Shane Beamer pleased overall after South Carolina's first win

South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer had a lot of good things to say after his team beat Georgia State, 35-14. Though, he knows the first game of the season was far from perfect and adjustments need to be made.

“Looking back at the video, really excited about this team going forward as we continue to develop and improve,” Beamer said on his Sunday teleconference. “A lot of good from last night. A lot to certainly correct, but really excited about a lot of things after watching the tape.”

Beamer said the offense wasn’t firing on all cylinders, which is expected during the first week. New starting quarterback Spencer Rattler threw a pair of interceptions while also having to avoid incoming defenders. The Gamecocks’ offensive line struggles carried into 2022 as they allowed six quarterback hurries and three sacks to Georgia State.

“We were a little off last night, we all had a hand in it: coaches, quarterback, running back, tight end, receivers, offensive line,” Beamer said.

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Moving forward, Beamer expects the offense to be better. But he didn’t undervalue the good drives put together.

He mentioned a two-minute drive where Mitch Jeter knocked home a 51-yard field goal to close out the first half. On that drive, the Gamecocks were able to turn a 3rd-and-17 into a 4th-and-1 play. From there, Marshawn Lloyd broke three tackles for a first down.

In addition, Beamer spoke highly about how his defense controlled the line of scrimmage all night long.

“You look back at the 4th-and-1 play early in the game, which was a huge tone setter. Zacch Pickens absolutely dominates the offensive tackle and has him two yards back in the backfield, which disrupts the play and then Nick Emmanwori comes in there and makes a great stop to make a tackle to knock the guy back,” Beamer said. “We were awesome on third down last night, that team was really good on third down last season. We forced seven three-and-outs on defense, which was really good.”

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South Carolina saw eight newcomers take the field for the first time on Saturday night. Beamer said they will “continue to get better week in, week out.”

“It’s exciting because there are so many new faces that were playing their first game ever in Williams-Brice Stadium last night—not just the true freshmen—but a lot of transfers that started for us last night,” Beamer said. “It’s their first time out in that environment and we’ll continue to get better.”

With a long way to go in the season, Beamer said his group won’t get “too high or too low” based off one game.

“We learned from it (on Sunday). We came in here, we corrected, we celebrated the victory, we learned from it good and bad,” Beamer said.

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