Coach Speak: South Carolina's Shane Beamer on Georgia

South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer is plenty familiar with the Georgia program. He’s coached against the Bulldogs twice, being handed a pair of losses. He also coached for the Bulldogs for two seasons on Kirby Smart’s first assembled staff in Athens.

This week, it’s another game against Georgia that’s on Beamer’s hands. He brings his South Carolina team into town with a 1-1 record after an opening game loss to North Carolina but had a bounce back win against Furman. Meanwhile, the Bulldogs are ranked No. 1 in the country but haven’t been tested in the way the Gamecocks hope to do.

Here’s everything Beamer had to say on Georgia this week while preparing for the matchup against the Bulldogs.

Shane Beamer Opening Statement on Georgia…

“Excited to get into SEC play this Saturday over in Athens … Big challenge this week as we open up SEC play. Everyone knows or should know the respect I have for Kirby Smart and his coaching staff and the way they do things. Had a fantastic two years as an assistant coach in Athens working for Kirby. Learned a lot. He made me a better coach in my two years in Athens. Obviously, we know they have great talent and great players. But they’re so well-coached as well in all three phases.

Offensively. I mean, there are so many weapons when you turn on the tape. The quarterback (Carson Beck) is playing really, really well. He can make all the throws. The offensive line is massive with two probably first-round draft picks starting on the offensive line at least right now. Running back, I know they’re a little banged up, but they’re deep and they come in waves. Then Brock Bowers, what he does speaks for itself as a player. The receivers, they’ve got weapons on the perimeter. They’ve gotten two transfers that have come in from Mississippi State and Missouri (Rara Thomas and Dominic Lovett) that have helped them as well. So they’re extremely explosive on offense. 

Defensively, it’s what you would expect: physical, fly around, the whole team plays with great effort really dominant up front. You know, (number) 13 (Mykel Williams) is a future first-round draft pick and the linebackers have played a lot of football for them. They have size and athleticism in the secondary. 

People talk about our special teams here and rightfully so, but they’re dynamic on special teams. They returned a punt for a touchdown last week. They use great players on their special teams. From being there for two years, I know how involved Kirby is with the special teams and it shows. That will be a big challenge for us on Saturday to make momentum plays in the kicking game as well, which is easier said than done against those guys. But looking forward to it. 

We know it’s going to be a rocking environment. First CBS 3:30 game we’ve had since I’ve been the head coach here, so it’ll be exciting. That means you’re doing something right when you’re playing in those games for sure. Hopefully–I guess it won’t be the first of many with the TV contract changing. But if it was continuing, it’d be the first of many but many prime-time games with College GameDay like we had for the first game and then on national television, CBS 3:30 game as well. A testament to what we’re doing here in our program and obviously Georgia’s program as well.”

Beamer on preparing a young team to go to Athens…

“I would hope they know. You know, I mean, a lot of these guys all on our team were highly recruited guys and maybe went to a game as a recruit at Georgia or they came here or they went to other SEC games. So it’s like I told them this morning, this would be a rocking environment. When we go to Knoxville in a few weeks, it’ll be a rocking environment. When we go to A&M. And where else do we go? Missouri this year? I mean it’s the SEC. And if you don’t want to play in front of 9000, 100,000 fans, you should have gone and played in another conference. We don’t go and play in front of stadiums where there are 20 or 30,000 people in the stands for a conference game. It’s this is the SEC. 

So our guys should embrace that. We know it’ll be a big challenge. It was extremely difficult to communicate over there a couple of years ago. We know how loud it’ll be. But I want our guys to embrace it as well. You know, we went to Clemson last year and that was a hostile environment, and we played with poise and didn’t off to a great start but played with poise. It’ll be the first time for a lot of these guys in an atmosphere like this. So it’ll be a challenge as well. You’re trying to educate them, but again, with us it’s we need to worry about what we can control and that’s going to play well.

