Shane Beamer strongly shuts down the idea he previously criticized Gamecocks fans

South Carolina is coming off a 38-6 defeat at Florida in which the offense didn’t score a single point and coach Shane Beamer has felt the heat a bit, with some Gamecocks fans less than pleased. Beamer took time during his Tuesday press conference to clarify some comments he made after a win over Vanderbilt that he says have taken on a life of their own since then, denying he previously criticized Gamecocks fans.

The context? Beamer said after the Vanderbilt game that some fans needed to “find some joy” after, apparently, taking on a doom-and-gloom attitude following the news that running back MarShawn Lloyd would miss that game due to injury.

“I believe there was a misconception that I called out our fanbase for criticism, which could not have been further from the truth,” Beamer said. “For those of you that were in the room that night, listen to the soundbite. And I said that there was a small portion of the fanbase that when they found out that Marshawn Lloyd was not playing in the Vanderbilt game probably thought that it was over, that we did not have a chance to beat Vanderbilt.”

South Carolina, of course, did manage to beat Vanderbilt 38-27.

In any case, those comments apparently resurfaced enough recently that Beamer felt the need to address them Tuesday in his opening statement in a press conference with local reporters.

“By no means was I calling out our fanbase,” Beamer said. “There’s an old adage — if you don’t know it, look it up — called Murphy’s Law, that if something bad is going to happen, it’s going to happen. And I’ve been hearing about that ever since I was an assistant coach here at South Carolina, about curses and things like that. There’s no dang curse.”

Beamer adamant he didn’t criticize Gamecocks fans, just wants more positivity

Whatever the case, that Beamer had to spend time explaining he didn’t criticize Gamecocks fans is certainly not something he seemed to relish doing.

Still, he wanted to be clear about his comments.

“My message of what I was trying to say that night in Nashville is we need to get past the negative mindset of just waiting for something bad to always happen here and that something bad is right around the corner,” Beamer explained. “And that’s when I used the expression ‘find some joy.’ I get it, with the way we played at Florida the other night, there wasn’t a lot of joy in that nor do I expect people to find a lot of joy in that.”

Beamer linked the alleged griping about his comments following the Vanderbilt game with complaining he heard after the Gamecocks lost starting quarterback Luke Doty before the 2021 season began.

“I said it’s the same group that when Luke Doty got hurt in August of last year, that so many people thought our season was going to go in the toilet after that,” the second-year South Carolina coach said.

“I said we have to get past that as a fanbase and find some joy. I did not say that I’m not subject to criticism. I am certainly open to criticism. I’m a head football coach and I’m the leader of this program, so fire the criticism at me, because certainly I can take it. I grew up the son of a head football coach. I understand what this chair entails. I dealt with criticism of my father growing up. I’ve dealt with criticism as an assistant coach. Now as a head coach you deal with criticism, so I get it. That’s part of the job.”

Beamer wants to avoid large emotional swings

If Beamer’s comments have been misconstrued or taken out of context, he wants to underscore what he’s hoping to avoid.

Namely, he doesn’t want to be overly reactionary in the course of his job.

“Not going to be on an emotional roller-coaster every single week as a head football coach and the leader of this football program,” he said. “And I’m going to try to find the positives in everything.

“And when we have an injury whether it be to Marshawn Lloyd against Vanderbilt, or Luke Duty last year in preseason camp, or Jordan Strachan and Mo Kaba against Arkansas this year, or Cam Smith who missed games because of an injury, or CBS or whoever it might be, it’s the next man up mentality and not, ‘Oh my God, what are we going to do right now because this guy’s missing?'”

Clear?

“That’s the message I was trying to make that night in Nashville,” Beamer finished. “Hopefully you guys that were in that room realize that, because apparently it’s taken on this whole other narrative that Shane is criticizing the greatest fans in America, which is not the case. Anyway, enough of that.”