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

South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer spoke to the media on Tuesday to preview the Gamecocks’ Week 3 matchup with Vanderbilt. Kickoff on Saturday is at 7:45 p.m. and will be on SEC Network.

Here’s everything Beamer had to say.

Opening statement

“Looking back at last week, I know I said it already, but I want to say it again, just thanks to our fans. Looking back, I mean, what an amazing environment on Saturday night against South Carolina State to sit through that weather delay, the student section, The Cockpit, was unreal. I didn’t see those videos right after the game of how they spent the weather delay down there in the student section. That was awesome. So thanks to them and all the other fans that were there throughout. To come out of the locker room after for pregame warmups to a packed stadium was awesome, and I know our players really appreciated it on Saturday night, and we’ll need them again this Saturday as well.

“We’ve got a really good Vanderbilt team coming in here, certainly the best Vanderbilt team that we played in my time as the head coach. They’re improved from last year, brought back eight starters on defense. They’ve been in this system now for a while. They’ve got really good players on defense. Obviously, (Diego) Pavia up at quarterback makes them go. They brought back all of his top weapons. They went out in the portal and got a couple of receivers that have added an element to their offense. They seem to be more explosive in the passing game than they were last year, and three new offensive linemen that have come in from other schools as well. So they’ve made their team better. They’re already a good team that has added to it and has gotten better since last year, coming off a great win at Virginia Tech on Saturday night. They’re really good on special teams. They always are year in year out. They’ve got multiple dangerous returners. They’ve got a guy that returned a kickoff for a touchdown last year against Tennessee to open the game. They were about one tap game-saving tackle or touchdown-saving tackle away against us from last year, or last year, returning a kickoff that we made a tackle on that one about popped out of there. So we’ve got a big challenge from a special team standpoint.

“Ton of respect for Clark Lea and the job that he’s done there. They’re tough, they’re physical, they’re well coached. It’s evident when you watch tape of the challenge that they will be, but our guys are excited. They were in a hostile environment, meaning Vanderbilt last Saturday night in Blacksburg, Virginia, against Virginia Tech, and they handled it well. But we need to challenge our fans to make sure that Williams-Brice on Saturday night is even more hostile than what they faced in Blacksburg last Saturday night. We need them as well, but it should be a beautiful night for football. Primetime, SEC Network game. Looking forward to having those guys here, and it will be a fun night in Columbia. Looking forward to competing against a really good Vanderbilt team as well. So there’s one.

“On the injury front, we’re trending in the right direction. Obviously, it’s an SEC game, so we’ll have to release an injury update as the week goes on, and we’ll do that then. So I’m not going to talk about injuries today, other than just to say we’re turning in the right direction. And we’ll release the report like we do every week for SEC games when the time comes.”

Specifically with the run game, is there one glaring issue that says that’s the reason why the run game hasn’t been where it needs to be?

“I wouldn’t say there’s one glaring issue. I think it’s a host of things. We don’t seek comfort right around here by making excuses, but in the Virginia Tech game, it’s a good defense, and that’s a tough preparation because you didn’t quite know what to expect. South Carolina State, we’re starting a true freshman; we had bad field position. So those are things that I don’t want to completely just push aside and say that they weren’t a factor, because those are factors; having said that, we have to overcome that. And I wouldn’t say there’s one glaring thing. We’ve been close; we haven’t been consistent enough. Sometimes it’s different positions, and maybe a guy getting beat, which is going to happen at times. This week, hopefully, we’ll start the same five on the offensive line, health-wise, and we weren’t able to do that from Week 1 to Week 2, but we’re confident that we’ll be better this week, and today, in practice, we got off to a great start.”

What goes into stopping Diego Pavia?

