Everything Shane Beamer said previewing South Carolina's spring football practice

South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer met with the media on Monday afternoon to preview the start of spring practice. Here’s everything he had to say.

Opening statement

“Well, first of all, happy Saint Patrick’s Day to everyone. It’s great to be back in here with all of you as well. A lot of great things going on over the weekend in Columbia, and obviously congrats to Coach Staley and what they did in Greenville last weekend. And then another NCAA Tournament appearance —should have been the number one overall seed. But they get a chance to show that here over the next three weekends, and confident they will so such a fun group to watch, best of luck. So to all of them, awesome job.

“I was out and about yesterday in Columbia and got to see a lot of great activities. So congrats to beach volleyball. It was fun getting out there and watching them play. And congrats on their match. 200th win in the history of the program, so awesome job. Big win for men’s tennis over the weekend. Softball, what a series win over Georgia yesterday. So congrats to Ashley and those ladies. And then I’m wearing my golf sweatshirt. One, because I love golf, and I appreciate Coach Bradley from the men’s team giving me the sweatshirt. But two, just making sure Gamecock Nation knows we’ve got two really good golf teams this year here at Carolina. The men are doing great things. They’re competing over in Georgia today. The women are doing amazing things and had a great tournament down in Hilton Head recently, and they’re down the road competing today in South Carolina. So I know they got SECs and nationals and everything coming up. I would encourage Gamecock Nation to get out there and watch them as well, because that’s two really good teams that will compete for championships this year as well, and a bunch of talented individuals also. So best of luck to all of our spring sports as they continue to move forward throughout the spring also. And again, like I said, fun weekend in Columbia this weekend, with all the activities that we had, sporting events that we had going on.

“I love this time of year. January and February have been good for the guys, but for us as coaches, what we love is to be able to get out on the field with the players, and that’s what starts this week — Pro Day tomorrow. We were just out on the field with the players. That’s why I was a few minutes late. I apologize. We went from that straight to a staff meeting, but it was great to be out on the field with our guys. But then also to be able to look around and see so many of our players from last year that are now back in town getting ready for Pro Day tomorrow. And a lot of NFL teams will be here tomorrow, and not just tomorrow, but the teams that come in for individual workouts and meetings with our players leading up to the drafts. We’ve got a ton of teams that will be here tomorrow, and then a ton of teams that will be here throughout the week and next week and next week to come in here to meet individually with guys and work them out also as well. But as I said, January and February were really good. Eager to finally get back out on the field and work with our guys. It’s a lot of new faces — a lot. We just went through outside, kind of a mock practice, how we do things in practice. So everybody knows where to go because there are so many new faces and new players that will be going through their first practice as a Gamecock. Really like the team that we have. It’s a fun group, very young, as you guys know, but really fun to be around. They put the work in in January and February. We have a lot more work to do, a lot that we have to improve at and be better at. For all the great things that we did in 2024, there are so many things that we need to get better at, when you look back at 2024 and things that could have been the difference in us being in the playoff last year versus not being in the playoff. If we can improve some significant areas, without a doubt. So our whole thing right now is just to continue to work, continue to improve, and take this thing even further. We’re excited about what we did last season, but nobody’s satisfied by any stretch of the imagination things. A very hungry group that wants to take things further in 2025 than what we did in 2024.

“I’ll tell you guys and told the team this morning, there’s no depth chart. We’re not getting ready for Virginia Tech this week. There’s a lot of new faces and there should be no preconceived notions about anything. Everybody’s competing. And as I told the players this morning, show us what you can do and that you’re a guy that loves to compete and loves football and can help us win football games, and we will find a role for you. Whether you’re a three-year starter or a guy who just got here, no preconceived notions about what spring practice is going to be or what your role is. Right now, everybody’s going to earn their roles, and that’s what starts on Wednesday. And looking forward to to getting going.”

Is anybody injured, hurt, or won’t be able to compete with in the spring?

“I literally just walked out of the staff meeting and I had the injury report, and I was going to bring it down here, and of course, I forgot it as well. Michael Smith will not go through spring practice at tight end. Caleb Williams will not go through spring practice on the defensive line. Ryan Brubaker will not go through spring practice on the offensive line. And Damola (Ajidahun), our freshman offensive lineman on the offensive line, will not go through spring practice. So unfortunately, those four guys are out for spring with some injury, things that you know, we wanted to go ahead and get done now, so they’d be ready to go for the season. Optimistic that maybe a couple of guys will be able to do a little bit more towards the end of spring practice but right now they won’t start with us and we’ll see how it goes as we go through the spring. But other than that, everybody is in good shape.”

