Shane Beamer praises South Carolina fans for atmosphere, recruiting assist in Week 3

Say this about South Carolina under coach second-year coach Shane Beamer: The Gamecocks fans know how to show up. Even facing a game against No. 1 Georgia as more than a three-touchdown underdog, South Carolina fans packed Williams-Brice Stadium to assist their head coach.

Assist in what, you may ask? Recruiting.

“That’s all the recruits were talking about, thankfully,” Beamer said. “They weren’t talking about the results on the field.”

Probably a good thing, too. Georgia blasted South Carolina 48-7, dropping the Gamecocks to 1-2 early in the season. South Carolina also lost a conference game against Arkansas a week prior.

Despite entering Saturday’s contest sitting at .500 and needing a Herculean effort to have a chance against Georgia, South Carolina fans managed to fill Williams-Brice Stadium to the max.

The Gamecocks announced attendance of 78,212, a good 653 more than listed capacity.

“Certainly want to thank our fans for the environment and atmosphere they created in Williams-Brice Stadium last Saturday,” Beamer said. “It was awesome.”

South Carolina fans had the recruits chirping

If you ask Beamer, who laughed at the benefits of recruits shifting focus from the results of the game so quickly, Saturday was a smashing success thanks to the South Carolina fans.

“As soon as the game was over and I finished visiting with you guys and the postgame radio and the TV show, I went home and immediately just started texting recruits, and that’s all they could talk about was the environment, the people,” Beamer said. “The ones that were there and the ones watching on TV.

“And then went to a recruiting dinner that night with the two prospects and their families that were here for their official visit, and that’s all they could talk about was the environment in that stadium and how awesome it was.”

Those two official visitors were five-star athlete Nyckoles Harbor and three-star offensive tackle Jatavius Shivers.

Of course, the Gamecocks also had other visitors in town unofficially. Beamer spoke highly of the reactions he got from most of the key recruits he met with personally.

So despite the results on the field, Beamer took some positives away from Saturday’s bout with the Bulldogs.

“At 8 a.m. on Sunday morning I was in my office for the first of four recruiting meetings that day with prospects and that’s what they wanted to talk about,” Beamer said. “So we appreciate our fans for the environment they created last Saturday. It was awesome and made a difference with all the recruits that were there. Couldn’t be more positive with them as well.”