“He’s a stud. You watch his tape, I mean, I’ve got so much respect for him. I got a chance to visit with him a little bit in Atlanta at SEC Media Day, because we were there at the same time, and enjoyed visiting with him and watching him play. He’s such a competitor, and I mean, there’s plays from the Virginia Tech game, he does it all. That was probably the biggest thing. He loves the moment. He loves competing. He’s got a play against Virginia Tech, where he’s sitting in the pocket on third down and delivering a throw down the field. He’s got a play against Virginia Tech where he’s got 1-on-1 coverage on the outside, and he throws it up and he hits the receiver in stride on a deep ball for a touchdown. He’s got a play against Virginia Tech where he scrambles and rolls to the right, and it comes all the way back across to the far sideline and hits his running back out in the flat on a scramble situation. He’s got a play against Virginia Tech, where he runs a quarterback draw for 20 yards. He’s got a play against Virginia Tech where he runs the option and he pitches the ball to his option guy, and then he’s the lead blocker, and he goes downfield and he tries to block the defensive back. I mean, he’s fun to watch, and I’ve got a ton of respect for him. It’s going to take all 11 on defense to control him on Saturday night, all of us flying to the ball. It starts up front, but we’ve got to do a great job on the perimeter, without a doubt, and then our offense, for sure. We’ve got to stay on the field. Virginia Tech had six plays in the third quarter the other night. Six. They went three and out, three and out, and then they didn’t see the ball again until the fourth quarter. That’s how they want to play football. So in order to control Pavia, we’ve got to do our part on offense too, to make sure that we’re staying on the field and sustaining drives.”

What has been the message to your team with SEC play starting?

“Not much. I mean, Mondays are off days. So we come in on Sundays. We play on Saturday. We had a quick turnaround Sunday, so we were back in here for meetings and practiced on Sunday. And the message then was, we need to be better in all three phases. I mean, win or lose. We come in here on Sundays, and we watch 10 to 15 plays of the night before, and show the good and the bad, and there’s good and bad in every win and loss, and there was plenty of good Saturday night, and there was plenty of not so good Saturday night. So we watched that, and I would hope that I didn’t have to make it clear. I think they already knew that Saturday night wasn’t up to our standard, whether it be offensively or whether it be how we finished the game, in some ways, on defense, and then we went out Sunday night. I thought we had a great practice, and our guys knew that it was time for us to take another step and get better this week, because we’ve got a big challenge coming in here on Saturday night. And I told them after the game in the locker room Saturday night, I knew the result of the Virginia Tech game because it was freaking one o’clock in the morning or whatever it was here. And I told them that, you know, we’re playing them. We open up SEC play. We got a team rolling in here that just ran off, I think, 34 straight points against Virginia Tech and rushed for 260 something yards against them to get their attention pretty quick, that they needed to go home, they needed to go to bed, they needed to get the rest. And let’s get back in here on Sunday and get ready to work. And that’s what we’ve done.”

On communication and the offensive line, Boaz Stanley and Cason Henry were in here earlier, just kind of talking about how it was tough to hear some of the calls on Saturday. Obviously, that wasn’t the most packed out Williams-Brice Stadium compared to what it could be on Saturday. Does that worry you at all that when Saturday comes and when you guys go to all these hostile environments, that it may be tougher for these guys to hear the calls, and how do you kind of address that? I know you guys are doing it in practice, but how do you fix that moving forward?

“Yeah, no, it’s concerning. You’re right. We’re going to be in a lot more louder environments for our offense when we’re on the field than what we were on Saturday night. So, yeah, that’s certainly concerning. I’ve talked about it; it’s a little overblown, in my opinion. There was one play that, a word, two words that sounded similar. To me, there’s no reason to get them mixed up, but we got them mixed up. So certainly, I think it starts with just everyone being louder. LaNorris (Sellers) talking louder. Boaz talking louder as the center making calls, and us as coaches looking at okay, if there are things that could be confusing, which I don’t think there are. I mean, every offense in America has a lot of terminology and words that may sound alike, but we’ve certainly got to look at it and make sure that we’re operating efficiently as an offense. And defense too, from a communication standpoint, because we got the same thing, we got a lot of words on defense that maybe sound the same. It sure as heck is going to be loud, and we don’t need one guy to think he’s doing one thing, another guy doing another. But it’s the same calls we’ve had for multiple years now that I’ve been the head coach. I don’t think it’s an issue, but certainly we don’t want to bury our heads in the sand and look the other way either.”

What’s your message to your players who are going to be going through SEC play for the first time? Does the intensity level go up automatically? And what role do the veterans have, as far as getting everyone in line?

