Shane Beamer details how MarShawn Lloyd has put himself in position to be a go-to option

The South Carolina offense brings in some new faces, but also returns talented running back MarShawn Lloyd after he dealt with injuries over the first years of his college career. Now fully healthy and ready to make an impact, the veteran weapon appears to be a major piece of Shane Beamer’s offense.

During a mid-week press conference, Shane Beamer went in-depth on how MarShawn Lloyd put himself in good positions to be the go-to guy throughout Week 1’s game.

“I think, one, he knows what to do and can execute and whatnot,” said Beamer. “And then I think a lot of that is that he happened to be in there at the right time too. If it had been JuJu McDowell or somebody out wide on that touchdown pass, he would’ve gotten the ball thrown to him because – go back to mental, physical – I’m assuming Georgia State wanted somebody to buzz out to the flat to handle that and didn’t.”

Despite finishing the game with just 11 carries for 30 of the team’s 79 rushing yards and a touchdown, Lloyd got involved in the passing game with two catches for 31 yards and South Carolina’s only other offensive touchdown of the game.

“Spencer found him and then MarShawn is a guy – having said that – when the ball’s in his hands, good things happen,” said Beamer. “And he can make people miss. We hit the third-and-16 for like a 15-yard gain right before the half, we went tempo, we actually went for it on fourth-and-one and would love to keep that thing a little bit north-south but he bounced it outside and broke three tackles. That’s a great individual effort.

“But MarShawn is a guy we have a lot of confidence in because he’s a weapon with the ball in his hands. But I could also say that about some of the other running backs and some of the receivers and tight ends as well. We want to have multiple go-to guys in those moments.”

Spencer Rattler on MarShawn Lloyd

Despite a slow start in the running game, South Carolina picked up a Week 1 win ahead of their first SEC showdown against Arkansas. Regardless of the outcome over the weekend, Gamecocks quarterback Spencer Rattler wanted to make it clear during a press conference how important running back MarShawn Lloyd is to the offense as the season progresses and how versatile he can be.

“He’s a guy that, he wants it,” said Rattler. “He was injured a lot in his college career so far and everybody knows the type of talent he has. Everybody was happy to see him do what he did Saturday night. And that kind of popped up, he’s definitely one of our playmakers and we’ve got many others. But he was the guy on Saturday so, he was rolling, we got him the ball and he played a great game.