Shane Beamer reveals the keys to South Carolina's strong second half against Kentucky

South Carolina scored a big upset of then-No. 13 Kentucky over the weekend, knocking off the Wildcats in a real program-building win for second-year coach Shane Beamer. South Carolina got it done with a strong second half.

The Gamecocks broke through in the third quarter courtesy of a 42-yard pass from quarterback Spencer Rattler to Antwane Wells to take the lead for good, following some savvy advice from Beamer to Rattler at the halftime break.

“Message to Spencer was just, ‘Settle down, we’ve been in environments like this before. You have. You’ve won a lot of games as the starting quarterback at Oklahoma. Go be you,’ Beamer said after the win.

A strong second-half effort, particularly defensively, proved to be the difference in the 24-14 win.

Beamer’s halftime message clearly resonated, as the Gamecocks had opened up a 24-7 lead just past the midway point of the fourth quarter.

“I told the players, I told them all week and I told them at halftime, our leaders need to lead in the second half,” Beamer said. “Our best players, we need you to make plays in the second half. And those guys did.”

South Carolina’s second half showed poise, confidence

For a team that began the season with a 1-2 record, suffering a tough road defeat at ranked Arkansas before being demolished by defending national champion Georgia, South Carolina has sure bounced back nicely.

The Gamecocks have won three straight to get to 4-2 as they enter the annual bye week. Job well done on the road in Lexington, Ky., to get there.

“We talked about we needed to show our poise and confidence throughout, and that they’re going to make some plays,” Beamer said. “Winning in the SEC is hard. And that’s a good football team, there’s no question about it. Had the returning leading rusher in the SEC. I know they’re missing their quarterback, but we won seven games last year with four different starting quarterbacks, so I feel coach (Mark) Stoops‘ pain. They’re good enough around him because of their culture to play really well. And they did that tonight in so many ways.”

South Carolina managed to bottle up the Kentucky run game entirely in the second half. The Wildcats ran for 128 yards in the first half but finished with -7 yards rushing in the second half.

“I felt like our defense certainly was controlling the game,” Beamer said.

Followiing the strong second half and the win over the Wildcats, the Gamecocks have a chance to regroup and really make some things happen in the second half of the season.

Beamer finished his first season in charge at USC with seven wins. His squad looks capable of more in 2022 if it continues to improve, just like it did after halftime on Saturday evening.

“It’s not always pretty. It’s ugly at times,” Beamer said. “There was times in the first half that it was ugly, but it wasn’t like we were just getting our butts kicked, I felt like offensively we just weren’t finishing drives. But there was confidence at halftime, and we pride ourselves on being a second-half team, and we needed to show that tonight and I feel like we did.”