Beamer on the importance of getting off to a fast start against Georgia…

“It’s critical. We’ve certainly had some games where we didn’t get off to a good start on the road, to say the least. And it’ll be critical for us. Everybody talks about starting fast and that’s easier said than done against these guys, against anybody. When you play on the road, it’s tough. We know it’ll be loud and hostile. But we need to make sure that what we’re doing from a call standpoint offensively, defensively and special teams are giving our guys the best chance to be successful early in the game and try and do our best to to settle in and get better as the game goes. Without a doubt.”

Shane Beamer on what he learned from Kirby Smart…

“What I’ve learned is I’ve taken from everywhere that I’ve been, I’ve taken something from that, whether it be Virginia Tech, Mississippi State, Oklahoma, Georgia, you name it. As far as how we do things in our program, and I saw that from Kirby. Obviously Kirby, when he got hired at at at Georgia, had been pretty much with Nick Saban and that Alabama model for his entire career. So he had a blueprint of a foundation of what he wanted it to look like initially when he came in, because that’s what he had been exposed to, and here’s how we’re doing things. But from day one, the willingness and the ability to adapt, and if there’s a better way of doing things, show him, you know, going maybe special teams, how you do things in practice or stuff like that, that that maybe we tweaked that Alabama didn’t do and offense and defense. He’s just done a great job of continuing to evolve in my opinion stay ahead of things Maybe there’s a scheme that in one season offenses attack and hit some plays on Will the very next season, very next week, whatever it might be, they’re going to have it corrected and they’re going to have an adjustment for it.

So staying ahead of the game and and then certainly just the urgency that you got to have every single day in coaching and recruiting when you you know, when you step in that building, there wasn’t going to be a wasted moment. You were working. There was an urgency the way you the way they do things in practice. There’s we’re very similar in a lot of ways to how we practice here. So there was a lot of things, to be honest with you. I mean, when I got hired there, I had worked with some great coaches Steve Spurrier, my dad, Phillip Fulmer, George O’Leary, Sylvester Croom. But those two years were just extremely impactful for me, growing as a coach, just being around Kirby, he was a first time head coach and being around him really helped me here when I became a first time head coach.”

Beamer on what he’s seen from Georgia on film this season…

“Last week against Ball State they went right down the field offensively and they’re making plays and maybe got bogged down a couple times. But you know the thing that stands out to me is the defense is creating turnovers You know ball state Saturday Ball State’s moving the ball somewhat decent but then they they it’s 0 to 0. They throw the ball down the sideline golfer ball state has a chance to make a play He doesn’t make the catch the very next play they punt. Georgia runs back for a touchdown seven nothing so special teams making an impact and then the ball state offense goes back out there and two straight possessions they have turnovers and just like that you’re down 2 or 3 scores. So that’s what stands out to me is, is you see the weapons and the arsenal of people that they have on offense that can that can make plays. But then the defense and the special teams is making just as many impactful plays. So that’s what stands out to me. And and, you know, they’re playing some young guys, too, and you see those guys continuing to get better and more and more comfortable and confident each week.”

Beamer on facing a first-year starter in Carson Beck…

“They’re going to do what they do. Obviously, they have a new coordinator with Coach Bobo, but the system has stayed the same. Mike was there last year on the staff, so they’re not going to like reinvent everything when they return the bulk of the offense. So certainly you study that quarterback and maybe things that throws that he makes that Stetson didn’t or maybe concepts they’ve run a little bit more of the last two weeks. But it’s a challenge because certainly they’ve had two blowout wins two weeks in a row. So they haven’t had the they haven’t had to do much offensively from a schematic standpoint. So, you know, what their base stuff is and you try and prepare for that. You look back at last year, the schemes they ran the and the concepts and the run game and pass game and you prepare for those. But then you also know that they’ve had a whole off season too, that they’ve there’s some things that they haven’t shown the first two games that we’ve got to be ready for and adjust to on Saturday also.”