Everything Shane Beamer said on Sunday night

South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer conducted his usual teleconference on Sunday and further detailed the Gamecocks’ win over Kentucky.

Here’s an edited transcript of everything Beamer had to say:

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OPENING STATEMENT: Really proud of our guys last night. Just so impressed with their toughness, mental fortitude. Battled throughout the night. That was a really good physical SEC football game, and our guys were fantastic, just hanging in there and made enough plays in the end to win.

I want to thank our fans for the environment that was created. They were awesome and had recruits in our facility most of the day and had one just walk out of my office about 30 minutes ago. And that’s what he and his mom commented on was the biggest thing they took from last night was just the atmosphere in that stadium. So thank our fans for that.

We tackled well defensively. We were active defensively. Three tackles for loss, two sacks, six PBUs, two hits on the quarterback. And we had four batted balls by our count. So that’s being disruptive. And then winning a turnover battle was huge. Offensively, obviously, we weren’t happy with it throughout the night, but played well in the first quarter and made enough plays to win in the fourth quarter. And, you know, outscored them 7-0 in the fourth quarter, which is what it comes down to in tough games like that.

Offensively, our players of the game were Xavier Legette and Spencer Rattler. Defensively, our players of the game were Jordan Strachan, Tonka Hemingway, Nick Emmanwori, and Jalen Kilgore.

Special teams was Hunter Rogers, Kai Kroger had a really big night punting the football, and Marcellas Dial came in with O.D. being out and did a great job as our gunner on the punt team.

And then our scout team players of the week were offensively Joseph Morris, defensively Colin Bryant, and special teams was Zavier Short. We always recognize somebody outside the program for their contributions, and they’re the Gamecock MVP. This week’s Gamecock MVP was Darude. He was awesome. Thanks to him for coming all the way from Finland and enjoyed meeting him after the game.

[Win two tickets to the South Carolina-Clemson football game]

Injury-wise, for the first time all season, we are in great shape. Not a single issue coming out of last night’s game. JT Geer got poked in the eye and didn’t play in the fourth quarter, but he’ll be fine for Saturday. Obviously, we’re beat up. It’s week 12. It’s been a physical year, but we’re in pretty good shape from a health standpoint. Got a chance to get Trai Jones back this week, a chance to get Cason Henry back, and a chance to get Dakereon Joyner back, as well as Jaxon Hughes. We’ll see as the week goes, but as we sit here on Sunday night, optimistic on those guys.

Q: Obviously, Clemson coming up on Saturday. You’ve been here as a head coach and an assistant. What do you remember about the 2009 and 2010 Clemson games?

BEAMER: 2009, that was we beat them at home, right? Thanks for bringing that up, David. I remember that all week long, it was, you’re not going to kick to C.J. Spiller, are you? My answer was, yeah, if I don’t kick to Spiller, they’ve also got Andre Ellington and Jacoby Ford back there, so who exactly do you want us to kick it to?

We kicked it to him, we were offsides, and then DJ Swearinger and those guys got with me in the huddle on the sideline, and they were basically like forget about it, coach, that’s being the G-rated version, forget about it, kick it to him again, we’ll go tackle him. We kicked it to him again, and he went right down the sideline in front of me for a touchdown. So it was a lesson, nothing good ever happens on a re-kick, but after that it was a good day for the Gamecocks.

2010 was memorable, we had already clinched the spot in the SEC Championship game, we knew we were going to Atlanta, but we still knew how important that rivalry was, and went up there on a Saturday night. I remember their punt team, they had a bad snap over near our sideline that resulted in great field position for us, we were moving around a bunch of guys on our punt pressure team trying to make the snapper nervous, and he snapped one over the punter’s head. I remember Antonio Allen with a pick six, we brought a little zero blitz, and Antonio, if I’m not mistaken, was like the blitzer, but then he peeled with the back when the back flared, and that was a huge play in the game also, so a great way to create some momentum as we headed into Atlanta the next week.

Q: I didn’t catch if you mentioned his name in talking about the injury, but Juice Wells, any chance he can suit up and play this Saturday?

