What Shane Beamer said at Myrtle Beach Gamecock Club Meeting
South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer spoke at the Myrtle Beach Gamecock Club Meeting Tuesday night in what was the final stop of the 2024 Welcome Home Tour.
GamecockCentral was on hand and below is everything the Gamecocks fourth-year head coach had to say.
On upcoming legislation impact…
I think it’s more just deal with it when it comes. Honestly, I know about as much as you do. I was talking with Chance Miller, our Deputy AD, on the way over here about what’s coming here probably by the end of the week. And just trying to be prepared and on top of it from that standpoint. But I don’t know a lot. Obviously, things are changing. And the thing that I’ve learned with all this is that I feel like it changes every week, month, year. Things are changing, but worry about what you can control right now, but also in the future also.
On if upcoming legislation could affect athletic department budgets…
Yeah, I don’t think there’s any question. And those are some conversations that I’ve had with Coach Tanner and Chance about short-term, long-term, how it could affect certain things. And there’s going to be an impact that’s going to be felt. Let’s just be real. And not to the point where it changes how you do things day-to-day, big picture.
There’s areas where you can adjust and tweak in order to be better in the long run. Certainly want to be able to look at doing that. But there’s a lot of things still to figure out, how this whole thing shakes out. We’re on an SEC head coach’s group text, and that’s been entertaining the last 24 hours, to say the least, talking about that stuff and some of the stuff that’s coming and just trying to different ideas and thoughts and things like that as well. So it’s certainly interesting times and new times for all of us.
On fan interactions at these events…
Yeah, I love it. It’s a great thing about being a college coach is getting to come and do these events. We’ve got the best fans in America here with Gamecock Nation and being able to just get out and see them. This is my, I guess, third time coming to Myrtle Beach for this since I’ve been hired. And just being able to see a lot of familiar faces, people that I now call friends after my time here at Carolina. I love it, just hearing the stories of Gamecocks and what Gamecock football and Gamecock athletics means to them. That never gets old, and it’s a great reminder for me of why I do what I do.
On LaNorris Sellers’ progress…
He’s been great. He’s just the definition of just steady and consistent. He’s a guy that just works really, really hard and very humble, has great humility about himself, but has a competitive streak, strong work ethic. And he’s just done nothing but get better in the weight room, academically, on the football field, in the meeting room, learning what we do offensively, and excited for him.
It’s a great quality to have in a quarterback, just that steadiness where you’re not up and down and emotional and riding the waves and the highs and the lows. And he’s not like that at all. He’s a winner. He won a state championship in high school, obviously, and knows what it takes. So I’m excited about him and his future here at Carolina.
On TJ Sanders’ next step…
Yeah, just that. He’s a year older. I think last season was a great season for him to realize, not that he didn’t already know, but just how disruptive he can be and how talented he is. And we’re fortunate that we return our top three defensive tackles, really top four, in Tonka Hemingway, Boogie Huntley, Nick Barrett, and TJ. So to be able to bring those guys back, I thought TJ took a step last year and have every confidence in the world he’s going to take another big step in 2024.
On summer workouts and how much time staff can spend with players…
Yeah, fortunate. One of the things that I like that the NCAA has done is a few years ago they gave us the ability to spend a little bit more time with our players in the summertime. So they’ll come back in. We have a team meeting Monday night. We’ll start workouts on Tuesday morning at 7 a.m. And our guys will lift four days a week.
But within those four days, we’ll have a couple hours a week where we can have meetings with them or do position-specific stuff on the field. We’re not allowed to do anything necessarily offense versus defense against each other with the coaches out there. They can, but we can’t be out there. But we’ll be able to work some position-specific stuff. It’ll be great. We’ve got some guys, a couple transfer receivers coming in, some freshmen that will just be getting here, where our coaches will be able to work with them a couple hours a week. So that’ll be great.
And June’s really busy, obviously. We’re doing workouts with our own players. We have summer camps for the high school young men pretty much every day, it seems, recruiting weekends where we have official visits. So June is really, really, really busy for us. But we’re fortunate that we’re able to get a couple hours a week of football work with our guys.
On left tackle position battle…
Yeah, kind of the same (as before). I mean, those guys are battling it out. Tree (Babalade) obviously started, what is it, 10 games, I think, last season at left tackle as well. So we know what he can do. And he’s really working hard to take another step this year. Josiah (Thompson) came in and is everything that we thought he was going to be. He was limited a little bit health-wise during spring practice. But this summer is really, really big for him to take another step. So I would say those two guys are certainly battling it out, in my mind. Top two.
