Everything Shane Beamer said at the Welcome Home Tour in Lancaster
South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer was in attendance at the Welcome Home Tour stop in Lancaster on Monday night. Before he took to the podium to speak to the assembled crowd of Gamecock fans, Beamer met with a few members of the media, including GamecockCentral.com.
Following is an edited transcript of his remarks.
Thoughts on Saturday scrimmage/quarterbacks…
“I thought the scrimmage was really good. I thought it was a little bit cleaner than the previous Saturday. Defensively, did some really good things. Again, offensively, I thought they took a big step from last Saturday to this Saturday, very efficient, very few penalties, very few turnovers. I think there was, one moved the ball a little bit better. Pass protection was good, did some good things in the run game. So overall was very pleased with it quarterback-wise. Again, they all got opportunities, all did some good things all did some things that we need to correct. But I thought the offense as a whole and the quarterbacks as a whole made some big strides in the last week. And then this week will be critical coming up, at least in that three practices this week and then the spring game on Saturday. Really eager to see how guys continue to separate themselves from one another.
How will spring game teams be split/will quarterbacks be live?
“Planning on splitting up the teams like we did last year where we had two teams, planning on doing a draft like we did last year. Some of the players already had come to me wanting to know if we were gonna do the draft. I’m sitting around yesterday and my phone rings and Oscar Adaway calls me and I’m thinking something’s wrong. And all he wants to know is what the teams are gonna be for the spring game. So they’re eager to get out there and compete. Planning on doing a draft, not quite sure how we’re gonna set up, who does the drafting and who’s on, who are the coaches. I’m working through all that right now, but kind of got a preliminary plan.
“And then as far as the quarterbacks, I don’t know yet. Something that we’ll talk about, they were kind of like we did last Saturday in the scrimmage. They were live for about a third of the scrimmage. The other day we got about 70, close to 80 plays, probably a fourth of it. And about a quarter of the scrimmage, we made the quarterbacks live last week. Don’t know what we’ll do on Saturday night, but kind of what you saw all Saturday in our scrimmage, why we make them live. There was a time where a couple, Robbie and LaNorris in particular, in a normal practice, I would have blown the whistle because it was a sack. I didn’t because they were live. And they both were able to get out of a potential sack, tackle, turn it into a run, or turn it into a throw down field. So I like that aspect of it, but also wanna be smart in practice 15 also. We’ll talk about it, but not totally sure yet.”
Did Coach Staley’s presence at practice energize the team?
“Yeah, certainly they’re fans of our women’s team, just like everybody is. And I know our players were really excited to see her out there and grateful that she came out to lend her support. I didn’t even know she was coming until somebody told me about a third, about halfway through the scrimmage. Certainly she’d been busy. And she got back in town, I think she was in Europe, and got back in town and wanted to come. But like I told our players, she’s a football fan. I’m fortunate to call her a colleague. And our players, I know, appreciated having her out there the other day.”
Staley’s “so what” comments about the tough schedule…
“Yeah, that’s always been the case in the SEC. Even before Texas and Oklahoma came into the conference, this is the toughest conference in America for a reason. It’s because we have the best players in this conference and we have the best teams in this conference. So as a competitor, you love that. If you shy away from that, then it’s probably not the place for you.”
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Challenge of the portal opening/recruiting contact period…
“Yeah, it’s challenging. These two weeks coming up here are two weeks that I’ve been looking forward to, dreading, thinking about. A lot of different ways to describe it for a while now. We’ll see what happens. Again, it gives you the opportunity to improve your team, potentially, if there’s someone out there that fits what we’re about. But then also, you want to make sure you keep your team intact. And certainly, we’ve got a lot of really good players on our team that I want to keep around here as well. So I feel like we’re in a good place, but whenever the portal’s been open, there’s always, every school will say this, there’s always surprises and things like that as well. But it’s a challenging time because we’ve got three practices this week then spring game, portal’s open, last day of class is a week from today. So players have exams coming up next week. So there’s a lot, end of the year meetings with players. I mean, there’s a lot to get done over the next couple weeks. And I know it’s cliche, but we’re just trying to take it one game at a time, one day at a time. Each day, just try and get a little bit better as a team, whatever that or however that may be.”
New coaches and how they’ve acclimated with recruiting…
“Yeah, it’s been great. Those guys have been awesome, hit the ground running, have done a great job of interjecting themselves into our team and connecting with our players. Our players have really bought into those guys and what they’re about. They’re hungry. I mean, if you look at just Mike Furrey has been attacking things from a recruiting standpoint, and excited to be here. And that’s the thing I would say about all those guys. It’s just a good dynamic with those guys. They’re excited about being here. And their actions show that with what they’ve done since they’ve been here.”
Recruiting heating up…
“Yeah, I like where we are. Clayton White always tells the defense, turnovers come in bunches. And it’s kind of like commitments, they come in bunches. And two years ago, it was right there, I guess, the month of June, end of June, it was just a flurry of stuff. When we started official visits. And then last year, it was a lot of that, it was early January, I think, we had a bunch of commitments. And each and every day, you get guys here on visits. And I think we’ve had a lot of success here recently, just because the evaluation period opens back up. The kids are able to visit campus. They’re able to get to our campus. They’re able to watch us practice. They’re able to get around the staff and learn more and more about us. So I like where it is. We got a bunch of recruits that’ll be in this weekend for the spring game. And then our coaches will hit the road recruiting the week after that. And then we’ll be out in high schools all about in the month of May. We’ve got a bunch of official visits that are lined up for the month of June. So that should be a good month for us. But like where we are.
“I mean, a couple things. Obviously, some activity this past week. Really good phone call last night when I was at dinner as well. And then I think there’s gonna be some potentially more good news with a couple guys here over the next seven to ten days, I think, as well. So like where we are, we just kind of got to keep on keeping on.”
Does he like where the team is with spring practice?
“I do, yeah, I do. We feel like we’ve made a lot of progress. We’ve got a lot of new faces. We’re fortunate that pretty much our whole freshman class is here right now. So they’re getting to go through spring practice. People don’t realize, we started five true freshmen last year. Three of those guys didn’t even get here until the middle of June in Trovon Baugh, Nyckoles Harbor, and Tree. So they weren’t even here for spring practice. So the fact that pretty much our whole class is here right now is huge. They’re able to go through spring practice, then they have a summer, then they have preseason camp. So like the youth that we have on our team, like the young talent we have on our team, like the progress they’ve made this spring. I like the group of returning guys that have been around for a while.
“I think we’ve got 12 players on our team that have been here since 2020, or at least since 2020, which is a good core of older guys. So excited about that. And now we’re just trying to blend them and put together the best team we can. But I love the way they’re working right now and love the direction we’re headed.”
