Everything Shane Beamer said about Lonnie Teasley firing, LSU loss on Sunday teleconference

One day after South Carolina’s 20-10 loss to LSU, head coach Shane Beamer spoke to the media in his weekly Sunday teleconference. Here’s everything he had to say.

Opening statement

“All right, last night, looking at it offensively, our staff felt like Rahsul Faison, Matthew Fuller, and Brady Hunt played really well and played well enough for us to win. Defensively, Dylan Stewart, Monkell Goodwine, and Peyton Williams really stood out. And then on special teams, Mason Love did a great job punting last night and controlling field position for us. Moe Brown and David Busey on our coverage and return units on that one.

“Injury-wise, those guys that left will have a better idea as the week goes on; they’re getting some testing done today. Obviously, Shed (Sarratt) and Brandon (Cisse) were the two from last night, and then Nolan Hay and Cason Henry. I’d say all those guys are questionable, probably at best, as we sit here today.

“Really disappointing game last night to do as many good things as we did and to come up short, didn’t finish six drives, I believe, in plus territory, and to get 10 points out of that when we’re in scoring range or field goal range, and we went backwards so many times, that’s what can’t happen. So got to get that fixed.

“Obviously, you guys are going to want to talk about he decision today to move on from Lonnie Teasley. First of all, Lonnie is a fantastic coach, fantastic person. Has an unbelievable family, and these decisions aren’t easy. I hurt for him and his family. I watched the tape of the game on my iPad on the plane, and after getting done watching it, it wasn’t just from last night. It was thinking about kind of where we are and the overall body of work on the offensive line, really us as an offense right now, and looking at the overall body of work, I felt like the best decision for our team was to make a change with the offensive line. I got back to my house last night at, I mean, four in the morning is when I walked in my house. Knew Jeremiah (Donati) was awake because he was on the plane with us. So I called Jeremiah at 4:18 a.m., and I talked to him for a little bit about where my head was and what I was thinking and making sure he was okay with it. Went to bed, slept for about an hour, and then I’ve been back here in the office since then, and met with Lonnie this morning and informed him of my decision.

“Again, this isn’t a scapegoat, because we didn’t perform well enough offensively. He’s been a part of a lot of great wins that we’ve had here and has directly contributed to a lot of great wins. Even last night, people wanted to beat up the offensive line last night. We protected well. You guys like to tweet all this PFF crap. PFF doesn’t know when the running back was supposed to be involved in protection. PFF doesn’t know when the tight end was supposed to be involved in protection. PFF doesn’t know when the quarterback was hot and needed to get rid of the ball. We weren’t good enough, protection-wise, but to sit there and say that it was on the offensive line would be short-sighted. We lined up and gained 252 yards rushing last night, and that’s not easy to do against a really good SEC defense, but overall, big picture, just didn’t think we were progressing and getting the most out of that unit. Too many self-inflicted mistakes that keep showing up, and I felt like the best thing would be just to see if we can get a spark and have a new voice in there.

“So Shawn Elliott is going to take over the offensive line. I met with the offensive line privately today before our team meeting to tell them where my head was and what I was doing and why, and then Shawn visited with them and then informed the team. Days like these aren’t easy. I don’t make these decisions lightly, but because I hurt for his family, and when you’re in this position, you have to make hard decisions that negatively affect people you care about, and this is one of them. But my ultimate responsibility is to this program and this team, and I felt like we just needed a new voice in that offensive line room. So we’re not going to sit around and feel sorry for ourselves about last night. So it was a really difficult loss for us, because we had opportunities to win that game, and we didn’t get it done. We didn’t finish, but we’re going to get right back to work. So got back late last night, and everybody’s tired, but we’re going to get out on the field here in 30 minutes and have a hell of a practice tonight, and get better tomorrow during this day off, and then get back in here on Tuesday and get right back to work against another big challenge with the Oklahoma Sooners coming to town.”