“The message is that it ramps up another level this week, that the non-conference games are over, and the SEC is a different animal. It is. The teams in this league, and you can look at our record across the country in non-conference games this year, and I know it’s the best of any conference out there. You look at what this conference has done already against other conferences, as far as the matchups with other leagues, it’s a bear, and making sure our guys understand that it’s a long season. You’ve got to take care of your bodies. The freshmen who just got here, who had a 10-game regular season in high school, and you might be done by Halloween. We’re just getting started, and we start up this week, but we have seven more SEC games after this one.

“And then I don’t have to say a whole lot. Our leaders have made it very clear that SEC play, there’s just a different feel and a different intensity. I mean, it’s just like the you want to say, you treat them all the same, and you do. But everybody knows when it’s an SEC game, and when you’re playing a really talented SEC team, that we know what they did last season, even after we beat them. They went to LSU, I think, the next week, and that was a dog fight down in Baton Rouge. They’re tied up with Tennessee at halftime in the last game of the regular season. The bowl game, they won in pretty solid fashion against Georgia Tech, for sure. So we know we’ve got a big challenge, and certainly they understand that based on the way our team meeting was this morning at 8 a.m., just the energy in there. It just felt different. Being on the practice field today, it felt different. And as a coach, you wish it didn’t. You wish every Tuesday was the same, but certainly the level of intensity ramps up when conference play starts.”

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What’s the latest on Travian Robertson and his potential return to the team? And then also, how have things been going with Jordan Dove?

“It was good to get Travian home. I know his family was excited to have him home. I know he was excited to get out of the hospital. He’s been able to Zoom into some meetings. Joe DeCamillis has very entertaining Friday night meetings at the hotel before games. He wanted to be a part of that. He Zooms in on Friday night so he’s a part of that meeting, and the players are able to say hello to him. I was texting with him yesterday and talked to Clayton. He was able to Zoom in and be a part of the defensive staff meetings yesterday when our staff was putting together the initial game plan. He’s involved from that standpoint and getting closer to when he physically can return. I know he’s eager to get back at it, and we were all excited to see him go home at the end of last week, without a doubt.

“I think Dove’s done a great job. He has experience. He has been around the program for a while. He’s been involved with those defensive tackles for a while. He’s doing a nice job. Like I said before, Jamil Walker is in there and has really lent a helping hand and has helped that, along with all the coaching staff on the defensive side of the ball.”

I think we had a lot of the same conversations last year about the offense not getting off to the best start. But what happened after that Ole Miss game, going into Alabama and Oklahoma last year, that you guys can kind of maybe take into this year?

“I think every year is different. When I look at last year, it was the amount of football that LaNorris played against Old Dominion. That was his first start ever. He didn’t play the whole game against Kentucky. He didn’t play the whole game against LSU. He didn’t play at all against Akron. And then the first time he played a game was Ole Miss, and none of us were good enough that day, starting with me. But then we went to Tuscaloosa the next week, and you saw we almost had an opportunity to win that game at the end, and we just continued to get better. So last year, I think the biggest thing was just his experience as a quarterback and playing some pretty dang good teams early in the season. But it would be too easy to sit there and say, ‘Well, last year, we started off slow.’ We hung, I think we scored 30-plus points against Kentucky in game two, and then we were rolling pretty good offensively against LSU in game three. But certainly, he got better and gained experience as the year went on. Confident that our offense will do the same as well.

“And again, it’s early. I mean, the clock is ticking, don’t get me wrong, but we’re not as far off as people think, either. Played a lot of new players in game one, started a guy that was playing his first college game ever the other night in game two. And it hasn’t been perfect. It needs to be better. There’s no question about it. But our guys had a really good day today, and we just can continue to just keep our head down and work and improve and when it clicks, it’s really going to be good.”

What’s the process like so that the offense can be the well-oiled machine that you believe it can be?

“It’s just going back to work. I mean, every game, you learn from it. There’s good, there’s bad, there’s things we need to correct. There’s things that we need to coach better. There’s things that schematically probably weren’t great ideas in that game, whatever it may be, you always look at the previous game and then how we can improve and be better. And it’s no different. Whatever y’all are feeling right now and whatever the narrative is on the outside, it’s not that in here, guys. Our guys are confident and know how close we are, and it hasn’t been good enough. I’m not saying that at all. And we have to coach better. We have to play better, not just the offensive line, the receivers, the running backs, the tight ends, the offensive line, the quarterback, everyone. We all have to play better, starting with me. But you know, it’s offensive football, and 110 guys can do everything right. One guy can be a little bit off, and it’s a two-yard game. Every article or TV hit that y’all do, it ain’t going to be perfect, and there’s going to be mistakes that are made. And our guys have made some mistakes, and that’s why we coach is to correct it and get better and keep improving.

