Shane Beamer gets emotional reflecting on his journey at South Carolina after Kentucky win

Two seasons ago, Shane Beamer was named the South Carolina football coach during the Gamecocks’ final game of the season against Kentucky. Saturday, he led them to a 24-14 victory against the No. 13 Wildcats in Lexington.

Speaking with SEC Network’s Cole Cubelic after the win, Beamer reflected his journey and why Saturday represents a major sign of progress in his rebuild of the program.

“I didn’t make a big deal out of this this week, but it’s not lost on me that when South Carolina came up here two years ago, they were at the bottom,” he said. “Literally during the game here in Lexington is when it was announced that I was gonna be the head coach at South Carolina. Those guys went in that locker room after the game and probably were like, ‘Who in the hell is Shane Beamer?’

“For us two years later to come right back and have arguably the biggest win here in a long, long time is pretty, pretty special.”

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Saturday’s victory against Kentucky is the first against a ranked opponent of the Shane Beamer era. It also improves the Gamecocks to 4-2 (1-2 SEC) on the season.

It certainly wasn’t easy, as the Gamecocks totaled just 90 yards of offense in the first half and entered the locker room tied at 7. However, quarterback Spencer Rattler turned things around after two first half turnovers to finish 14-of-19 passing for 177 yards and a touchdown.

“(Rattler), I told him this earlier in the week: Oklahoma played Texas today, and it was in that game one year ago that he lost his starting job,” Beamer said. “It led him right here to South Carolina. You can call it fate, karma, whatever. It’s pretty freaking cool that one year later, the same day that OU plays Texas, he comes up here and leads us to a win like this.”

Finally, Beamer heaped praise on the effort from his defense. The Gamecocks forced two turnovers in the game, including a fumble on the very first play. They also made life incredibly difficult on quarterback Kaiya Sheron, finishing with six sacks.

“They’re a competitive group,” Beamer said. “I challenged them on Tuesday in our team meeting. I think Kentucky has given up more sacks than anybody in the SEC, and I looked right at (the defensive line) and said, ‘I keep telling everybody that the D-line is the strength of this defense. It’s time to show them. Prove it.’ And they did.

“I told them that we lead the SEC in interceptions but we haven’t forced a fumble recovery and they do it on the first play of the game. …I’m so proud of these kids, They played their butts off in a tough environment. We got a lot to get better at. We didn’t play great. But I told the guys at halftime that I didn’t think this thing needed to be close in the second half. We made it a little closer at the end, but it’s a hell of a win for our fans.”

South Carolina has a bye next week, but will hope the momentum can carry over to its next game on Oct. 22 against Texas A&M.