You’re a special teams guy. You lost your kicker, punter, long snapper and holder from last year. Are there any top candidates at this point to keep an eye on?

“Yeah, I mean, that’s a situation for my first time as head coach. You don’t know. You don’t have a returning guy as a kicker, punter, long snapper and holder as well. So when you talk about, you know, I’ve been fortunate Kai’s (Kroeger) been our punter, I guess every year that I’ve been the head coach. Hunter (Rogers) has essentially been the snapper and Kai holding as well. So it’s scary, it’s exciting as well. But as far as candidates, you guys can look at the roster and see who’s there. They’re all competing and eager to get those guys out there and put them in some pressure situations as well, to see how they respond as well, at long snapper, at kicker, at holder and punter. And then you talk about, you know, in the return game, also, we need to get better. Juju (McDowell) did most of that for us last year. So we’re going to have a new punt returner and kickoff returner this year as well. So there’s a lot of lot of things that we got to figure out, and eager to get going on.”

Is Rahsul Faison cleared to play this fall?

“Yeah, we’re optimistic about everything. Is that 1,000% solidified right now? No. We’re very optimistic that we’ll get some good news here soon.”

The last couple of months, there’s been a lot of schools that have decided they have no use for a spring game and are concerned that there could be tampering or anything. Is South Carolina still going ahead with a spring game? And what are your thoughts on those concerns by other coaches and spring games going forward?

“Yes, we are absolutely going forward with a spring game. There’s a multitude of reasons for that. And then, in regards to not doing it, I understand why some coaches don’t, you know, I get it. There are a couple of things, a lot of thoughts on that. Number one, I don’t think having a spring game or not having a spring game is going to prevent teams from trying to tamper with our players. Teams know who’s on our roster. They don’t need to watch a spring game to say, ‘Oh, man, that guy’s a pretty good player. Let’s see if we can get him to go on the portal.’ Two, I hear people talk about injuries. Well, we’ve got for us this year, 13 practices leading up to the spring game. It’s not like we go out there and just play two-hand touch. I mean, there’s injuries that can happen in practice as well. And in a lot of ways, you worry, don’t get me wrong, we lost our starting left tackle two years ago in the spring game to an ACL injury. I understand that injuries can happen in a spring game, but they can also happen in practice in the 32 days or 30 days that are leading up to the spring game 32 days from now. I get that, but that’s something that isn’t weighing heavily on my mind necessarily.

“And then to me, there’s just so many benefits of doing a spring game. One for the fans. It’s awesome for our fans to be able to come out and see our football team perform in Williams-Brice Stadium. Some people who maybe aren’t able to come to a home game in Columbia on a Saturday, they’re able to come and watch this in the spring game, which I don’t want to take that away from from any of them. Two, I think maybe some of these schools that aren’t having spring games, they maybe draw 1000 people at best, and maybe not all of them. Look, I get it, Nebraska’s not having a spring game, they sell out their spring games. I’m not attacking Nebraska because of Nebraska, but there are schools that, if you watch their spring game, there’s nobody in the stands. That’s not going to be the case for us. So it goes back from a recruiting standpoint, we’ll have a lot of recruits here every day during spring practice. But from a recruiting standpoint, that’s a huge recruiting tool for us, and we’re doing it on a Friday night this year, so there’s no other spring games going on that I’m aware of on that Friday night. So it’ll be a great recruiting experience for us, and I don’t want to lose that, because a spring game in Williams-Brice is different than a spring game than maybe some places that I have watched on television before.

“I’ve been on the soap box for 15 years, almost 20 years now, about I wish we had a preseason game in college football. We don’t in 2025 so the benefits of our players being able to go perform in front of a crowd is a benefit. All of our freshmen, they’re all basically here right now, going through spring practice, except for like five guys. They get a chance to go play in front of however many 1000s of people that we’re going to have out there. It’s going to be a lot, which for a lot of guys, it’s the biggest crowd they’ve ever played in front of in their life. It’s bigger than any crowd they played in front of in high school. And they get that experience, and the first time they do, it isn’t in front of 70,000 people in Atlanta against Virginia Tech. And then, probably more than anything, our guys love to compete. They love to compete. And that’s an opportunity to go and Williams-Brice Stadium in front of a crowd and compete in a game setting. And if I told our players that we weren’t having a spring game, I think they’d be pretty dang disappointed, because of how much they do love to compete.”

