South Carolina returned to Columbia with momentum after its season-opening win over Virginia Tech, and Shane Beamer wasted little time turning the page to Week 2. On Tuesday, the Gamecocks' head coach met with the media to discuss the lessons from Atlanta, highlight standout performances, and preview Saturday night's in-state matchup against South Carolina State. The game is set for a 7 p.m. kickoff at Williams-Brice Stadium.
Here's everything Beamer had to say:
Opening statement: “Great to be back on a normal game week now on a real Tuesday for you guys and for us as well. Looking back on Sunday in Atlanta, a lot of what I thought after the game, just really proud of our guys. That was a good, really good first win, as I had mentioned leading into it. That wasn’t an easy preparation, getting ready for Virginia Tech in the first game. Wild environment, neutral site, new coordinators, new personnel on both sides. It was a lot. I thought our guys handled it well. Great start to the game, really good finish, some good in between, not enough of it. But when there was adversity, when a lot of teams could have gotten frustrated, our guys didn’t. Didn’t faze them at all. They never flinched, they never blinked, had great poise, played really physical. That was a physical football game on both sides as well. Proud of our guys and the physicality they played with, proud of the effort that they played with. It wasn’t always pretty, but you can never question the effort that they were playing with, without a doubt.
“As I said, you know, great start. Situational football, I feel like we’ve got to be better. You look at two things that are critical in games. Backed up on offense, we had that after Fred (Johnson)’s interception, and we took over on the two-yard line. That’s what we call backed up, and we were obviously not very good. We gave up two points there. First play, we ID the front the wrong way and allowed our linebacker to run through and make a tackle run blocked. And then the second play, we don’t make a great decision quickly enough to get rid of the ball, and we get beaten in protection as well. So we all had a hand in that, players, coaches, all players on the offense, and we gave up a safety that can’t happen offensively. Defensively, flip it, we call it the green zone. But when the other team is backed up, which we had Virginia Tech after one of Mason (Love)’s punts, they took over, I think on the five-yard line coming out, and then they went right down the field of our defense, which was disappointing. And I had the ball on the 38-yard line going in, and that’s when they got they got the penalty, the unsportsmanlike conduct, whatever it was on the sideline. And I think Dylan sacked the guy on the next play and ended up punting. But didn’t like the way we played football in those two situations, particularly from a field position standpoint. We certainly need to be better.
“But really like the way that we finished the game to be up two scores, to get the ball back with over four minutes left. We were somewhat backed up. They had three timeouts. We were going to run our offense, but everybody in the stadium knew we were probably going to run the ball a lot there, just to make them burn timeouts. And we were trying to get first downs, don’t get me wrong, but to do that and take over four minutes, plus they have three timeouts and never give the ball back, was a great way to finish. They knew we were gonna run it, particularly at the end, when they didn’t have any timeouts, we knew we were going to run it as well, and did a nice job. Now, when we went forward on that fourth down, a lot of that was LaNorris Sellers. We need to get better at being able to do that and finish games, because he made some great individual plays. But before that fourth down, I mean, DQ (Smith) was behind me, and I said, ‘You want to go for this?’ And he was like, ‘Heck yeah,’ as well. And that’s why we went forward right there, instead of punting it back. We got to block it a little bit better. But LaNorris, just a great play to make the first down and then take three knees. So I like being able to finish games like that. We call that four-minute offense, where we’re winning and the other team’s trying to stop you and get the ball back because they’re losing, to not give it back. So that was great.
“We’ll grow from Sunday. There’s so much from a character standpoint that we’ll take from that game and grow from it and be better for it. A lot of freshmen that played in their very first college games, a lot of transfers that were playing in their very first game, either at the Power Four level or here at South Carolina as well. So we’ll definitely be better. Dang it, what’s that guy on social media that counts all that as well? Somebody sent me that one. So last one, I’m going to be cognizant of it. No more of those. I realized I did that, then I counted, I’m like, holy crap. I do a lot of that.