[Enter to win a framed ‘Pubs of Columbia’ print from Vista Art]

BEAMER: There’s a chance, we’ll see what happens. And again, I know people think I’m like lying about this, and just making up stuff, like there’s a chance, and we’ll see how the week goes, and if Juice was 100 percent done for the year, I would have announced that like I do every single other injury that comes up throughout the season, if it’s season ending, and that’s not where we are. We’ll see how he feels this week.

Q: Obviously, I know you understand and the team understands how big of a game this is coming up this weekend, but with all the implications riding on it from a bowl game standpoint, momentum that y’all have accumulated the last couple weeks, and the fact that it is the Palmetto Bowl, do you worry about the team maybe getting a bit too psyched up, and if so, how do you go about sort of corralling that, I guess, as the week progresses

BEAMER: Yeah, no, it’s a great point. Certainly you do. It’s been an emotional year. It’s been a tough year in a lot of ways, and we’ve had three good Saturdays in a row, and then there is the rivalry week. We know what this week means to the fans. There’s the bowl game part of it. Certainly it’s something that I’m very cognizant of, and for us and what I told the team today, it’s going to be about us preparing well during the week mentally and physically to go play well on Saturday night. No matter what the ramifications are and all that stuff, it comes down to playing well on Saturday night.

So that’s what we need to focus on and what we will focus on, and need to go play well against a really, really good team.

Q: I wanted to ask about the run defense last night and what you guys felt like you were able to do mostly limiting a ground game that’s been pretty productive for that program over the years.

BEAMER: Yeah, I thought we did a great job. They’re physical. The running backs are talented. We saw what number one did on tape against Florida early in the season. So impressed with the physicality that we played with on defense, the effort that we played with. There were some awesome players out there last night. We had a couple that popped out of there. The touchdown run is disappointing. We missed the tackle, and we didn’t fit that quite the right way up front. So that’s disappointing. And then they had a couple of other ones that popped out of there, but for the most part held them on check, and it comes back to just mixing up things we were doing schematically, playing with great effort, playing with great physicality, and guys just making plays.

Q: How much carryover is there from Kentucky and the type of schemes, the type of run plays that they run compared to Clemson? Is there any similarity at all that way or not really?

BEAMER: It’s early to say. We’re just diving into the, you know, Clemson prep. I mean, I’ve seen them on TV a couple times this year, watched a little bit of their game yesterday in the hotel. So hard to say from a schematic standpoint how much there ist. You know, Kentucky’s quarterback was athletic. But, you know, I did see at the end of their game yesterday that, (Cade) Klubnick, (Phil) Mafah, and (Will) Shipley, if I’m not mistaken, all had double digit carries in the game yesterday. So we know we’ve got to be ready to handle the quarterback run a little bit more than what we did yesterday with Kentucky. And, you know, have a better answer for you on Tuesday after we’ve had more time to look at them.

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Q: It just seems like Debo Williams has had kind of a very quiet, fantastic season. He’s got 100 tackles, nine tackles for losses. What can you say about his effort and his production this year?

BEAMER: Yeah, he’s just been steady and consistent. You know, he’s playing a lot of plays. Hardly ever comes off the field. He’s always been a high effort, physical football player. And he still is. He’s getting more of an opportunity this year. He’s not splitting time with guys like he was last year or as much. I mean, we’re still rotating guys in. But last year, you know, with Brad and those guys, he was kind of rotating in a little bit less. He’s getting an opportunity. And he’s been a great player for us on the field. He’s been a great leader as well. I mean, he’s one of our more vocal leaders on the football team and happy for the year that he’s having.

Q: You guys, just three weeks ago were two and six, and you were talking about November to remember. What was it about your guys and your message at that time that have allowed them to buy in so much over the last three weeks and put yourself in the position that you want?

BEAMER: I don’t know. It’s probably a better question for them. I don’t want to, like, you know, pat myself on the back for anything that I said. You know, to me, it was just the consistency that we tried to display as a staff and, you know, what I saw. And we were a good football team, and we were having good weeks of practice. And then on Saturdays, there were just issues that popped up, and we weren’t consistent enough on Saturdays. And you understand that there’s a lot of positives. You try and take the positives from the losses and continue to build and just continue to work and continue to get better. And, you know, it wasn’t like I just came in and had some, you know, I was a raving lunatic one day screaming and yelling, and all of a sudden, the light switch came on for these guys. It was just we just continued to work, and freshmen got better, and guys got more comfortable in the roles. And we, as coaches, continued to do a better job of putting guys in position, and we’ve certainly created more turnovers, created more takeaways, and that’s been huge for us these last few games.