What are some of the biggest things you want to focus on, so this new group is hitting around the running?

“Yeah, I think before you get into like personnel, it’s making sure that all of our players, whether it’s returning players or whether it’s new players, they understand that 2024 didn’t just happen. There was a lot of work that went into the 2024 season, on and off the field. So understanding that we’ve got to be even that much more intentional than 2025 to have the year that we all want to have. And then really it’s just there’s so many new faces. We lost a lot of veteran guys, particularly on the defensive side of the ball. I was just there all down in the training room before I walked out on the field a little bit ago. And you’re just reminded like, how many guys that have played a lot of football, Tonka (Hemingway) was down there and Vershon (Lee) was down there, and Rocket Sanders is down there, and Bam Martin-Scott and that’s a lot of guys that have been here for a while that are now gone. And we’re talented, there’s no question about it. But we’re young, and we have to develop leadership. We have to develop, you know, who’s this rotation, what’s this rotation going to look like? It’s exciting because there’s so many competitive battles going on in a lot of different positions. David brought up the specialist, but you can say that about every position on our offense and defense, there’s multiple battles going on for roles, and that’s what I’m excited to see as we get out there.”

One thing I think that gets overlooked a little bit is the job that Luke Day and his strength and condition and staff have done. We look back a year ago, some people on the outside looking in, questioning what was going on. You guys made some tweaks. What can you say about what he’s been able to do, especially over these last couple of weeks, in terms of the growth of some of these guys heading into spring ball?

“Yeah, I’m glad you asked that. He’s remarkable — Luke and his entire team is. That’s an experienced staff down there. When you just look at our strength and conditioning staff and the roles they’ve been in, to have a Chip Morton, who’s a long-time NFL head strength and conditioning coach a part of our staff, or Jamil Walker, who was a head strength and conditioning coach in the SEC, and we have him here with us right now, and all of those guys down there that have run their own teams at other schools as well. Nate Sedergren, Mitch Okey, those guys have been awesome. So it’s a really veteran group that Luke has down there, and they do a great job. They think outside the box. I think a lot of strength coaches, there’s just this cookie cutter here’s how we do it because every strength coach in America does it this way. Luke and his team, they do a great job of thinking outside the box and finding better ways of doing things. Luke always uses the term course correct when we’re on the right course, but we got off course a little bit. How do we correct and get back on course? And sometimes that may mean tweaking and changing some things, and they’re very willing to do that. But the development part of it is huge. If you just, you know, when you go back and you look at players that have come into our program from other schools, that thrived in our program and maybe didn’t thrive at other places, that goes back to the individual, but what we did in the weight room also.

“And you’re right, there’s some guys that were in Indy, in Indianapolis for the (NFL) Combine that a year ago at this time, I don’t think anybody in the NFL thought some of these guys were going to be in Indy. And they came here, and they spent a year in our program. They weren’t just in Indy. They thrived in Indy and are going to get drafted pretty high here next month as well. So credit to those young men, but credit to our strength and conditioning program. They’re fantastic. Not another group country I’d rather have.”

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What was that experience like for you getting to go to Capitol Hill earlier this month, and why was it so important for you to be there and testify?

“Yeah, honestly, it was terrifying. I can sit in here with you guys, and that can be nerve-wracking at times, but when you’re sitting there on national television — C-SPAN, or the internet, or whatever it was on that day, I don’t know. But you’ve got all these people from the Republican side, Democratic side, and they’re sitting there staring at you, it’s different as well. But it was exciting. So it was fun to be a part of. I’m honored that the SEC and Congressman Russell Fry reached out and asked me to be a part of it as well. I was honored to be on that panel or committee with some great athletes and an athletic director as well. it was an exciting, neat experience to be up there. It was the same day, obviously, as President (Donald) Trump’s address to Congress was that night. So there was a lot of energy, to say the least, on Capitol Hill that day. But it was neat to be a part of and a pretty cool experience. I’m a history buff, so to be able to be up there, and it’s the third time I’ve gone up there and met with people, but it’s the first time I’ve ever been on television testifying. So that was a little bit different. But neat to see people that you see on television. Neat to be able to talk SEC football with people on the side as well and be able to be a part of being on Capitol Hill and taking in everything. Emily, my wife, went with me. So that was the experience. And hustled back that night and got back in time to see us compete against Georgia basketball over in CLA as well.