“But looking back, though, our offensive players of the game as coaches, when we come back and watch the tape after the game, who we saw that we felt like were the players of the game, Nyck Harbor and LaNorris Sellers offensively, is what our offensive staff felt like. Defensively, Fred Johnson was awesome throughout, as you guys know, the SEC Player of the Week. Brandon Cisse did a great job as a corner. He played corner, he played nickel. He did it all on Sunday, and they were challenging him with some one-on-one throws, and he did a great job. On special teams, he was the SEC Player of the Week, or Co-Player of the Week, whatever it was, Vicari Swain. And then our scout players of the week offensively were Reno Roehm and Cutter Woods. Cutter’s doing a great job and continues to get better. Defensively, Donovan Darden and Kelvin Hunter, and then special teams-wise, it was Kendall Daniels. All those guys were on the trip, those last three Kelvin Hunter, Darden and Daniels, they were on the trip, and it’s because they practice well and their arrows are pointing up, along with a lot of those guys at scout teams here, maybe at other schools, just going to the scout team, and you’re in purgatory for the rest of the year. And we don’t do that here. We put our guys who are going to be playing for us. We put them and that’s how they get better. I don’t like guys standing around and watching during practice, because you’re not getting better that way. So those guys are continuing to get better.
“Injury update, Judge Collier and JT Geer are the only two coming out of the game against Virginia Tech that we’re concerned about. I would say they are doubtful for this week, but thankfully, it won’t be long-term. We were a little concerned about Judge’s injury being long-term, but it wasn’t and won’t be. Don’t know if they’ll be quite ready this week, but we’ll see. They’re trying to get back.
“And then looking forward to this Saturday night, to be back home against a South Carolina State team that has so much tradition, so much pride in their program, and rightfully so. A team that’s won multiple conference championships in recent years played for the HBCU national championship last year as well. And there’s some great football that’s being played in that conference and across the country as well, so they do a great job. I’ve got a lot of respect for Coach (Chennis) Berry. We actually invited him to come speak at our high school coaches clinic this spring here in Columbia, and he did a great job. I sat there and took a lot of notes, because I see his interviews on television or watching him somewhere on TV, and just his enthusiasm and his passion, it’s impressive. And he’s another great coach down there in Orangeburg, in a long line of great coaches that have been there, whether it be Coach (Willie) Jeffries, Coach (Buddy) Pugh, two guys that I have a ton of respect for, and are great human beings. And Coach Berry, don’t know him as well as Coach Jeffries and Coach Pugh, but they’re very similar, great coaches and great people.
“They’ve got a team with a lot of new transfers that are really good players that have made an immediate impact, and then some great returner players off last year’s team that won a conference championship and had a heck of a year. So we know that we’ll get their best shot on Saturday night. I know they’re going to be excited about coming to Columbia and playing in a sold-out Williams-Brice Stadium, but our players are as well. So thanks to our fans, one for what they did in Atlanta on Sunday. That was awesome, the crowd that we had, and what a home game it felt like for us. So thanks to our fans for that, they were amazing. That walk that we had when we got to the stadium was spectacular, and they were spectacular throughout the game, and we know they will be Saturday night. So it’s amazing that it’s already sold out. I know they’re excited about coming to see the 2025 Gamecock football team in person. We are also looking forward to that on Saturday night.”
After cutting up the film and everything, how do you think the offensive line, specifically the interior, played?
“We’ve got to be better, no question about it. And as I’ve said before, some of that’s on the offensive line, some of that’s on the running backs, and that’s on the tight ends as well. There’s no question there were some times that we got beat at the point of attack, didn’t have maybe the push. Then there were a lot of times where they had eight, nine guys up there around the box, too, and we knew they were going to be some runs into some big boxes and things like that. Their movement got us a couple of times. There’s no question that we got to be better, but not concerned at all. It was Rodney Newsom’s first time playing in the Gamecock uniform. It was Boaz Stanley’s first time playing in the Gamecock uniform. Tro (Baugh) didn’t play a ton for us last year. Markee (Anderson), same thing. You got a lot of guys that were out there for the first time, and they will be better going forward. We’ll continue to do a great job as coaches of helping those guys also.
“But let’s not lose sight I think we were fourth in the SEC last year in rushing as well. So it’s not like we’ve just gotten the crap kicked out of us in the run game. We ran the ball pretty damn good last year, too. And we can’t just say, ‘Well, that was all LaNorris Sellers.’ No, we ran it pretty good. I can remember a lot of third and ones and fourth and ones, where we had explosive touchdown runs where we handed it to a running back and he rolled up through there, whether it be LSU, (Texas) A&M, whoever it might be. So we ain’t starting that freaking narrative again this year. We can run the ball around here and we’re going to.”
