Everything Shane Beamer said on Sunday

South Carolina football head coach Shane Beamer held his regularly scheduled teleconference on Sunday evening.

Below is a transcript of his remarks about the Gamecocks’ loss to Texas A&M and more:

OPENING STATEMENT: All right, going back to yesterday, very similar to what I said post-game, really proud of our guys. They played their butts off. Even more impressive going back and watching the tape, just the effort they played with. Obviously, the first quarter was a great start. Our guys were absolutely ready to play.

If you look at the first quarter, Texas A&M was 0 for 4 on third down. Our defense had a tackle for loss, hit the quarterback three times, and had two sacks in the first quarter alone. Offensively, we were up 7-0, I guess, and were 2 for 4 on third down.

And then the second quarter was just bad complementary football. We did not play offense, defense, and special teams. We just did not help each other out, whether it be offensively with penalties, the intentional groundings that backed us up. And therefore, we’re punting and trying to flip the field position, get a penalty on a punt, the kick-catch interference. So I think A&M had three drives in the second quarter that were basically midfield or closer. And can’t give a good offense like that a short field. And we did. And that’s the thing, looking back at yesterday, really. Wanted to get it to the fourth quarter and have a chance to win the game. And we did. We scored going into the fourth quarter. It’s a seven-point game. And I think everybody on our sideline believed without a doubt we were going to win that game. And then we just didn’t get it done in the fourth quarter, which is really, really disappointing.

And then overall, we had a lot of self-inflicted things yesterday that give A&M credit. But whether it be penalties, drops, too many men on the field, not downing a punt inside the five-yard line that could have flipped the field position, still don’t know how we didn’t block that punt. That would have been, obviously, a huge play in the game. And I think we got a piece of it, but that should have been going the other way for six points. And we got back there clean, designed a rush, happened just like we thought it was going to happen, and got back there and didn’t quite execute the technique that we want when we block a punt. Very similar to what King Ford did last year against Kentucky. That was kind of what we want, and not leaving our feet. And a guy trying to make a play, but not doing it with great technique. So we’ve got to continue to get that cleaned up, without a doubt. But love the effort that our guys played with throughout the game. I mean, Boogie Huntley got his hand on a field goal. So I think we technically had two blocked kicks yesterday. Boogie on a field goal, and Josh Simon on the punt block.

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So a lot of good on that tape against a good team in a tough environment, but just not quite enough. And a lot of missed opportunities, which is disappointing. Guys that, first of all, injury-wise, came out of it OK, I would guess. I think Trai Jones’s injury will be, I would be shocked if he played this week. Hopefully, it won’t be longer, but we’ll see. And then everyone else, you know, Tree, we had not planned on playing. He came in when Trai got hurt and did OK. He’ll be fine for this week. Trovon Baugh, can’t say enough good things about him. Proud as heck of him. He fought like crazy to get healthy and able to play this week. He actually tweaked his knee against Missouri as well. Got out there and battled and played well. He’ll be fine. Cason Henry, I would say, was questionable this week. Vershon Lee, questionable, I would say. And Xavier Legette, like I told you guys in the press conference yesterday, he was not in there at the end of the game. Got his knee kind of rolled up on it, he felt like. But should be fine for this week.

Guys that played well or well enough for us to win, offensively was Mario Anderson and Nyckoles Harbor. Defensively was Tyreek Johnson. He played his butt off, played with great physicality and effort. Tonka Hemingway and Boogie Huntley inside had really active days. And then Nicky Emmanwori and Marcellus Dial as well. Obviously, we gave up a couple explosive passes. That can’t happen. But our guys, we still played a lot of man coverage yesterday against some really talented receivers. And we won our share of competitive plays. And then on special teams, Mitch Jeter, Boogie Huntley, and Hunter Rogers stood out. So, questions?

Q: I was wondering about Trey Knox with that hamstring and then Bryan Thomas, if he had any ill effects from that finger he popped out.

A: No, his finger’s fine. He did everything today in the weight room and is in good spirits. Bryan is. Trey, don’t think the hamstring is serious. And feel good about him for Saturday.

Q: I wanted to ask about Kai and kind of where he’s at with things. Obviously, not quite as consistent, I guess, as he’s been in the past. Where do you guys feel like he’s at from holding that job? And is it potentially that it could be up for grabs going forward?

A: Not up for grabs. He’s our punter. He’s proven what kind of punter he is. Has he performed as well as he would like? Maybe not. But we also have put a lot on his plate as well, whether it be rugbying and kicking to the left, rugbying and kicking back to the right, bombing punts. Yesterday, the whole plan was to try and kick it high with hang time and maybe sacrifice a little bit of distance.

You watch this returner. There have been some teams that have bombed punts away that look cool for the fans to see and flying through the air for 60 yards. But then the problem is now that guy’s got a chance to catch the ball and get moving and make people miss. And he makes people look silly when he does against some of the better teams in the SEC. So we wanted to punt the ball 40, 45 yards max yesterday with hang time and force fair catches. And we did not allow that returner to get going. Would we have wanted some of his punts to maybe look a little prettier in the air and things like that? Sure. But I thought he did his job yesterday. Can he be better? Absolutely. He’ll be the first to tell you he hasn’t done as well as he would like. But I’ve got total confidence in him and what he’ll be able to do these next four games, too.

Q: What was sort of the process that led to you guys going to that more spread out, three down look? Is that something you guys picked up from somewhere? And I guess also, what has Jamaal shown as of late to be able to get, I think it was, nine snaps at nose tackle?

