Shane Beamer breaks down two crucial fourth-quarter situations from South Carolina's win over Clemson

No one’s going to remember the bad, even though there was plenty of it. All that will be remembered were the big plays and LaNorris Sellers running into the end zone for a game-winning touchdown.

But to get to the point where No. 15 South Carolina picked up a 17-14 win over No. 12 Clemson on Saturday, the Gamecocks had to first overcome some of their own self-inflicted mistakes.

And of course, they did. They rallied from behind and outscored the Tigers 10-0 in the fourth quarter to secure the comeback victory. But in those final 15 minutes, there were two moments that could’ve led to a different outcome.

Two days after the Palmetto Bowl win, head coach Shane Beamer joined Peter Burns and Chris Doering on SEC This Morning and was asked by Burns about two specific plays: a delay of game penalty and an onside kick.

“No, I was going to go for it,” Beamer said about the delay of game. “I just felt like at that point, you can sit there and say kick a field goal, get a stop, go down the field, score a touchdown, win the game. It ended up happening that way, but you don’t know.”

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With the Gamecock offense inside the Clemson 20-yard line, they faced a critical 4th and 4 coming up. But he didn’t have much of a choice since his players dealt with some miscommunication, resulting in the play clock running down.

“The guys on offense felt like they heard a whistle,” Beamer explained. “You watch the TV copy at about late in the play clock, you do hear something. I’m not saying there was a whistle, but you do hear something. It can’t happen regardless. You can’t take a delay of game penalty right there.”

It didn’t end up costing South Carolina too badly, though. Alex Herrera came in and drilled a 42-yard field goal to make it a 14-10 game. But it was a spot where the team left some more points up for grabs.

“I just felt like with our quarterback and the way that our offense was playing, I felt good about (Sellers) being able to get four yards or whatever it was in that situation,” Beamer said. “… But once we took the delay of game penalty, it was easy: kick a field goal and credit to Alex Herrera for coming in there and banging that one through in a pressure situation.”

Moments after the field goal, the Gamecocks prepared to kick off to Clemson with under seven minutes left to play. The defense had been playing well all game. But Beamer felt he had a chance to get the football back to his offense. His plan was to attempt an onside kick.

“All week long, we had been working. We felt like the way (Clemson) lined up, it was there,” he said. “The first couple kickoffs, we lined up the same way. … To start the second half, we felt like it was there.”

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This was going to be a risky decision, though. If the kick was successful, it would look like a genius move. South Carolina had already recovered an onside kick earlier in the season at Alabama. If Clemson recovered, the Tigers would start their next possession near midfield, which was a big gamble to take while trailing.

Regardless, Beamer felt good about giving it a go. Special teams coordinator Joe DeCamillis came over to him and asked what he thought about doing it. He had already made up his mind.

“I thought about it, and I said, ‘You know what? Let’s do it.’ One, we felt good about it if we got the look. And two, I got on the headphones with Clayton White and I said, ‘Look, we’re going to do this. The look is there. If it’s not there, we won’t do it. But if we don’t get this thing, we need you guys to go out there and hold them to a field goal,'” Beamer said.

“That was my thinking that we could go out there, if you hold them to a field goal, it’s still a one-score game and we’re able to go down the field and tie it.”

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Beamer said Clemson was “lined up a little bit more conducive” to be able to recover it. Either way, he felt South Carolina still had a chance to get the ball back. But the Tigers landed on it and were going to start their drive at their own 44-yard line.

“We were just trying to be aggressive,” Beamer said, “and that’s something that goes all the way back to really on Monday looking at how they were lining up and thinking okay, this is gonna be there if we need it. It was a scrum, and they came up with it.”

The reason neither of these mistakes ended up hurting the Gamecocks came down to the defense. Even with a failed onside kick and three offensive turnovers, the defense kept Clemson in check. Although the Tigers were able to move the ball, they couldn’t consistently reach the end zone. South Carolina held them to zero points off turnovers.

“I thought that was one of the key things in the game Saturday was any time our offense either turned the ball over or that situation with the onside kick, they got no points out of it,” Beamer said. “Our defense went out there and got stops in all three of those situations and that was absolutely huge for our ability to win the game.”

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