Who’s going to coach tight ends with Shawn Elliott coaching the offensive line?

“That’ll be a combination of Shawn can still be involved in some ways, because the tight ends and the offensive line work together so well from a run game standpoint, and even in protection. So there’ll be times where they can meet together, and then Ben Burris will take a more active role with them. Ben has experience. He’s been with the Carolina Panthers, has been with the New York Giants. He’s been a great addition to our staff. He was working closely with Mike Furrey and the receivers. So Ben’s going to be more involved with the tight ends, along with Todd Haney, who’s a young student assistant that we have that’s worked with those guys, but Shawn will still be involved with those guys. Ben will be primarily the tight ends coach, so to speak, and then we’re fortunate that we’ve got some veteran guys in there, like Brady Hunt and Jordan Dingle, that know what needs to be done.”

With Elliott taking over, particularly with the injuries on the O-line, how much do you think this unit can improve? Is it a case of simplifying or just playing better?

“I think it’s everything, and I think we’ve improved in a lot of ways already this season. And I don’t think many head coaches make a change when you just had 252 yards rushing that we gained, or whatever it was. So, you take the fourth quarter of the Kentucky game, and you take last night, we were trending in the right direction. There’s no question about it. But I just look at some of the self-inflicted things that we had last night on the offensive line, whether it be pre-snap penalties, whether it be snap infractions, whether it be a fumbled snap, a bad snap. There were just a lot of things last night that were not playing winning football.

“I told our offensive coaches, this is not a make a change, and Lonnie is the fall guy. Like everybody on our staff, offensive staff and defense, we had some breakdowns last night that were critical. But everybody on our offensive staff, our offensive staff needs to be better, and it’s not good enough right now. And everybody on our offense, players included, needs to be better. Everybody needs to take some accountability and do their job better.

“But particularly with Shawn in the offensive line, I think just a new voice in there and a different personality, you know, Lonnie and Shawn, but a different voice in there that will bring a little bit different message, way to coach it, whatever. I mean, we can’t sit in here in Week 7 and make wholesale changes to everything that we’re doing, but we can certainly coach things a little bit differently and handle things a little bit differently during the week. Hopefully, we can minimize some of the self-inflicted things that we’ve had and clean that up and get better.”

Is everything else still on the table, if you had to make any other coaching moves throughout the season, or is this just more of an isolated thing with Teasley that you felt was best to do at this time?

“I’m always going to do what I feel is best for the team, and right now, this is what I feel is best for the team. If I felt that making other changes was what would give us the best chance to be successful, I would certainly do it. I see what we’re doing, and I see what we’re trying to get done, and I see how close we are. We need to be better, because we had plenty of opportunities last night and we didn’t get it done. But I think right now, the best thing is to continue to stay the course.

“I mean, I don’t know, but I’m assuming that last year, at this time, when we got hammered at home by Ole Miss, I’m sure there were a lot of people wanting me to fire the offensive coordinator last year after the Ole Miss game. I know there were after the Old Dominion game, because I got those text messages. But we stayed the course, and then we continued to get better, and then we played some better offensive football. I’m sure back in 2022 people after we lost to Florida down in Gainesville that night, I’m sure people were on me to fire the offensive coordinator. Well, we stayed the course, and then we came back and scored 63 points the next week against Tennessee and 31 the following week against Clemson. So in my mind, we need to do what we’re doing, do it better, and everyone, players and coaches, and continue to stay the course. But ultimately, there’s no time frame. I’ll always do what I feel is best for the team, and today was what I felt was best for the team.”

You mentioned kind of watching your iPad on the plane ride home, but was this kind of a decision you were trending towards for a while now, and the LSU game was kind of just the straw that broke the camel’s back?

