After the Sandstorm: Gamecocks get bowl eligible with Vandy win

Kendall Smith and Collyn Taylor talk South Carolina’s week ten road win over Vanderbilt that gets them to bowl eligibility on this week’s edition of After the Sandstorm.

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MORE: What Shane Beamer said after South Carolina’s win over Vanderbilt

By Michael Sauls

South Carolina got back in the win column with a 38-37 win over Vanderbilt on Saturday.

With the win, South Carolina is now 6-3 overall and 4-3 in the SEC.

Here are some the highlights from Beamer’s post game press conference:

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-“Wish Vanderbilt a ton of luck..Clark Lea has a team that continues to improve each week.”
-“Proud of the way our team responded to the Missouri game…our guys kept blinders on and just went back to work.”

-Said he was proud of the way they played but that “there’s a lot to clean up.”
-Beamer said South Carolina came into this game one of the least penalized teams in the conference and was disappointed with the amount they had Saturday: “12 is not good…gotta be a lot better from that stand point.”

-“We can certainly build on this…” mentioned that they still played well despite missing some players.

-Beamer on if this was one of, if not the best, game of Spencer Rattler’s time at USC: “Yeah I think so” 
-“Our game plan was to run the ball and get it on the perimeter and throw the ball over their heads..big part of that success was Spencer stepping up in the pocket.”

-MarShawn Lloyd injury report: Still has a “pretty significant” bruise on his leg but anticipates he’ll be back next week
-Beamer said David Spaulding is probably gonna be done for the year, has a foot injury similar to Christian Beal-Smith’s

-Beamer on the run game: “Jaheim Bell was a running back all week this week during practice”
-The run game “started” with getting the ball in Bell’s hands
-Beamer said he thought Jaheim ran the ball very well, added he looked very natural at the spot and he worked very very hard this week to transition from TE to RB.

-Beamer joked Tonka Hemingway may need some more offensive touches: “Anytime the ball is in his hands he produces”
-On the fake field goal: “saw something on tape we just thought we could take advantage of…credit to Spencer on the play before for getting us in position to be able to go for it…film study helped us.”

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-Beamer said the TD pass from Joyner is a play that has been repped since August
-Added that every time they’ve run it against the USC defense in practice it was a TD (but never like the way it happened tonight)

-Beamer said getting Joyner going tonight was big

-Beamer on pass game: “Told the team things weren’t as bad as they looked after last week…several tiny things prevented shot plays from just barely connecting…we weren’t able to convert last week but this week we were able to connect on them better.”

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-Beamer on defense: “had a plan for both QB’s regardless of starter.
-“Gotta be better there but I’ll give them credit” told the team that Vandy hadn’t given up INT’s and the defense went out and got them.
-“To be able to win the turnover battle was huge.”
-“You never want to give up that amount of rushing yards to anyone.”
-“I’m sure Anthony Richardson at Florida is looking at some of that tape and getting excited.”
-“A lot of young guys on defense got some good playing time.”

-Beamer on when things got chippy: said he saw that it looked like one of the USC players got punched, official said that a USC hit a Vandy player late (thus the offsetting personal fouls)
-“We’re not going to play that kind of football”

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-Beamer on clinching a bowl game birth: “Huge accomplishment, for this team to have two wins two years ago and now we’re bowl aligibkke for the second year in a row with three weeks to go…huge testament to the leadership.”

-Beamer started talking about how there was lot’s of doom and gloom after the Mizzou loss and he was sure there was some after Lloyd didn’t play today.
-In response to that, he said that Gamecock fans need to continue to stay away from the doom and gloom and find some joy.
-“Appreciate the Gamecocks that continue to appreciate this team — hope the ones that made it here have a great time in Nashville tonight because they deserve it.”

-Beamer said Cam Smith was a bit sick during the game, doesn’t think he’s hurt. Any lack of playing time was just because they were rolling DB’s
-Devonni Reed is beat up, battling upper and lower body stuff. Beamer said he felt like a healthy BJ Gibson gave USC a better opportunity than a beat up Reed early in the game.
-“Credit to Reed for coming in and the end of the stepping up.”

-Beamer on Darius Rush: “He was a captain tonight…the leadership he showed against Mizzou and this week, he’s been awesome…starting two freshman in the secondary and you gotta have a leader out there, Darius has done a great job of that and he showed it tonight.”

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