How did you feel about the defensive tackle’s performance? And it looked like from watching during the game on Sunday that Jamil Walker was kind of in communication with those guys. Was Jordan Dove in the press box?
“I thought they did some really good stuff. I thought they played hard. Thought they were active. Nick (Barrett), Gabe (Brownlow-Dindy), Monkell (Goodwine), Davonte Miles, Troy Pikes, they all got in there. That’s what I was proud of, or excited about, was just the way the effort that they played with. And they’re strong at the point of attack, but then they’re good athletes and can run. So I thought they were good, and they will continue to get better. It was great to get Troy out there. I mean, that’s a guy that didn’t go through spring practice for us, and he is just going to continue to get better. He was very active and brought something to us from a pass-rush standpoint. So that was good. We’ve got to continue to improve. We’ve got to be better. We’ve got to be better against the pass and generate pressure on the quarterback.
“And yes, Jamil Walker was engaged. Like the way we do things, all of our strength coaches in practice kind of hang with a position group, whether it be in summer workouts, when we’re doing conditioning, there were certain groups. And then in practice, not all the time, but they spend their time with specific groups. And Jamil, he’s always with the defensive tackles during the summer, during practice, he’s with them a lot. He’s not involved so much in the X’s and O’s aspect of it, but he’s around those guys, and he has relationships with them. So, he was a little bit more involved last week. During the week, Dove was coaching, don’t get me wrong. Coach Walker was just a little bit more active with them. And then on game day, we kept Jordan in the box, because he’s really good at what he does, being able to communicate down on the field to Clayton (White) and the rest of the coaches what’s going on before you get the iPad in your hand and come look at it after the series. So, we didn’t want to lose that by bringing him down on the field. So, he was still in the box. He was in charge of all the substitutions, but Jamil was able to hear and help facilitate some of the substitutions and communication as well.”
What impressed you the most about Mason Love?
“He’s steady and mature, and nothing seems to affect him. In a lot of the same ways, when people ask me to describe LaNorris, I would say the same thing about Mason, just his demeanor and that he’s like this all the time. And I was kidding with him last week, every time I see him, he’s got his headphones on. And I asked him, like, ‘Do you take those off at home?’ Because he lives with David Bucey. And I asked David, does he ever take those off, or does he just walk around the house with them on as well? And he’s not antisocial. He’s a great young man. He’s just very, it’s like he’s got tunnel vision, and I feel like he takes care of his body. For him to be a young guy, very much a pro, he’s in the weight room in the mornings, just taking care of his body, stretching long before anyone else is in there, even when he doesn’t have to be.
“And then, even, I guess it was yesterday evening, I mean, our players were off, and I was out here just getting some exercise, and I was walking around the practice field, just calling recruits for 45 minutes to take a break from football, and the players were long gone, and he’s in the weight room last night. At the time, it was probably 7:30, he’s in the weight room last night just stretching and getting his body prepared for practice today. So he’s just very much a pro from that standpoint, and and has has a great focus. I told him last week, like a lot of the best kickers I’ve been around, and I love kickers, don’t get me wrong, but there are a lot of them that they’re a little different. He’s not. And the best ones that I’ve been around, whether it be Spencer Lanning and Ryan Succop when I was here at Carolina, or Joey Sly when I was at Virginia Tech, or Austin Seibert when I was in Oklahoma, or Jake Camarda when I was at Georgia. They’re just football guys, if that makes sense. And I would say the same thing about Mason.”
Oscar Adaway was in here earlier explaining that the opening drive on Sunday was not scripted. Was that the case?
“Yes and no, but more yes than no. Maybe we won’t tell them. Sort of, I mean, we have openers where this is going to be the first play of the game. So I knew what the first play was going to be three days before the game. I knew that we were going to do that play. We also have plays that we want to get to early in the game. So I’d say, yeah, it was scripted, so maybe (Marquel Blackwell) didn’t tell (Adaway). But we have a walkthrough the day before the game, where we kind of go through the opening play, so unless he forgot about it, we did the day before the game.”
And with the first drive in general, it just seemed like everything was working for the offense. Do you feel like that was the case? How much confidence does it give you that you guys can potentially go out there and replicate that week to week?