But I think it’s just, you know, our players, our coaches, everybody just did a good job of just staying the course. And I get it on Saturdays. if you lose, it’s like, you know, it’s we’re judged on 12 Saturdays, and the extremes when you lose a football game are very extreme. But then you also got to be able to take a step back and see everything from kind of a 30,000-foot view and see what’s what and how to get it better, and that’s what we tried to do.

Q: I wanted to go back to something that Spencer Rattler said last night. He talked about how on that final touchdown drive that you guys had that DJ Braswell made a big-time block on a blitzing linebacker and allowed him to get a little bit more time to throw that pass to Xavier. What can you speak to about Dontavious Braswell keeping his head down, continuing to put in the work throughout this season, and what kind of example do you think that sets for all the other freshmen that are still trying to get on the field a little bit more in these final few games?

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BEAMER: Yeah, that was huge, huge last night. That was a play where the play clock was running down and Spencer was trying to communicate to the O-line and really wasn’t able to because we were about to get a delay-of-game penalty. So he kind of stepped back, snapped the ball, and just let it ride. And DJ, we showed that today in our team meeting. I mean, that was just awesome by him to be a freshman in that situation. You worry about a freshman running back coming in, the first thing you worry about is pass protection, and not just being able to do it physically, but mentally, and it’s easy when the guy’s in your face. He had to look across and scan all the way back to come across and get that guy and use good technique in there. So, that’s him. He’s a smart young man. He works hard. He’s a competitive guy, and he showed all that on that play last night. Really proud of him. He’s gonna continue to get better as we go.

Q: Xavier was kind of talking about it last night, how, you know, he said we ain’t done yet, we got one more shot. What would it mean to you personally to finish off this month with a win? I mean, obviously it’d be against Clemson if you guys were able to do it, but to turn this season around and get yourself to a bowl game?

BEAMER: Yeah, it would mean a lot. Just, for me, how happy I would be for our players, because I know how hard they work. I mean, that’s the most important thing to me. I wanna see them finish out the right way and celebrate and finish this thing. So, that’s what it would mean. You know, they’ll be down to reflect and all that. It’s the end of the season. You’re in a grind. It’s a 12-game season, and this is game number 12. So, for us, it’s let’s see if we can be better this Saturday than what we were last night, and continue to get better as a team, and that’s what that would mean. It would mean that we got better and finished the right way, which will be a big challenge against a really good Clemson team that’s playing well right now.

Q: How much have you seen the players’ confidence kind of progress over the last few weeks with each win that comes?

BEAMER: I think we were always a confident group. I don’t think you go into Tennessee and be leading after the first quarter like we were if we weren’t confident. I don’t think we go into Texas A&M and have a lead early in the game if we weren’t, confident and whatnot, but certainly, you want to have success. What I’ve seen is just guys continue to improve, and as you gain confidence in what you’re doing, you play faster, and I think our defense is a great example of that. You just watch the way we’re playing in the secondary right now and flying around and making plays, and we look different than what we did early in the season, and to me, that’s guys comfortable in their roles, it’s guys more comfortable in the scheme, and guys certainly more confident in everything that they’re doing. That creates energy, and they’re playing with a lot of energy right now defensively, but I think our guys have always been a confident group. We’re just, when you have success, you just continue to try and build on it.

Q: You were mentioning that you’ve only taken a little look at the Clemson team, but you’ve seen Will Shipley before. What makes him such a tough guy to go against?

BEAMER: I think he’s physical, I think he’s fast, he’s got a burst, is what I see on tape, and, he’s just a football player is what I would say. Had a chance to meet him at an event with Dabo a couple years ago that myself and Brad Johnson were at in Greenville, and got a lot of respect for the way he plays the game. He’s just, like I said, he’s a football guy, and tough, runs hard, but has strength that you see on tape, and certainly has speed also.

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