality, it may sound like an excuse. And in regards to this season, I think it’s just the head coach, if that’s what you’re asking. I look at the reasons that we are where we are right now. And there’s certainly things that are fixable, that I will fix, and you realize how close we truly are in a lot of ways. It’s an adjustment here, an adjustment there, an addition here, subtraction there, whatever it may be, but when I say perception versus reality, I get it everything on the outside is negative, negative, negative. Everybody sucks, I’m sure. But I look at the body of work, and nobody’s patting ourselves on the back because we’re of where we are right now. But I do believe there’s a reality of we’re not that far away, and I truly believe that I know that our players know that, and that’s why the conversations that I’ve had with the players on our team in regards to their futures, and guys that have decisions on whether or not they want to come back next season, have been overwhelmingly positive. I get it. Portal doesn’t open until January, but I think if the culture wasn’t strong and the reality was what people maybe perceive it to be on the outside, we wouldn’t have the positive things that are going on in this building, and there’s a lot of them. So that’s what I meant by that.”

With these last two games and no bowl game after that, how do you balance getting those seniors as many touches as possible versus getting some of the younger guys kind of…

“I’m trying to win the game. Period. So we’re not into you’re a senior, and let’s get you some carries and some catches. We’ve got a big challenge this Saturday against Coastal Carolina. So senior, junior, freshman, sophomore, I don’t really care what class you are. We want to honor the seniors. And the best way to honor the seniors is to go win the football game, play really well, and that’s going to be a big challenge this week against Coastal and next week against Clemson.”

What do you think about a lot of new openings across the league and across college for head coaches, coordinators?

“I mean, there’s head coaching openings when there is a staff that gets let go. Now, you’re talking about 10 coaches and additional staff members that are on the market. I’ve got to hire two coaches; I’ll be competing with other jobs that are open. I’m certainly well aware of that. So it’s a volatile profession. I know that, I see that, and we know what we signed up for. So you hate that there are that many openings. You hate to see any person lose their job. People you know, just see the coaches, but these guys are husbands and fathers and have children and wives that are affected, and families are affected. It’s a brutal business in so many ways, and you hurt for those families, but at the same time, you know you have a job to do. So that’s my job is to advance this program and help this program take the next step. And I can say this, in regards to those openings, there’s been a lot of interest in our two openings. There’s not necessarily conversations that I’m having with coaches right now, but every coach has an agent, practically, and every time I look at my phone, there’s a text or a phone call or an email from an agent that wants to talk about so-and-so, a client of his, that has an interest in coming here. So that’s good, and there’ll be a time and place for that, but I know we’ll be extremely competitive in what we have to attract someone here.”

When it comes to making this OC hire, who else has input besides you? Who do you seek out to get advice or talk to about whether this guy is a good fit? Do you maybe go to the rest of the coaches? Do you look for LaNorris Sellers’ input on it, since, after all, you are looking for someone to help develop the quarterbacks?

“I think every situation is different. I’ve been a part of some places where we had an opening on a staff, and I was an assistant coach. I mean, we had an opening on the staff, and the head coach sat everybody down and said, ‘Anybody have anybody they want to recommend? If you got a name, give me a name.’ And then we brought that person in, and the whole staff sat in on the interview and gave everyone their thoughts. I’ve been a part of a situation where there’s an opening on the staff and the head coach doesn’t tell anybody about it, and next thing you know, you’ve got a new assistant coach, and then say, ‘Welcome, Jack’ or whoever to the staff. And it was totally that guy. So I think every situation is different. There’s input that you want to get from players. I mean, when I made the decision to promote Mike (Shula) after the season, I met with LaNorris and the quarterbacks about it and got their input on, ‘What do you think about this?’

“Certainly, I’ve got awesome bosses. Dr. (Michael) Amiridis and Thad Westbrook, chairman of the board, Jeremiah Donati, and Jeff Crane. Jeff and Jeremiah, and I will certainly talk about it and have talked about it, and I’ll lean on them and kind of get their thoughts on different people as we go through this process for both positions, or any position, last year included. And then I’ll involve certain players to a certain degree. I think it’s a lot of reaching out to people outside this building, too, that maybe know a person, ‘Hey, so and so. I’m really interested in hiring David to be the offensive line coach or tight ends coach or receivers coach or running backs coach or quarterbacks coach or DB coach, or whatever you worked with him at so and so school. What do you think?’ Or maybe it’s players that I know that have been around that guy that are playing in the NFL. So I’ll be exhaustive, and it’s trying to do my due diligence on everything, but you’ve also got to be careful. I think about, hence the power of social media, when you involve too many people, and then all of a sudden somebody’s name pops out there, and you screw up a person’s candidacy because he’s got a really good job somewhere else and all that. So it’s a balancing act. There’ll be people that I’ll lean on, for sure, like any decision that I make, and I think every situation is different.”

Is there a chance that Shawn Elliott could be the offensive line coach, and then you go and look for a tight ends coach?

“Oh, yeah, absolutely. I think everything is on the table. I mean this when I say it, like my focus is entirely on, let’s do everything we can over these next two weeks to send these players out the right way and finish this season the right way. And in regards to what this staff looks like going forward, I haven’t boxed myself into anything. Whatever allows us to be at our max strength as we go into the 2026 season is what I want to do. So I’m not going into it saying anything. I think Shawn’s done an awesome job as the offensive line coach. Our guys have done a really good job in a lot of ways and made progress, and Mike (Furrey) did a great job last week in that A&M game. So I like the progress that we’re making on offense right now, at every position, and now we’ve got to keep doing that over these next two games, and then we’ll step back and take a look at it and figure out what’s best as we move forward.”

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