Shane Beamer explains his team's heightened sense of urgency as SEC play begins

The SEC is a meat grinder of a conference. It will chew you up and spit you out, specifically on the road, if you don’t handle business. South Carolina’s Shane Beamer knows this all too well after going winless on the road during his debut season.

With No. 16 Arkansas on the slate next, Beamer highlighted the importance of conference road games during his press conference on Tuesday. He says his team needs to buckle up for a rowdy road environment in Fayetteville against a Top-20 team.

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“I think automatically there’s gonna be a heightened sense of urgency. There better be,” said Beamer. “We’re into SEC play here pretty quick. We’re going on the road against a nationally ranked opponent to open up SEC play. You better have that urgency.”

After traveling to Athens, Knoxville, College Station, and Columbia, MO last season, the Gamecock’s road schedule doesn’t get any easier in 2022. They’ll travel to Lexington and Gainesville to play a pair of current Top-20 opponents in Kentucky and Florida as well as to Nashville to face Vanderbilt.

With five of their next six at home, winning against the Razorbacks could be a major springboard to the start of South Carolina’s season. While they want to prepare for every opponent the same, Shane Beamer knows there’s a lot more to this game than their opener against Georgia State.

“Our guys know each and every week we talk about us and it’s about us. We try not to prepare differently for Arkansas than what we did for Georgia State. They’re all nameless, faceless opponents so let’s worry about us. But when you’re going on the road in the SEC, it’s different. Let’s be real,” Beamer said. “Our guys know that and the energy and spirit at practice this morning certainly reflected that.”

Getting his first SEC road win would mean a lot for Shane Beamer as well as the team. Still, Sam Pittman’s squad isn’t just going to give it to them. The Gamecocks will have to go into Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium and steal that one. If they can, that’d be quite the badge of honor to possess with the reigning champions coming to Columbia, SC the following weekend.