Shane Beamer identifies the position battles he's eyeing during camp for South Carolina
There’s so many battles going on at South Carolina that Shane Beamer almost couldn’t name just one for the Gamecocks.
Beamer spoke about all the different competitions in fall camp in Columbia right now during a press conference last week. It wasn’t that he was avoiding trying to be specific but he admitted there were just too many for the coaches right now for him to single out just one.
“I think there’s a lot. I’m not trying to dodge the question but I really do believe there’s multiple,” said Beamer. “We met as a staff this morning. I talked about all the things that really excite me about this team, which there’s a lot. But then all of the things that are – I don’t want to say concerns but are questions that we have to answer. There’s multiple.”
With that many ongoing for South Carolina, Beamer just started listing them off. It began with the kicking job as well as at every level of their defense in some sense.
“Who the kicker is going to be, you know, is something that we have to figure out,” said Beamer.
“I’m going to basically go through every position. I’m sorry,” Beamer prefaced. “Essentially, okay, if O’Donnell Fortune is coming into the season as one starting corner, what does that opposite corner battle look like? Nick Emmanwori and DQ Smith come into the preseason as our two starting safeties. What does the depth look like behind those guys? How is this linebacker rotation going to shake out? You guys have heard me say it – we basically had a three-man rotation last year. I feel confident saying that we could have as much as a seven, eight-man rotation as far as guys if they continue to come along that I feel like can help us win football games. How does that shake out? Same thing – we feel good about the D-line group but what’s the rotation there?”
If Beamer were to highlight some positions, though, he went with the offensive line and the wide receivers for the Gamecocks. On the line, they do return four starters and add three from the transfer portal. As for the receiving corps, they lost five of their pass catchers, not to mention their leading tight end, while adding six more, five receivers and a tight end, in the portal.
That many options at both spots leaves them completely undecided with kickoff under four weeks out.
“Obviously, everybody wants to talk about the offensive line and the receiver position. I would probably say that one to answer your question – just what it looks like. Not that we don’t have capable people because we do. But we’ve got more depth than athleticism in competition than last year at every position but particularly on the offensive line and at the receiver position,” said Beamer. “It’s the truth that, if you ask me today what will the starting five look like on the offensive line in game one and who are your top-six receivers in game one? It really truly is still to be determined.”
It’s not a bad thing to have that many options at spots across your lineup and roster. However, South Carolina will eventually need to make some decisions over this month about who their starting rotation will be going into the fall.
“I think a little bit of everything. There’s competition,” said Beamer.