“And we know we need to be a lot better this week, because this is certainly the best defense we’ve played all season. And if we’re inconsistent and we’re getting beat more often than not, it’s going to be a long night, but at the same time, we also know we’re close. And we finished fourth in the SEC in rushing last year. And everybody, you know, it’d be easy to say, well, you’ve got Rocket Sanders. Okay, well, we got Rahsul Faison and Oscar Adaway, and Jawarn Howell and Bradley Dunn and Isaiah Augustave and Matthew Fuller and whoever else as well. We bring back the quarterback, and we’ve got a lot of new faces, and they’re young, and they’re going to continue to get better, and we’re working really, really hard to be better than what we were as well. But I think sometimes people forget maybe what we did in 2024 running the football, and we’re not that far off from doing that again this year too.”

What’s something about Vanderbilt that stands out that they probably do better this year in the first two games than they did last season?

“Explosive passes with their offense. I don’t know what their philosophy was last year, but it seems like they’re even more aggressive at throwing the ball down the field and being willing to take shots where Pavia lines up. And he sees 1-on-1 coverage on the outside, he’s throwing it, and those receivers have the ability to go get it. And then you look at the tight end (Eli) Stowers, number nine. I mean, he’s a weapon and certainly a guy that we need to be aware of. But that’s just what I would say. They’re a year older, they look even more confident than they did last season, and they should. They all played a lot of football last season and won a lot of games, but that’s the biggest thing that jumps out to me, just the ability to make big plays in the passing game on the outside. And they had good receivers, don’t get me wrong, but this year, they’re older, they’ve added a couple guys to it, and they seem even more willing to take those shots down the field.”

With the amount of injuries that have ramped up in the first two weeks, what are you telling those guys before they go out there? And how has the depth of the team helped?

“The depth has certainly helped. I think you’re seeing it on special teams when you’re able to play. You know a lot of people starters that are on special teams, like DQ Smith, but you know guys that aren’t starters that are playing on special teams, because, you know, you’ve got depth. We’ve got good young players as well. And when I look at it, I just, we all talk about, you know, being ready when your number’s called and everybody’s got a job to do, whether you’re the starting right guard, on the kickoff return team, or you’re the starting right guard on the offensive line, you’ve got a job to do. And then everyone has a backup, and everybody needs to be ready. It goes back to the way we practice as well. I mean, we do a lot of good on good and a lot of trying to just develop our younger players throughout the season as well. So you can get them ready. We do, you know, kickoff versus kickoff return. There may be a scout team kickoff, but they’re guys that we’re trying to get ready to play on Saturday, or they might already be playing on Saturdays, and they’re getting better that way. And we’re when they get into games on Saturdays, it’s they’ve been there in the sense that they’ve been working in practice for those moments.”

What has been clicking, from an execution standpoint, for special teams? But also, as you’re going into SEC play, what do you feel like you need to fine-tune?

“Certainly, our return game has been clicking. Vicari (Swain) is back there with a lot of confidence right now. But I’ve been pleased overall. We’ve punted the ball well, I thought. Mason (Love), I didn’t mention that the other night, but Mason did a really good job of flipping field position when we were backed up, and we didn’t get a first down offense, so we had to punt. He did a nice job of punting and flipping field position. William (Joyce), that was a great kick that he made before the half, on the two-minute drive to get points before the half. Our kickoff return team with Nyck (Harbor) back there, I feel like it’s been good. Disappointing penalty that we had the other night. So I like where we are right now, but at the same time, we know the challenge really steps up this week. These guys are good on special teams. They always have been. They’ve got dangerous returners. They’re aggressive with what they do, from coverage units, whether it be, you know, fake punts in their past, or fake field goals. And they know what they’re doing, and they put a lot of pressure on the opponent with their schemes. And being able to adjust to what they’re doing, but then still trying to stay aggressive. So we’ve got a big challenge this week, but that’s life in the SEC. And our guys are excited about it.”

