Shane Beamer reveals who has stood out at linebacker so far

The 2023 spring will be a good benchmark for Shane Beamer and the South Carolina football staff to see is the Gamecocks are poised for a leap to potentially contending for the SEC East going forward. And the group of linebackers has Beamer feeling good about the defense at this point.

From some familiar faces stepping up to younger players and walk-ons impressing, Beamer has a lot to like. He addressed some of the standouts — Debo Williams, Stone Blanton, Grayson “Pup” Howard, Jaron Willis, Bam Martin-Scott, Andrew Colasurdo and Ronnie Porter — after a recent scrimmage for South Carolina.

“I think all of them flashed at times. As a group its got more depth than what it did last year. Mo Kaba’s not practicing right now. But Stone and Debo Williams are doing a good job. Pup’s doing a nice job, Jaron Willis, on and on and on. Our young walk ons, Andrew Colasurdo, Ronnie Porter, they’re flashing and have done some nice things on special teams,” Beamer said.

In particular, Beamer has liked what he’s seen from Williams and Blanton. Fellow linebacker Mo Kaba is out, so the opportunities to take some more reps have been there for the duo. Williams was among the Top 10 on the team in tackles a year ago, playing in all 13 games. Beyond Williams, Martin-Scott is the only returning linebacker who cracked double digit total tackles in 2022.

“I think Debo and Stone, they really work at it. They’re doing a good job of making calls and getting guys lined up and they made some nice, physical plays on Saturday. And then Pup, you always notice Pup around the ball. And you always notice Desmond [Umeozulu] at defensive end around the ball. So I like those young guys, how fast they play, and again, that’s a position that we’ve got some depth at and some unique skillsets. Bam Scott, he’s a guy that can do a lot of things. So, it’s a group that’s really working and getting better,” Beamer said.

And as spring football winds down, Beamer wants to make sure his team finishes strong and doesn’t coast to the finish.

“That’s what I talked to the team about last night after practice, like the human nature is okay, ‘we’re 10 practices down. Next week, the last week of spring break. We got Easter weekend coming up.’ Human nature is to go ‘Alright, we’re good and just kind of coast’ and I talked to the team about this today,” Beamer said. “I went back and like this week last year, we didn’t do a great job academically, we didn’t do a great job keeping the locker room clean, a lot of things like that were maybe last year we took a breath and didn’t get better.”