“But it was important for me to be there as, just somebody that cares about, one, the student-athletes that I get to coach, but two cares deeply about the game of football and college athletics that I get to be a part of as well. So somebody thought that my opinion or my viewpoints on things were important to hear. I certainly didn’t take that responsibility lightly and prepared hard to go up there, and hope I did a decent job of representing. My biggest fear was walking out of there and creating national headlines with something I said. And I don’t think I did, but it was neat to be a part of. Going back in April as well for another day up there, also. Not testifying, though. Thank God.”

You mentioned some veteran players having to be replaced on the defensive side of the ball and some important leaders to the team. Is that something that offseason workouts, really on both sides of the ball, that you saw some, maybe some new leaders starting to emerge a little bit?

“Yeah with defense, that’ll be a work in progress, for sure. But no, it’s huge. I don’t think people talk about that enough. One of the reasons, if you go back to last year at this time, and I think I said this to you guys before that I felt a lot better about the 2024 team at this time last year than probably anybody outside our building did, because of the amount of leadership that we brought back. Guys that were invested and cared and had the utmost respect for the players on this team. We lost so much of that last year at this time. You guys know we vote on captains at the end of the season. I think it was something like six of our top nine vote-getters for captain on the 2023 team were coming back in 2024. Now, I think one of our top nine is coming back, or one of our top eight, and that’s LaNorris (Sellers).

“So if you look at it defensively, there’s a big void in leadership. Who are those guys going to be? And you can’t just make it happen. You can’t say, ‘Okay, Nick Barrett, you’ve been around here four years. Now it’s time to be the leader of five years, whatever it is, or Jalen Kilgore, or DQ Smith, or Judge Collier. I mean, there’s guys and they’re embracing those roles, but it’s just kind of, you got to let it happen. Certainly, you’ve got to be intentional about putting them in positions to lead. And we’ve tried to do that with some of the stuff that we’ve done in the weight room, for sure, and putting guys in leadership roles to learn to embrace that. But it’ll be a work in progress, certainly over the spring and over the summer, preseason camp, throughout the season.

“It’s about this time last year we do what we did a week ago Thursday, before spring break, what we call Grit Night. That was the first night I remember last year that I heard Demetrius Knight really address the team. And I remember thinking, holy smokes, like this guy’s different with the voice that he has and the way that he’s able to talk to the players and the way they listen. And I walked out of there saying this guy’s gonna be a leader for us, and that was, like I said, March last year. So it’ll continue to happen, but that’s a big challenge for us. Got the right guys, but big opportunities for them stepping into those roles.”

After getting a taste of Congress, are you considering a run?

“Not anytime soon. I love coaching better, so I don’t think so. I think Senator (Tommy) Tuberville and some of the other coaches that are up there that are now in DC, they’ve got it handled here for a while. I enjoy politics. I enjoy following it and keeping up with it, but I think I’ll stick to coaching football for the time being, for a long time.”

On a more serious note, what do you want to see this spring from Air Noland and Cutter Woods in particular?

“We talked about competition and no preconceived notions. All right. Well, LaNorris Sellers is going to go into spring practice as our starting quarterback. Let’s be real, it’s going to be hard to beat him out, but I want to see those guys compete. And I don’t know exactly what it’s going to look like in that quarterback room, because we’re still very young. Dante Reno is in his second year in college. Air Noland is in his second year in college. LaNorris is in his third year in college coming up this season. Cutter Woods is in his first practice ever as a Gamecock on Wednesday. And then Jimmy Francis is in that room. He’s finishing up his first year in college, so that’s a very young quarterback room. And LaNorris, yes, he’s got a season as the starter, but he’s still young in a lot of ways also. So I want to see those guys compete, and I’ve been impressed with them. I feel like Air has done a good job of coming in here and kind of changing his body and getting in shape and improving. And Dante, I feel like has taken a step just watching him feel a little bit here in the last couple of months. And Cutter’s really impressive. What he did in high school, he’s a winner, and he’s a talented guy, without a doubt. So we’ll throw those guys in a lot of settings and give them a lot of opportunities this spring to see how that room shakes out, without a doubt. But that’s what I want to see is just watch them compete and take a step.”

Shane, you lost a lot on the back end with OD Fortune and Nick Emmanwori. What have you seen from some of your veteran defensive backs? What are those guys doing to get the young guys ready?