“Yeah, it was great that we did that. I mean, we had talked about, even if we had won the toss, taking the ball, because we wanted to get our offense out there early. We’ve got a weapon in LaNorris and wanted to get those guys going. So, certainly, you want to start games that way. I know our records pretty good around here when we score first. So anytime we can do that, we want to. And that was great. And I know what Oscar was saying. Was it necessarily scripted where we knew the first 10 (plays), and this is exactly what it’s going to be? No, but we do go into every game with this is the first play. These are the initial 10 plays that we want to call early in the game. This is what we’re going to call on the first third and short. This is what we’re going to call on the first third and medium. We knew we wanted to mix in some tempo early in the game because Virginia Tech had a new defensive coordinator. They had a lot of new players. We wanted to make them think as well with some of the stuff we were doing. And we threw some different formations at them, some misdirection, some tempo to try and blitz them, if you will, with just what we were doing offensively. So, I thought Mike (Shula) did a great job that series. I thought the players did a great players did a great job executing in any way. Any time we can start games like that, absolutely, we want to be able to do that.”
What’s your philosophy when it comes to scheduling schools like SC State and other small in-state schools?
“I love it. I think it’s great for the state of South Carolina, and I want to be able to continue to do that. I know South Carolina State played Wofford the other night, and we played Wofford last year. We’ve played Furman, and we’re playing Coastal (Carolina) this year. And I know Coastal is not FCS, but we played South Carolina State in previous years. So, I want to be able to continue to play the schools in South Carolina. I think it’s great. I know Clemson’s played The Citadel and different people since I’ve been here as the head coach. So, I’m all for it.
“Obviously, Jeremiah (Donati), myself and Jeff Crane, we all like to kind of sit down and look at look at future schedules, but I definitely want to continue to play Clemson. I’ve said that publicly, and that hasn’t changed and certainly there are other games that you mix in there, and you certainly got to look at the strength of schedule. I realize that. But with it, I don’t want to necessarily lose the opportunity to play these games going forward as well, and not go play whoever Eastern Oregon or somebody, I don’t even think that’s a school, but I don’t know what I’m saying, somebody out west. If you’re going to play an FCS team, I’d love it to be somebody from here in this state.”
Michael Smith and Jared Brown seemed to be a little limited from a snap count perspective. Is that an injury thing that was holding them back?
“Jared was healthy, but he was a little bit limited in practice going into the game. So, we had planned on playing him but then when we got into the game, he didn’t feel like and we didn’t feel like he was quite where he needed to be as the game went on.
“Mike had been a little bit limited, but also practice matters here, and not saying that he didn’t practice well, but we just felt like Brady Hunt, Jordan Dingle, and Moe Brown had been a little bit more efficient in practice going into the game. And we had planned on playing Mike a little bit more than what he did, but he got a catch and didn’t have a ton of reps. But those are two of our better players. And we need them to prepare the right way during the week and then be able to go play more on Saturdays than what they did the other day.”
What’s the latest update on Travian Robertson? Is there a chance that he could be back on the sidelines this week?
“I would say this week is doubtful. I just had a text from him before I came in. We gave him a game ball after the game. So Justin King had sent him a sent him a video of me telling the team in the locker room that we were giving him a game ball, and he sent me a text and responded, it’s funny, I got on the plane after the game, and Clayton was sitting a couple rows behind me and said that he had gotten a text from Travian that he was so amped up watching the game that the nurses and doctors had to come into the hospital room and give him medicine for his blood pressure, because it was sky high during the game as well. So that guy is Mr. Gamecock. So he’s eager to get back. We, our coaches, myself, we talk to him fairly regularly. He will be back soon, but I don’t think it’s going to be this week.”
What happens to LaNorris Sellers when it gets to the fourth quarter?
“He’s just a competitor. And I think when you get in those moments, competitors and guys that are just winners, they take over. He hates to lose. And just go back to practice, where it may be a situation where we’re in a competitive period against the defense, and the first offense is out there, and then maybe it’s time for the second offense to come out there, and he gets mad. And there have been times where he’s come up to me and asked, ‘Can I stay in?’ because he doesn’t want to come out. He doesn’t want to hear DQ Smith talking trash to him and running his mouth and all that as well.
