Vershon Lee: 'We have to keep building'
As the South Carolina football program continues to ride a wave of momentum that started with late-season wins over Florida and Auburn and then continued with the commitment of Spencer Rattler and Austin Stogner on the same week of the Gamecocks‘ bowl win over North Carolina, Shane Beamer was careful this spring to continue pushing his team forward.
Sure, the positive momentum is fun — and it helps in everything from recruiting to ticket sales and donor contributions — and for a program that had won a combined six games in the previous two seasons, it was certainly a notable leap forward to win seven games last season.
But Beamer said this spring that he’s been quick to point out how much work it took just to get to that point and how much work it’s going to take to make another big leap forward as a team.
South Carolina junior offensive lineman echoed that thought process in an exclusive interview with Garnet Trust this week.
“We set the standard, we raised the bar, but what the standard is, is the minimum, so we can’t go back on our standard,” Lee said. “We have to keep building on it — next step, next brick, next support beam — we can’t go back on what we just did last season. Last season is last season; we’re worried about next season. We know what we did to get what we got last season, so now we’re working hard to get even better. We know what we can do, now that we’ve seen it, so now we’re more confident in ourselves, so now we’re trying to dig and grind for even more.”
With South Carolina upgrading its skill player rotation on offense via the transfer portal this offseason, a lot of the attention will turn to the Gamecock’s offensive line this season.
It’s a unit that was heavily scrutinized last year — some fair and some not. As Beamer has pointed out, many of the sacks allowed last season were not on the offensive line alone. On the other hand, if the offense is going to take the step forward it hopes to in 2022, it will certainly need improved play from its front five.
Lee believes that with a second year in offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield’s system, there’s a deeper understanding and comfort level of what they’re being asked to do.
“If you trust your steps and you’re consistent with all your steps, it just makes the plays and makes everything look better,” Lee explained. “Even if you mess up on a step, if everyone around you is consistent and we all do the same step, it’s going to find a way. It could be like a gain of one or a gain of two but when everybody is being inconsistent or doing their own things, that’s when you get the loss-yardage plays and the plays that everybody is like, ‘Ooh what happened there?’
“It was just like, sometimes when things become inconsistent — which is what we’re working on is being consistent — when it gets inconsistent, it can be pretty ugly.”