You mentioned Pavia being willing to throw the ball up in those 1-on-1 situations. Is there anything you guys can do beyond just 1-on-1s and good on good, like you said?

“Play the ball better. It would be one thing if we had receivers running five yards past our defensive backs and we were just beat, then I’d really be concerned and I’d be going in there to Clayton (White) talking about we need to call some different coverages where we don’t put our defensive backs in those positions, but just like on the offensive line, sometimes guys are going to get beat. It happened against Virginia Tech more than we wanted, for sure. But when you play 1-on-1 a lot like we do, man coverage, you’re going to have those competitive catches, 50-50 balls, so we’re going to have a lot of those instances. Even the one touchdown pass the other night that South Carolina State had. We’re in position, we’ve just got to do a better job of playing the ball when it’s in the air and playing the technique that we teach when you’re in-phase with the receiver and you’ve got a chance to play the ball. Just playing it with the proper techniques. We’ve obviously got to coach that better, and we will.

And then there are certainly things, I mean, when you’re down Brandon Cisse and Judge Collier the other night, we want to be able to breathe sometimes, where it’s not always press-man, in your face man coverage,” Beamer said. “We mixed up the coverages, which I thought Clayton did a good job of the other night as well, mixing in the coverages a little bit, where they’re not always in man coverage. It’s why you come here and it’s how we play football around here, tough and aggressive on defense.”

South Carolina has a long-standing win streak against Vanderbilt. I’m sure everybody knows, but is that something that’s in the back of everyone’s mind in the facility? Or is there more of a we don’t talk about the streak type of thing?

“I don’t know if anybody knows. I don’t talk about it. Don’t think about it. I didn’t bring it up with the team. I don’t know if they know. This year has nothing to do with those previous years. I haven’t been around here for every year that we’ve played Vanderbilt, but I’d be hard-pressed to believe there’s a better Vanderbilt team that we’ve played during that streak than the one we’re getting ready to play on Saturday night. They’re good guys. They’re really good. They’re going to be a handle for a challenge for a lot of teams this year.”

Would you be surprised if Vanderbilt was aiming not to punt to Vicari Swain, and how do you think they are going to handle him returning punts?

“Knowing what I know about Clark Lea and the way they play football, they’re excited for the challenge, excited for the opportunity. They’ll do a great job in protection and kick the ball to Vicari and say, ‘We’re going to go down there and let’s see how good you guys are.’ That’s just their mentality. That’s how they play football. It’s evident on tape. And again, I don’t know what their strategy is. Certainly, when you’ve got a guy who, as a coach, when you’re playing an opponent that’s returned three punts for touchdowns in two games, you’ve got to be smart about what you’re doing. But they’ve got good specialists, good snappers, good punters, good coverage units, and I know they’re excited about the challenge, and we are too, having to go face their returners as well, who are really dynamic and dangerous back there also.”

11 tackles for loss through two games for the defense. What has impressed you about that group in making sure they’re getting at the quarterback?

“They’ve all just elevated their games, and they knew, obviously, Dylan (Stewart)’s coming back. We lost Kyle Kennard, and there’s a great opportunity for the other guys. We’ve got good players, and they’ve been around our program for a while. Bryan Thomas, JT Geer, Desmond Umeozulu, those guys are doing a nice job. Demon Clowney came in and did some nice things the other night. So we’ve got good players that have elevated their games. And then I think that Clayton (White) and our defensive staff have done a really good job of designing things, knowing that teams are going to start every week game planning, how do we not let number six wreck our offense? Staying ahead of the curve and not letting teams do that. There are going to be times where they take Dylan away. Well, there’s now an opportunity for 10 other guys to go make their impact on the game. And then you guys have watched us closely. We’ve moved Dylan around. He’s been in different places. He’s not always in the same spot, so we can continue to put him in situations where teams have to adjust to where he is and what we’re doing.”

What has been the message to your defense to remain consistent in their performance throughout the season?

“Yeah, just keep getting better. Every week is different. It’s a good start, but that’s what it is. It’s a start. There’s a lot that we need to be better at on defense, for sure. And our guys know it is a good start. Young guys have played, and they’ve continued to get better each week, and they’ll need to continue to do that for sure. But I like the start, but again, it’s just a start, and we know we’ve got the biggest challenge defensively that we have faced this season, rolling in here on Saturday night.”

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