“He’s just a fierce competitor, and you see that in games, and you saw that, like I said, at the end of the game the other day, the third down run, and that third down run, and then the fourth down run that he had on that last drive was impressive. It was a similar, different formation, with similar play to what we scored on in the very first series. And Virginia Tech had it defended pretty well their corner that, I think, was corner safety that came up to kind of set the edge. He did it, but doing it on paper and then being able to get LaNorris on the ground are different things. He just refused to be denied. And I think that’s what it comes down to, is just what a competitor he is. The bigger the moment is, the better he’s going to be.”
What’s the relationship like with William Joyce, and how have you seen him grow in his five years at South Carolina to now, where he’s the starting kicker?
“Yeah, really proud of him. I’d say the same thing about Cole (Rasmussen). I mentioned this to the team today in the team meeting that Cole’s a guy who sat behind Matthew Bailey and Hunter Rogers for four years, kind of waiting his turn, and then he’s taking advantage of it. Same thing with William. Always been a talented kicker and and he’s continued to just kind of commit to the program and work hard and try and be the best teammate that he could be. And he’s had a role in this team in previous years, but obviously, his role now is bigger than what it’s been, but I’m proud of him. He enjoys being a part of this program, and we’ve treated him the right way. He’s made us better during his time here, and he’s earned it. I mean, it wasn’t like he got this job by default. We got some really talented guys out there, whether it be Mason Love, whether it be him, whether it be Peyton Argent, or Max Kelley. There are talented kickers on this team. And William earned the opportunity to go out there and start on Sunday. And excited to see him continue to grow, because he’s really worked hard for this opportunity.”
I think the average third-down distance on Sunday was nine yards to go. After watching the tape from the game, what do you feel like you guys need to do, maybe a little better on first and second down, to get some more third and shorts?
“Yeah, that’s hard when you’re in that number of third downs, or that number of long distances on third downs. We’ve got to do better. Obviously, it’s be better on first and second. Whether it’s play calls, execution, whatever it might be as well, whatever it might be. We had some pre-snap penalties there that got us in some longer situations. So it’s hard to call plays on third and long. We’ve got to be better on first and second down. That’s where it begins, and I think it’s offense and defense. I mean, we had too many, 7-, 8-, 9-yard runs. We got stops defensively. Defensively, we had too many, like second and ones and second and twos and second and threes, more than I can remember. But no matter what you do on third down, basically, your success on third down, offense and defense, is going to be based on what you do on first and second down. And I know it’s cliché, but it’s pretty simple. From my standpoint, we’ve got to be better, and each week is different, and every game is different, but we weren’t good enough against Virginia Tech, and need to be better against South Carolina State Saturday night.”
How special was it to have a special teams play like the one that Vicari Swain made with your dad there? Can you talk a little bit about the timing of it, how it figured in the flow of the game?
“Yeah, that was a big moment, certainly playing Virginia Tech, and to score on special teams with your dad in attendance, which he’s in attendance for most of our games, but to be doing it against Virginia Tech, that’s where the whole ‘Beamer Ball’ mantra began. You couldn’t have scripted that any better. I remember in my dad’s last game at Virginia Tech, as the head coach was in the Independence Bowl. It was against Tulsa, and the head coach at Tulsa is currently Virginia Tech’s offensive coordinator, which is kind of crazy and full circle. But I remember in that game, I think we returned a punt for a touchdown. In that game, I know we scored on special teams. I think it was a punt return for a touchdown. And I remember thinking that night in Shreveport, because I was coaching as an assistant, how fitting it is that in my dad’s last game at the Independence Bowl, because that was his first bowl game back in ’93 and they scored on special teams, blocked a field goal, ran back for a touchdown in the ’93 independence bowl, Torrian Gray was on the field for that. I remember thinking that night in 2015, how cool is this that we’re back in Shreveport, the site of his first bowl game, and we scored on special teams again. And if y’all look that up, we didn’t score on special teams. I’m sorry. I really think we did.