“I would say, you’re always evaluating. And certainly, I did not get on the plane and watch the tape of the game on my iPad, and all of a sudden, just come to a decision at four o’clock in the morning, ‘Here’s what we need to do.’ You’re always evaluating, I’m always evaluating myself. I’m always evaluating every person in this program, so that is an ongoing thing. And I like the way that we finished last season offensively and really felt like we would take another step, and statistically, we have not been good enough. We did last year, and a lot of those were LaNorris sellers scrambles, but we were much better at running the ball last year. But we haven’t been good enough consistently, year in, year out, running the football. We haven’t been good enough at protecting the quarterback, meaning sacks, and that’s a trend that we need to be better at.

“And I felt like we had turned the corner last year and would be better this season, and we haven’t been. And in Lonnie’s defense, I mean, we’ve had tons of injuries on the offensive line this year, and we’ve had some freshmen, you know, true freshmen that have had to play, two true freshmen with Shed and Damola Ajidahun. We had injuries last night. We still performed really well in a lot of ways. It’s something that I would say that I’m always evaluating, but I did not sit down in my seat on the plane last night at whatever time in the morning and start watching my iPad, and then just all of a sudden come up with a decision. It’s something that has been a culmination of thorough evaluation after every game, just like I do with every position group, every coach, and every player and myself.”

With some of the quarterback pressures, how much of that do you think has affected LaNorris Sellers and him being able to keep his eyes downfield, as well as his just general comfort moving and operating in the pocket?

“It certainly is a factor. I mean, we had some plays open last night, two of them, one to Nyck Harbor. That was the catch that looked like he might have caught it, but he didn’t. I mean, that was one where we got some pressure on just, you know, little TE twists that every team runs. We had one little mesh concept where Brady Hunt is wide open in the middle of the field, going in towards their student section and their band, and LaNorris has got some pressure and wasn’t able to see him. So yes, that pressure, but again, a lot of that pressure too last night, that’s not on the offensive line. Some of it’s on the back. Some of it’s on the tight ends. Some of it is on LaNorris, too, when they’re bringing more than we can protect, getting rid of it. So it wasn’t very clean. But obviously, when you’re feeling some pressure, we were late off the snap a couple of times last night, but when you’re feeling some of that pressure, it’s not going to allow the quarterback to be at his best or most comfortable. There’s no question about it.”

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Have you been in touch, or have you gotten an answer on the fake punt penalty?

“I have been in touch. I called the SEC head of officials this morning. I think I woke (John McDaid) up. He gave me his response. I’ll keep that between us, but I’ll just say that what I thought was what he conveyed. And I don’t know if that’s supposed to make me feel better or feel worse. It’s still kicking the you know what. Disappointing that we weren’t able to stay on the field there offensively after that fake punt.”

When Elliott moves to the offensive line, does that change the way he kind of works with Mike Shula? What is that process there?

“Potentially. I think we’re still kind of working through this thing right now. I mean, I met with Lonnie this morning. And then as soon as I met with Lonnie, I met with Shawn and Mike together, and told them my decision, and then what I wanted to do going forward. And I think that’s something that they’re working through. We just met as an offensive staff right after that, and we had a staff meeting. Then we met with the players, and then the offensive staff has been together for the last 90 minutes or so, meeting and working, and then we’re getting ready to go out on the field. So I think that’ll be something that will kind of come together.

“But Shawn’s been involved. I mean, when I hired him, he’s the tight ends coach, but he also had the title of run game coordinator, and that’s not just some cute title that I gave him to come from Georgia State. He’s been heavily involved in our run game. And when you’re when you’re coaching tight ends, you’re obviously involved in everything pass game, run game protection, and now is the offensive line coach. In a lot of ways, you’re kind of in just the O-line world, meaning you’re not worried about what routes the receivers are running specifically. I mean, you need to know in order to how to protect it. But it may change some things. I mean, he’ll be involved when we sit in offensive staff meetings and we’re watching seven-on-seven of passing in practice. That’s typically when the offensive line coach is watching something that’s not seven-on-seven, because he’s not really involved in routes. So, I mean, it’ll change some of that, but overall structure of how we’re doing things offensively and what Shawn’s doing each day wouldn’t be crazy wholesale changes, but Shawn’s been heavily involved in our run game, and talking to Mike Shula about our run game. But certainly when you’re the offensive line coach, you’re going to have even more of a voice on them.”

