Shane Beamer praises defense for leading South Carolina to win against Kentucky

South Carolina entered Saturday needing a win against Kentucky to keep its bowl eligibility hopes alive and got it thanks it its defense. The Gamecocks made play after play to keep the Wildcats out of the end zone, including forcing a turnover on downs on the final drive to secure a 17-14 victory at home.

That allowed South Carolina to stay in the game despite a rough day offensively. It came through late in the game when Spencer Rattler found Xavier Legette for a 17-yard touchdown to go ahead for good with 7:44 remaining.

Speaking postgame with Cole Cubelic on SEC Network, Beamer gave the defense the credit it was due.

“It was ugly for a lot of the game, obviously, offensively,” he said. “That’s a good defense. At the end of the day, our defense played their butts off. They’ve been criticized all year. What a game they played. Then at the end of the night, as ugly as it was, your two best players on offense — Spencer Rattler and Xavier Legette — made a big-time play right there.”

The South Carolina defense entered Saturday’s contest having not forced a turnover in the past three games. However, it came away with three in the win against Kentucky, including a late strip fumble from Jalon Kilgore near the end of the first half.

With less than two minutes remaining, Tonka Hemingway recovered a fumble from Wildcats QB Devin Leary and forced the Wildcats to burn their final two timeouts on the ensuing drive. That put the game in the hands of the defense yet again, and it delivered to force the turnover on downs and walk away with the victory.

“It was extra effort,” Beamer said. “Nick made a play down there. Jalon Kilgore’s effort over there. Pass rush. What an awesome performance by our defense. We were sitting there at 2-6 and everybody had us counted out. But nobody ever, ever, ever can question the fight of this team and this program. It was a big-time freaking performance right here.”

With the win, South Carolina improved to 5-6 on the season and needs a win heading into next week against Clemson to reach a bowl game for the third season under Beamer. The coach knows his offense has to be better to win after putting up just 257 yards in this win.

But if the defense can carry this performance over, the Gamecocks should have a chance.

“We need to play a lot better on offense,” Beamer said. “It’s what you want. They’ve got a great team. They got a heck of a win today. They’ve gotta come into this stadium Saturday night. It’s gonna be a rocking environment. But if we don’t play a lot better up front on offense, it’s gonna be hard.”