“Yeah, they realize that one, if you’re a returning starter like Judge and DQ and Jalen, they realize that we just lost two pretty good starters in O’Donnell fortune and Nick Emmanwori. So it’s time for them to really, you know, take the next step and elevate their game if they will. I’ve seen them do that with guys that haven’t been starters that have been around our program for a couple of years. Now it’s time for Emory (Floyd) to take the next step. It’s time, and I’ve seen him be very committed and seize that opportunity in front of him and he’s really worked hard to embrace an opportunity that he has right now. And then the new guys that have come in with Myles Norwood and Damarcus Leach and Brandon Cisse. Those guys have come in and done a really good job as well. And then that safety position, we got a lot of guys that have played some special teams for us and played on defense, Gerald Kilgore, David Bucey, Peyton Williams. What does that safety position look like next to DQ as well? So there’s some great battles, but I’ve seen the guys do the things that we want them to do in January and February. Now the key is going to be how they take that next step when they get out there on the practice field.”

One more question on Rahsul Faison. Is he permitted to practice when you guys are on the field?

“Yes.”

You mentioned you’re confident with Faison, but what’s sort of expectation with the running back group as a whole when they’re competing?

“It’s a fun group. I’m excited about it. Oscar Adaway did some really good things for us last year and had a nice bowl game. I’m looking forward to seeing him take the next step. The touchdown run he had in the bowl game on fourth down that we went for on fourth and one and then scored over there on the right side by our sideline. I mean, that was a really impressive run. If you go back and watch it from the end zone, just his vision to be able to see it open up and make the cut that he did and trust his blocking. He’s very motivated to have a great 2025. And then Rahsul coming in, a talented guy from Utah State, that’s played a lot of football. And as an older guy that’s really talented, getting him in the mix to compete.

“And then two young guys, I mean, Matthew Fuller and Jawarn Howell were two of our more impressive players in all of the testing that we did over the last couple weeks of our guys, seeing how they performed during January and February, all of our like, basically our combine — those testing numbers. Those two guys were really, really impressive, talking about Jawarn and Matthew. So now it’s time for them to take the next step and compete. Bradley Dunn’s been around our program for a while, and Chase McCracken and Larry Scott, Nathan Harris-Waynick, there’s a bunch of guys in there — Neil Salvage. So that’s a room that’s got a ton of bodies that you start talking about who’s going to play running back? Those guys need to be able to play special teams. So that’s one of the many position battles that we have. But to kind of answer your question, it’s a mix of two older guys in Rahsul and Oscar and then some young guys as well. Eager to see how it all shakes out. You need more than one, you need more than two, you need more than three, just because of the wear and tear that position has.”

How have you felt the last couple months about the NIL infrastructure and backing at South Carolina, and how much has that allowed you to retain the roster these last couple years?

“It’s been fantastic. Obviously, you’re always searching, like every sport, and every program is, you’re always searching for avenues of revenue to be able to bring into your program, without a doubt. But I think first and foremost, you want guys in your program that want to be in your program for the right reasons. And we do. We have guys, certainly, we’re very competitive from an NIL standpoint, but I’ll put our culture up against anyone. And when you ask players that come from other programs about it, they’ll tell you the same thing, just how it’s different here. And I really am grateful when I hear them say that without a doubt. I want people that want to be here. I want people that want to be here for the right reasons, and we have that. Certainly, there’s a lot of expectations for us in 2025. We’ve got a good thing going, and we’re really just getting started in a lot of ways, also, as you talk about the future of this program and where we’re going. But we’ve got a great group of young men who are close and connected and want to be a part of this team and know they can be developed here. And everybody has their goals for what they want to accomplish as a student-athlete and beyond. I would say everybody in our program wants to play in the NFL, and if you get an opportunity to go play in the NFL that’s going to be a lot more than you ever made from an NIL standpoint while you’re in college.

“So just making sure that you’re making the best decisions for the next 10-15 years of your career and not so much what you can get for the next six months or a year as well. It starts with recruiting, bringing the right guys into our program, and then when they get here, being who we say we are as a program treating them the right way, and realizing what they told me in recruiting is exactly what’s happening here when they get in our program. Because I think that’s when you get in trouble is when you tell a guy something in recruiting, and then they get into your program and they realize that’s not quite what I thought it was going to be. And that’s not quite what you told me. That that doesn’t happen here. And it goes back to trust and the way we treat our guys.”

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