Shane Beamer 'really impressed' with pair of freshmen linemen
Shane Beamer and Dowell Loggains weren’t shy about saying there would be a few new faces for South Carolina up front against Furman and it didn’t take long to see them.
Two of the Gamecocks’ four-man, highly-touted offensive line class saw the field in the first quarter and left a good impression on their head coach.
“I thought Tro and Tree were really good last night for true freshmen,” Beamer said. “Both tried to play with a physicality and edge to them. I was really impressed with them.”
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Trovon Baugh and Tree Babalade each made their South Carolina debut against the Paladins, Baugh logging 47 snaps at right guard while Babalade played 47 at left tackle.
Baugh finished with a 58.3 overall grade by PFF with the third-best pass protection grade on the team (84.4). He finished with a 52.9 run block grade.
PFF gave Babalade a 61.4 overall grade and the team’s highest pass block grade of 86.5. Babalade finished with a run block grade of 59.2.
The two combined to not allow any pressures in 50 total pass block snaps.
“For them to be true freshmen going into their first game,” Shane Beamer said, “and playing a solid defensive line that was a veteran group and against guys three, four or five years older than them I was impressed with them.”
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Babalade was a blue-chip prospect in the 2023 class, ranked No. 221 in the On3 Industry Rankings and No. 178 in the On3 rankings.
Baugh enrolled as a three-star prospect and No. 511 in the 2023 class in Industry Rankings. On3 had him as the No. 289 player in the class.
They were part of an offensive line Saturday that Beamer thinks made progress against Furman.
“I thought they were solid. Protection was good for the most part. We’ve got to continue to be better at some things we need to correct from last night. But it was a step forward,” he said.
“Hopefully, we can get guys in place, knock on wood stay healthy and not have to move guys around too much and solidify who our top guys are at and not have to bounce them around too much.”
The Gamecocks only allowed pressure on six of Spencer Rattler’s 28 dropbacks (21.4 percent) and paved the way for a very explosive passing attack.
Rattler went 25-for-27 for 345 yards and three touchdowns. The Gamecocks as a whole completed 84.2 percent of passes and averaged 10.6 yards per attempt.
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The run game still needs to be more efficient, eclipsing 100 yards but only averaging 2.9 sack-adjusted yards and officials called six penalties against that group.
“I thought they did well. I thought they protected well for the most part. We did some decent things in the run game. The most disappointing thing was the penalties. That was sloppy,” Beamer said. “We have to clean up the penalties but I thought they protected well. Obviously we’re going to see better but they have some guys with size who can rush the passer.”
