Everything Shane Beamer said after South Carolina's loss to Missouri

South Carolina head football coach Shane Beamer spoke to the media after the team’s 29-20 loss to Missouri on Saturday. Here’s everything he had to say.

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Opening statement

“Congrats to Missouri. They did what they needed to do to win the football game. I’m proud of our guys and the way they came in here and competed. We expected to win this football game, disappointed that we didn’t. I just told them in the locker room when you get out-rushed 285 to minus-nine, you’re not going to win. When you are in the red zone like we were and went backwards, it’s going to be hard to win. When you have, once again, 14 penalties, it’s going to be hard to win. [And] when you have opportunities to make plays, and we don’t get it done, it’s going to be hard to win.

“Having said all that, we had the lead going into the fourth quarter. And we weren’t able to finish. I thought our defense did a good job of stopping them and getting the ball back for us. Credit that kicker [Robert Meyer]. I know he’s their backup kicker after the starter [Blake Craig] got hurt. We’re disappointed to give up an explosive run on first down when they got in plus territory. But then, we stopped them on three plays, forced the field goal. Credit that guy coming in as the backup kicker and making that. But [there was] not enough good to win the game. [We] got the lead going into the fourth quarter, and we weren’t able to finish, which is disappointing.

“Injury-wise, obviously, we had a lot of them tonight. Cason [Henry] got hurt in the first play. DQ [Smith] had a little bit of a quad contusion that flared up in pregame warm ups, and [he] said he couldn’t go. And then, we had some guys get banged up during the game.

After committing 14 penalties, as a coach, how do you work on that? Do you just say, “It’s one bad night, just got to get through it?“

“I think it’s hard to say it’s one bad night when we’ve had the number of pre-snap penalties that we’ve had. And it wasn’t just the offense tonight — it was the special teams not snapping a ball because we couldn’t hear, kicking a ball out of bounds. Those are pre-snap penalties, too. The definition of insanity is continuing to do the same thing over and over again. So, when you have 14 penalties on the road, something’s got to change, starting with me.”

With missed tackles, just how much of a back-breaker is that in this type of game, especially on that go-ahead touchdown late?

“[It’s] just really, really, really disappointing. I mean, we’ve said it all week — you got to get 11 hats to the ball on this guy [Ahmad Hardy] and tackle him. And to give them credit, when you run for 285 [yards], you run for 285. But a lot of those are because of missed tackles, or losing leverage, or whatever it might be. So, all 11 got to get there.”

Some of the stuff on offense was really good, and some really bad, with some of the sacks. It seemed like LaNorris [Sellers] held onto the ball too long. What do you say to him when you got to toe the line with him doing something spectacular?

“You just gotta get rid of the ball, and that’s what I told him. He’s made a ton of plays for us, obviously. But some of those things, [if] it’s not there, you got to throw it away. He knows that.”

Aside from just the sacks and negative plays, what do you pin to the negative-seven rushing yards?

“I don’t know. I’d have to look at tape. Too many sacks, negative plays. But we didn’t gain a lot, either. So, [I] got to look at it.”

Trovon Baugh was seen on the exercise bike. Was he hurt?

“Yeah, he was banged up a little bit. He’s had a nagging injury this week. He was available, but he wasn’t 100%.”

At halftime, it seemed like everything was going wrong, and you still had a lead. What was the vibe of your guys coming out of the break and then getting that stop in the third quarter?

“I mean, that’s what I told them at halftime is, ‘You’re on the road in the SEC. We’ve not played good enough football at the half, but we’re right where we need to be.’ We needed to get off to a good start. I think it was scoreless at the end of the first quarter, maybe — or we were right there. And then, you go to the half, you feel pretty good about things. That’s what I told our guys — that I didn’t think they could cover our receivers because we made a lot of plays in the passing game, and I felt like we would be able to continue to throw the ball downfield and get that running game going because of the threat of our receivers and passing game downfield.

“That was the vibe at halftime: ‘Defense, you’re going out there first. Let’s get a stop. But we’re right where we need to be, and we got to go play better in the second half.’ We felt good about it because it was one of those [where], ‘We haven’t played great, and here we are. Just imagine if we can clean all this stuff up and go do that.’ You get out there in the third quarter, and we started the second half the way we needed to. And then, we just didn’t finish. That’s what is sickening.

“You look at the second-to-last drive on offense after the defense stopped them and when we got the ball back. I mean, it was three plays, and there’s opportunities there to make plays. We ran the quarterback counter into the boundary, and we don’t block the corner or the safety — which just can’t happen. And then, second down, I think, we throw the ball down the field, and we stopped running. And then, third down, we got a guy [Vandrevius Jacobs] wide open across the middle, and we’re not able to connect.

“We talked about it. When Kansas came here, in the fourth quarter, they had a drive. They had opportunities to make plays. And there was a third down over on the visiting-team sideline where they got a guy [Emmanuel Henderson] wide open — and I don’t mean to knock the Kansas guy, but they didn’t convert. We showed the players that tape on Tuesday morning.

“When you’re on the road in the SEC, you’ve got to make plays: offense, defense and special teams. And we did not make enough plays tonight.”

Specifically with the sack LaNorris took on first-and-goal in the third quarter, how much of a momentum killer is that when you guys are right there, not able to get it?

“That’s hard. We were in play action, right, the I formation? Every team in America runs it. We know you’re going to get man coverage down there. Typically, that’s what they play. We had a big personnel group on that play that everybody America runs, what Jon Gruden used to call the “Spider 2 Y Banana,” or whatever. I mean, it’s this corner route, fullback in the flat; and then, we had a little mesh concept for man coverage. It’s a bang-bang play. It’s there, or it’s not. And if it’s not, we got to get rid of the ball. You got three more plays because, hell, I’m probably going to go for it on fourth down because of where we were. And that’s what we can’t do.”

You mentioned that, when stuff keeps heaping like this, you guys have something to change. How easy is it to do that within a week, to try to get it all fixed before the next game?

“It’s a challenge, but that’s what we get paid to do. We got to look at everything: schematically, personnel, everything that we’re doing. Unfortunately, we’ve been here before — we’re 2-2, [and] we’re a third of the way through the regular season. We’re not where we need to be right now. We’re coming back home on Saturday night for another SEC game. We need to get better this week, and that’s all you can do: sit here and look at where you can be better at, and continue to attack that and work.

“We’re a third of the way through. We’ve been a team that’s always gotten better as the season goes, and [I’m] confident that this year will be no different. Nobody thought we’d be sitting here 2-2, and we know the schedule doesn’t get any easier. But at the same time, to have so many things that aren’t winning football tonight and still have to leave going into the fourth quarter is one of those where you think, ‘Okay, if we can just continue to get better and clean a lot of this stuff up, then we got a chance to be the team that we thought we were going to be.'”

What made Hardy such a great running back?

“He’s a big back. He’s got really good contact balance. You watch anybody — whether it’s Central Arkansas, or Kansas, or Louisiana — he’s got really good contact balance. He can break tackles, and he runs physical. He was the Sun Belt Freshman of the Year last year for a reason, and he’s been a great addition to them in the portal. Obviously, they’ve got a good offensive line, and we’ve got to continue to do things to [improve].

“We’re going to see other really good backs this season, as well — starting with Kentucky next week. This guy’s [Seth McGowan] a really good one, and we’re going to see other ones, obviously.”

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