Shane Beamer addresses philosophy on celebrating wins and how South Carolina can play better moving forward
Shane Beamer has been around college football for a long time now. He’s been at multiple schools and seen a lot of things. In that time, he’s learned plenty.
One thing he won’t do, though, is chew out his players after a win. Some might agree with that, others may not. But that’s just his belief.
“I’ve been a part of teams where the head coach walked in the locker room after a win and absolutely blistered that team, and they didn’t win a game the rest of the year. And I said that I will never do that as a head coach,” Beamer said.
At the same time, he’s going to hold his team accountable to be better next time out. But when he wins, he’s going to make sure they celebrate it, whether it’s good, bad or ugly.
And that’s what he and his team did on Saturday after South Carolina defeated Jacksonville State, 38-28. It was a game with lots of mistakes on the Gamecocks’ end. But they did enough in the fourth quarter to pull away and win.
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There’s been a case made against celebrating the win and feeling like it wasn’t good enough. Beamer understands that.
“It is still okay to be happy and celebrate a win but be disappointed in how you played and be critical of how we played,” he said. “I walked out of that press conference with you guys on Saturday afternoon and I hadn’t even been three feet into the hallway and I’m catching heck from my own family about the fake punt and how dumb they thought that was. So it’s okay to be critical.”
However, there’s another part of the spectrum that he isn’t in favor of.
“I don’t think it’s okay to be unhappy and miserable after a win, players or coaches or fans,” Beamer said. “We have the greatest fans in America. And if they walked out of that stadium on Saturday critical of me, that’s okay, I deserved it. But I would hope if you’re a Gamecock fan that you didn’t walk out of that stadium miserable and unhappy because we won the football game.”
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Beamer made it a point how there’s only seven home games every year and that they shouldn’t be taken for granted. He also mentioned how plenty of teams lost on Saturday. South Carolina could’ve been right there in the loss column, but it wasn’t. It found a way to claw out a win.
“If we won on a beautiful Saturday afternoon and you were unhappy and miserable, then you probably do need to find some joy and celebrate wins a little more as well. But I’m a guy that’s always going to celebrate wins,” Beamer said.
Celebrations only last so long, though. The rose-colored glasses have to come off at some point. The Gamecocks are still in a tough spot sitting at 3-6 with three games to go.
“We came in here on Sunday as a team and were very clear about that,” Beamer said. “Me to the coaches, that was unacceptable. And me to our players as well that if we play like we did last Saturday, we will not win this week, we will not win next week, we will not win the week after. We need to be better and that’s very evident to me. That starts with me as the head coach.”
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If South Carolina wins its next three, it will become bowl eligible for the third straight year under Beamer. But it won’t be easy with home games against Vanderbilt, Kentucky and Clemson.
However, Beamer assured the team has continued to put in the work every day with the goal of winning another game on Saturday.
“We need to be better and we will be,” he said.