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A: The three down stuff was something just to try and get a little bit more athleticism and production on the field. I don’t think you were there yesterday, but in the post-game press conference, we talked about it, that Jaron Willis is just a guy that continues to get better. He practices the right way. And at first, we saw him doing some of that stuff when we were getting ready to play Mississippi State. And he was the scout team linebacker. Jaron’s a twitchy, athletic guy that’s got a knack for rushing the passer. Really, it was just a way to get some different people on the field and try and just be a little bit more disruptive and not always playing four defensive linemen and two linebackers and five DBs, being multiple out of different personnel groupings. That was the one thing. And then as far as Jamal goes, he did OK. He was in there more yesterday, because when we were doing the three-down stuff, Nick Barrett was the nose tackle. And that was one of the three-down stuff where we had Jaron and Bam Scott on the field at the time. So we also did some true bear-type look defenses where we got Nick and some defensive linemen.

So really, just to give Nick a blow, Jamaal’s the backup in that position. He’s an athletic guy that just continues to, we need to continue to come along as well.

And then going back to the Kai thing, too, we’ve got confidence. Last time I checked, I think we’re 28th in the country right now in net punting. So have we kicked it? Great, no. But we’ve also faced some dynamic returners that we want to do our best to not get started as well. So we’ve got to be better all across the board punt-wise, but got total confidence in Kai.

Q: From time to time, Spencer has done some good things running the football. But I don’t recall yesterday that he even attempted to do anything, or y’all attempted to do anything with him running the football, whether it was a scramble or a called run. What was the thinking or the rationale behind that?

A: He did, I know of one we ran. Think it was in the second quarter we ran we were about the 25-yard line or so and basically ran three verticals and they played cover two and he tucked that one and ran for a little bit but not you know, not for a long run. I think some of it yesterday was trying to minimize the negative plays and you know, make sure we don’t take sacks. So, let’s get rid of the ball if it’s not if it’s not there initially, but I agree with you. One of Spencer’s traits is improvising when things break down and getting himself out of trouble and certainly felt like there were some times yesterday that he maybe had an opportunity to do that. I think the first intentional grounding we got beat at tight end by their nickel. You know, we’re double-teaming the tight end in pass pro, and he splits us. I told Spencer this already, that you know, I thought that was one that maybe he could have reversed out to the left and try and improvise. We got Nyck Harbor and Legette both running like verticals on the side on opposite sidelines

But again, Spencer was also trying to be smart and know that this team we were playing I think leads the SEC and sacks or leads the country now, I’m not even sure. But they’re really good up front. So, you know, we wanted to avoid negative plays and there’s a fine line between getting rid of the ball too quickly to avoid negative plays, but then also not giving yourself an opportunity to improvise and scramble which he is really good at too.

Q: Outside of executing when you went back and watched the film, what were some things that you felt the defense did a better job at yesterday that you’re going to hopefully look to be able to build build upon this week and where some things you’re still looking for them to be able to to be better at?

A: I love the effort they played with. I mean, they were they were flying around the field. You watch Stone Blanton, you watch Debo, you watch Nick Emmanwori on that play down in the red zone that he broke that pass up. Nobody can question our effort watching our guys play yesterday So that’s what we’ve got to continue to build on, that’s that’s what we should look like defensively. Now, we’ve got to continue to execute better We had some miscues there from a mental standpoint where either one d-lineman slants the wrong way and it ends up in a run or we don’t adjust properly to one of their formations up front and it turns into a touchdown when it really should be a one-yard gain in my opinion. So we’ve got to get better at that players and coaches, and then obviously takeaways. I mean, we were close yesterday, and that’s the thing that makes you sick is there are just so many missed opportunities. We have a punt that bounces off one of their guys and they’re able to come up with it. We hit their quarterback and he fumbles and they come up with it We have an opportunity where we get a couple, you know hands up in the air potentially on a ball that’s thrown by them and we don’t intercept it and missed opportunities there So probably just to take away knowing that we were close and that those will come. But we’d love to see more of those for sure.

Q: I wanted to clarify one thing I on the TV broadcast that the commentator (said). On that last touchdown in the half, it looked like a bit of a bust. He had sort of guessed that you guys were trying to bracket Smith and something went sideways there. Were you guys trying to double him in that case or was the the commentator mistaken?

Is that the one where he caught it over there on the sideline and then ran and made some people miss around the goal line? Yeah, he ran a good route. We certainly should have defended it better. He ran kind of like a post corner type route, deep sail concept, whatever you want to call it. We kind of got picked off and allowed some separation and didn’t quite Defend that as well. So I wouldn’t I wouldn’t necessarily call it a bust. I would just call it not, you know, not playing with the best technique possible I should say.

Q: Were you guys trying to double him or no?

A: I Won’t get into all that. I think I’m usually pretty open with you guys on schemes that we’re doing but I will say this, it wasn’t any sort of like new elaborate coverage that we put in for him. They just made a good play.

Q: I’m just wondering if you got a second look at DQ’s target on a film what you thought of that and is there a plan to go through NCAA appeal process? You could maybe play that first half next week if it gets overturned.

A: Certainly saw it on tape. Same thing I told you guys, that the official told me and I saw it on the video board during the game, is that he hit the guy with the crown of his helmet. Doesn’t matter if it’s the head, that’s how the rule is read. That’s a tough call because the kid’s not trying to hit the guy helmet to helmet. The kid’s trying to avoid a targeting and he gets one called on him. So did see it, certainly tough call. I get it. We will attempt, you know to appeal it and see if that goes anywhere. We already did that and waiting to hear back.

Q: I guess I should ask this just so we’ll be covered. Anybody been dismissed from the team since getting back from the trip

A: No. Nope. All good here.

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