You guys are now six games into the year, and the offensive stats haven’t changed all too much. A few weeks ago, you said you don’t put too much stock into stats that early in the year, but does that change at all now that you have a larger sample size, or do you still feel the same way?

“No, I think you can certainly kind of skew stats or twist stats to create whatever narrative you want, good and bad, not just you guys. I mean players, coaches, fans, whoever. But I’ll say to you what I told our staff today: we’re now six games in. So yeah, when I said that, that was two or three games in, we’re now six games in, and we got a pretty good idea of who we are as a team. We got a pretty good idea of what we do well, what we don’t do as well, what we need to get better at, and what we need to continue to amplify that we do well, and that’s what we’re trying to do. So yeah, there’s stats, trust me, that are very alarming, if you look at it, that it’s not good and needs to be better. But also look at again, the fourth quarter of the Kentucky game, and last night, I mean, we had a plan to win. One of the things in our plan to win is to run the ball, and that’s averaging over 4.3 yards a carry, which is what we did last night. So I think I want to say for the first time this season, maybe we hit that — our yards per carry. The problem was that we went backwards way too many times with just dumb penalties, and that sabotaged what we were getting done on a drive when we went backwards. So those are stats that aren’t good enough, and they’re alarming right now, but also see how we’re improving, and need to keep taking steps. I’m confident that this is a way to help us get better.”

What were the contributing factors to the run game having that success last night? Were there any significant changes or just things finally starting to click for you guys across the board?

“I’d say a little bit of everything. I thought we had a good plan, and what we did, we wanted to run the quarterback. We did that with some called runs. We did that with some quarterback draws. Really thought that Matthew Fuller and Rahsul did an awesome job out there of getting downhill and breaking tackles, and showing their speed. I like the plan that our guys put together from an offensive staff, and then our guys did a good job up front of playing physical and being able to move people at times. That’s a team that really nobody had run the ball on, so it was good to be able to see us do that. And then this week will be another big challenge against these guys, because Jack talked about stats. I know going into the Texas Game, you look at every defensive stat in the country, they’re like one or two, meaning Oklahoma. So we’ve got to be better this week. But those are some of the things that I saw last night.”

How do you coach Sellers to get the ball out quicker midway through the season? Are there ways you can scheme him or practice to get him to get it out earlier?

“You just simulate it in practice and keep working at it. I think there really wasn’t, I mean, LaNorris, don’t misunderstand what I’m saying, I think there was one time, maybe last night, that I can remember correctly, where they brought more than we had blockers for, and he sat in there and got rid of the ball. But we do want to be able to continue to make good, quick decisions and get rid of it. And we can help him with that on scheme, and we can help with what we’re calling, and then we can also help him on that with how we’re drilling it in practice.

“So he did some good things and was very knowledgeable and controlled the offense last night, run-pass, flipping protections at the line of scrimmage. I thought he did a really nice job in a hostile environment. And then we’ve got to continue to help him to just be decisive with the ball, and then we’ve got to get open too. That’s a really good defensive back group that we played last night, and they lined up and played man coverage basically all night long on us. We’ve got to be able to get open. And then we as coaches got to do a great job of designing ways for our guys to continue to get open also.”

With the job that Teasley did in recruiting by bringing in a lot of talented offensive linemen, is that something that you worry about moving forward, losing a guy like that, with what that might do for potential recruits moving into the future?