And then Jakai (Moore) would also be somewhat of a swing guy that could play guard and tackle, has played guard and tackle, where it gives you three guys right there that have the ability to play left tackle without a doubt. So those two guys, along with Jakai, are still battling it out. And that’s something that’ll go into the season. But certainly, we want to be able to identify, you have five on the field at a time. You’d love 10, but ideally eight offensive linemen that you feel really, really solid about being in a rotation in every game.
On benefits for the offensive lineman who stayed in town for May workouts…
I think it’s huge. And most of them did. I mean, I was in the weight room yesterday and saw Tree and saw Jakai and whatnot. Saw Trovon (Baugh). You know, so many of them. Kam Pringle. They’re all, I think they’ve all been there, bits and pieces. We don’t want to hold them hostage in the month of May. I want them to be able to get away. But they’re strictly there on their own. I mean, it’s completely voluntary.
But they’ve done a great job. We’re fortunate, Wes, in that we got, you know, all those guys come back. And you’ve got some older guys and Vershon Lee and Jakai Moore, who are older guys and really kind of taking charge. And they’re hungry to have a good year and know that it’s important for them to take a step in the month of May and get an edge, maybe, on other offensive lines across the country that weren’t on campus and together in the month of May.
So I’m really excited that they decided to stay and were around for the most part. They were able to get away for a little bit. Some of them are still away. That’s great. But I think that they were able to take a huge step. I think I’ve talked about it before, but some of those offensive linemen, you worry about them going home — and not laying around all month and not doing anything but laying on your mom’s couch is a little bit different than being in the weight room every day with us in Columbia. And you worry about them going home and maybe getting out of shape or putting on too many pounds where now they come back at the beginning of June and it takes them two weeks to get that weight off and get back in shape. That won’t be an issue. They’ll be able to start workouts on Tuesday morning and hit the ground running and be in a great position physically because of what they did in the month of May.
On injuries…
Yeah, everybody’s on track. I was in the weight room this morning. Another one that stayed around the whole month of May is Rocket. And Rocket was in there this morning at 6:45 in the morning. And he should be full speed ahead and ready to roll when we crank up next week. And no one new to report. You worry in the month of May, things happening. And knock on wood, nothing has at this point. But no, everybody’s good. And there’ll be some guys that are still limited coming out of spring. Some guys, obviously, long-term, won’t be able to, like Zahbari Sandy because of the injury he had in spring practice. But everybody else is in a good position right now.
On South Carolina LB Mo Kaba’s progress…
Yeah, he was one that I saw in the weight room yesterday. He’s a guy that’s hung around for the month of May when they didn’t have to. So saw Mo in the weight room yesterday morning. He’s in great spirits and looks good. And eager to get him back out there without a doubt.
On receivers’ development, particularly Ahmari Huggins-Bruce and Jared Brown…
Yeah, excited about the additions of Ahmari and Jared both. Obviously, Ahmari being a local guy. And then Jared, who was extremely productive here at Coastal with Coach Beck and Coach Chadwell, excited about their additions to our program. Obviously, we lose a really, really talented and productive receiver in Xavier Legette.
And I’m eager to see just how that receiver room competition shakes itself out. Because I said it last week, and it’s the truth. If somebody asked me who are going to be your top six receivers, I don’t know. And that’s a good thing in that I think we’re balanced. They all complement each other well. We got some guys with some different skill sets. It’s going to be great competition in there to try to figure out who’s going to be in that rotation.
But those are two guys, Ahmari and Jared both, that have a really good skillset for the position. That flashed during spring practice. And now they’ve gone through spring practice. And then this summer is going to be really big for them as they take another step as we head into preseason practice in August.
On important of June official visits…
Yeah, you’re exactly right, I feel like every guy that we’re recruiting right now, except for maybe one, is planning on making his decision before his senior season. I ask them all and try and find out because if they’re planning on taking visits in the fall, I’d rather just bring them in during the season and let them see a home game and that’s their official visit. I mean, we did that with Nyckoles Harbor two years ago. His official visit was a home game, in season.
But I feel like everyone that we’re bringing in, we’ve got three huge weekends in the month of June. And everyone that’s coming in that weekend, those weekends, I mean, it’s going to be, I think we have 12 next weekend. And then it’s like 11 and 10. So basically those 30-plus players, they’re all guys that are planning on making their decisions before the season. So it’s great from that standpoint.
And it’s a great time to be in Columbia. Summers are awesome. And they’re looking forward to getting so many of those guys and their families on campus in the month of June.