“Then you fast forward to Sunday, and kind of the same thing, how fitting you score on special teams when you’re playing Virginia Tech and and your dad’s in attendance. And we needed it. We obviously got off to a great start offensively, and it was a defensive struggle, and there’s only so many more times that we can keep putting our defense back out there without producing some points offensively. And they’ve got good players. Virginia Tech, the quarterback is a really good player, you guys know, and those receivers really played well for them the other day. So we needed something to happen on special teams. We they they punted. Had a good kick, I think it was a 40-something yard punt, and they had the penalty. So then I mentioned it in the postgame press conference that I really liked the idea of them re-kicking in any situation. But in that game, we felt like we had a depth advantage on special teams because we played, we felt, we felt like we had more players overall, offense, defense and special teams, and that’s going to affect the special teams. So those guys are tired. If they got to go cover a punt now, they got to come back and do it again. So when I thought about it, I wanted to make them re-kick. From that standpoint, when you have a 40-something-yard punt you bank on, we could get better field position even now, even if we don’t get a return here, and then it all just worked out.
“What a great play Vicari made. I mean, there are so many cool things on there to point out that when you’ve got a guy like DQ Smith, who’s a four-year starter, he’s out there busting his butt on a double team against him. There’s a double team at the point of attack with Moe Brown and Colin Bryant, where they take a guy, they literally drive him all the way over to the sideline where I’m standing, and then Vicari, just the run that he made the guys that 90 percent of the teams in the country that returns coming back because somebody blocked somebody in the back, there were opportunities for some blindside blocks to blow people up. That would have been a penalty or targeting. Our guys didn’t do that. They were very disciplined, and that’s what I was most excited about. Just the discipline that we showed on the return and guys just doing their jobs and we needed it certainly created a ton of energy in that stadium after that.”
When did y’all decide on starters for the specialists? Was it kind of happenstance that all three of those positions had different guys, or was that a conscious decision? And I’m most curious about William Joyce, how y’all let him know he was going to going to be the starter.
“It was late in the week when we made those decisions, not necessarily punter. I knew Mason was going to be the punter for a while now. He’s really been putting the ball well, going back to the spring, felt pretty good about him being the punter all along. The kicker and the kickoff guy were the two who were decided late in the week. We really wanted to kind of go through practice on Friday, but it was Thursday for us, the last kind of real practice we had, which would have been Friday morning for us last week. We wanted to see how those guys perform, because, frankly, on Tuesday, that’s normally when we kick off in practice and kick field goals. Wednesday is when we punt. And Tuesday, it wasn’t terrible, but I wish it had been a little bit better from a kickoff standpoint and a field goal standpoint. So then we said, you know, we’re going to go through practice on Thursday and make it as game-like as we can and see how those guys perform, kickers, kickoff guys, and all that. And they were great.
“So I feel like coming out of practice on Friday last week, two days before the game, is when Joe D and then Tim McConnell, who does a great job working with our special teams, with Joe, that the three of us kind of sat down and said, All right, we were trending in this direction. This is the direction that we’re going to go. And then when we met as a staff on Sunday morning, we confirmed all that with Joe. Here’s what we’re going to do: holder, snapper, kicker, kickoff guy, punt returner, kick returner. And then in regard to how he conveyed that to those guys, I don’t know that would be a question for Joe. I just know they were out there on Sunday, and he let them know at whatever point that he felt was best to let those guys know.”
This is probably now a moot point, but after the touchdown pass to Nyck Harbor, was there any consideration of going for two there?
“Yeah, I screwed that up. That’s on me; we should have. There were some crazy scores, and me and Joe DeCamillis were talking on the headphones about if they are, meaning Virginia Tech was to score a touchdown, be careful. There may be some situations where they may or may not look at going for two, so let’s be careful before if they score a touchdown. Clayton, before we bring the defense off the field, let’s make sure they’re not going for two. Joe D, before you send the we call it assault, but the field goal block team out there, let’s make sure that they’re not going for two. So I was talking about it with the defensive coaches, and I just didn’t convey it well enough to the offensive coaches that we need to.
“When he scored, the extra point team ran out there, the offensive coaches and Joe D and I, at that moment, talked about it, should we go for two? And I knew we probably should. The extra point team was already out there, so we just went ahead and kicked the extra point. Could have taken our timeout and gone for two. I felt pretty good about the way we were playing defense, and I don’t want to say that I didn’t think they were going to score twice on us, but I felt pretty good about the way we were playing defense. Two, we’re all accountable. And, yeah, that was on me. I screwed that one up. We should’ve gone for two.”