What South Carolina HC Shane Beamer said about Notre Dame after Gator Bowl announcement

Shane Beamer turned on the Notre Dame versus USC game Nov. 26 to watch Lincoln Riley, his friend and former boss at Oklahoma, try to take one more step toward the College Football Playoff. He ended up getting a glimpse of his South Carolina team’s future bowl opponent.

“I was watching that one not knowing we’d be playing them in the bowl game,” Beamer told reporters Sunday. “It was more [because I’m] friends with Lincoln and players I knew.”

Eight days later, the No. 21 Irish (8-4) and No. 19 Gamecocks (8-4, 4-4 SEC) were paired in the Gator Bowl Dec. 30 in Jacksonville, Fla. (3:30 p.m., ESPN). Beamer’s impressions of Notre Dame suddenly became relevant to his entire team. Here’s what he had to say during his Sunday afternoon press conference held shortly after the bowl destination was announced.

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On the matchup with Notre Dame

“I haven’t seen all the bowl matchups or know who’s playing who, but I know this one is going to be right at the top as far as excitement about the games. Two nationally ranked teams that have had great moments throughout the season. It’s the only game on Dec. 30 at 3:30 p.m. All eyes are going to be on us. We know with what we’ve done the last couple weeks, there’s going to be a lot of excitement about us, and certainly we know what Notre Dame brings from a TV ratings standpoint too. It’s going to be an awesome time and awesome trip.”

On how much he has watched Notre Dame

“[We had] one common opponent getting ready for Clemson, and they certainly played great that night. They had an interception returned for a touchdown. They had an interception that Clemson threw backed up deep. They blocked a punt in that game as well and did a nice job offensively. I watched them versus Southern Cal. We got back from Clemson that night and the Southern Cal game was on.”

(South Carolina beat Clemson 31-30 Nov. 26).

On his initial impressions of the Irish

“I don’t know Marcus Freeman, but great respect for what he has done in his career and this year as well. They started slow like we did in some ways, but they’ve been on fire in a lot of ways and have done a great job of continuing to be better throughout the year.

“They have some players on offense and defense we tried to recruit either here at South Carolina or when I was at Oklahoma. I know they have talent as well, because some of those guys we recruited heavily when I was at Oklahoma and South Carolina. Great tradition, great team and should be a heck of a matchup. I know the Gator Bowl is excited.”

On his experiences with Notre Dame other than watching “Rudy”

“I have to bring up ‘Rudy’ with the players, because it crushed me last week that 90 percent of our team hasn’t seen the movie ‘Hoosiers.’ Last year it was ‘The Program.’ Some of our guys hadn’t seen ‘The Program.’ We brought up ‘Hoosiers,’ because [special teams coordinator] Pete Lembo had it in a special teams meeting with Jimmy Chitwood on the PowerPoint with the quote, ‘I’ll make it coach.’

“I saw guys looking around, and I asked [linebacker] Brad Johnson if he had any idea what movie that was from. Nobody did. I asked somebody else, and none of them knew. I think [tight end] Austin Stogner knew it was ‘Hoosiers.’ How have you not seen ‘Hoosiers’? We have to talk ‘Rudy,’ because I don’t know if they’ve seen ‘Rudy’ either. I’m sure they’ve heard of it. But that was a sad day to find out that many guys on the team haven’t seen ‘Hoosiers.’

“I’ve had some great ones. The movie ‘Rudy.’ In 2001, I was a grad assistant at Tennessee and we played up there. That was my first time going up there. What an experience that was to be able to coach in that stadium, even though I was just a grad assistant. The tradition, beautiful campus. Then obviously an amazing trip in 2017 when I was at Georgia. That was the first time an SEC team played in South Bend in forever.

“That was awesome. That was a Saturday night, Jake Fromm’s first start. We went up there with a true freshman quarterback, beat Notre Dame on a Saturday night in South Bend, which was pretty awesome, and ended up playing for the national championship that same year. Hopefully this Notre Dame experience will kick-start something special like that for us in 2023.”