“Yeah, certainly it’s a concern, and that’s something that Jeremiah and I actually talked about at 4:30 in the morning last night, towards the end of our phone conversation. What I said to him, and it’s the truth, is, you know, my responsibility is for the South Carolina football team right now, this 2025 football team, and not doing something because of a handful of recruits is not the right decision. The right decision is to do what’s best for the current football team and this team going forward, and that’s what I did. But those prospects that you’re talking about, whether it be committed guys or guys that we’re recruiting, I’ve been on the phone with two of them specifically. I called them before the news came out, because I wanted them to hear it from me. I’ve talked to a parent of theirs, if not both parents, and I’ve talked to their high school coaches, and just explained where I was coming from and why I made the decision that I did, and what a great person and great coach that Lonnie Teasley is.

“He’ll continue to have a great coaching career, and he’s done so many great things for our program, and I love him. It was really, really, really, really hard for me this morning to have that conversation with him. It’s something I don’t enjoy, obviously. But as I conveyed to those recruits, this coaching profession is wild. And I know every assistant coach that’s recruiting every kid in the country says, ‘Well, I’m going to be at the school that I’m at right now, and I don’t want to go anywhere.’ But every assistant coach in the country has goals, whether it be to be a coordinator or coach in the SEC or coach in the NFL, or go be a head coach and everything. So people move and people chose schools for reasons, and certainly the position coach is an aspect of that. But there’s a lot of other reasons that people chose the University of South Carolina, or are considering the University of South Carolina, beyond who the position coach is.”

Isaiah Augustave wasn’t obviously on the trip last night. Was that just a coach’s decision, or is there something else going on with him?

“No, nothing going on. Love Zay. He’s been fantastic working in practice. He’s going to be a great player for us. Right now, he certainly would be in the mix of one of our better running backs. But we felt like going into last night that those three were our top three guys. And Bradley Dunn went on the trip. He’s playing special teams, and Jawarn Howell, somebody that we’re excited about. So coach’s decision, but nothing has changed with Isaiah. I love him, and he’s going to be a great player for us. And wish he had been here for spring practice and was even farther along than where he is right now.”

How do you come away from a defensive performance like last night, where it seemed like there were plenty of really solid plays, but then you have those breakdowns kind of mixed in, as well as some game-saving plays at the goal line?

“Yeah, I mean, there’s a lot to build on. I mean, so proud of our defense. We use the mantra, ‘Put the ball down,’ and they just kept going out there and putting the ball down. And I was trying to think in the postgame press conference, there was a third down where that scenario came out. Somebody popped, punched it out. I mentioned Arkansas, Memphis, I mentioned Miami, and the New York Jets. The other one was the 49ers in the Rams game. We showed all three of those games to our players in the team meetings on the last two Fridays. So it was good to see our guys do that. I mean, you saw DQ Smith on that fumble. We have a drill called goal line tackle, and DQ did that goal line tackle, and then Kell came in and knocked the ball out. So that was an awesome play.

“The turnovers we had, those were awesome, and holding them to a field goal on that last drive, that was awesome. Not so awesome was letting (Garrett) Nussmeier get out on that long scramble when we had him on 3rd and 7 and ran a little pass rush game with pressure. Nussmeier did a nice job of getting out of it. What wasn’t awesome was giving up a slant for a touchdown, and we’re bringing pressure and playing man coverage with no help; we don’t play the coverage with quite the right technique. So that’s the thing. I mean, our guys were awesome in so many ways. They played their butts off last night, the effort they played with, the competitive stamina that they played with the entire night in all three phases. We expected to win that game, but so many of LSU’s yards last night came on explosives, and that’s what we’ve got to be able to eliminate.”

Jalon Kilgore was dealing with it was a hamstring earlier during camp and the early part of the season. Is that still affecting him at all?

“I think he’s gotten past that. It’s something that he really works hard on to manage and take care of in the weight room every morning at 6 a.m. by himself, working out. He’s usually in there before he has to be in the building, just trying to get some preventive stuff done to manage that hamstring and be at his best. So it’s not affecting him right now.”

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