Shane Beamer evaluates offensive line play after South Carolina spring game

An offensive line, especially the one at South Carolina, is a cohesive unit with one common goal in mind: protecting the quarterback at all costs.

Under normal circumstances, this would be the case. But in South Carolina’s Garnet and Black spring game, the roster format was different.

In the days leading up to the game, a draft was held to divide up the players into two teams. While it was fun for everyone involved, it led to some issues on the field, especially in the trenches.

“When we did the draft, we didn’t say, ‘Okay, you get to pick the first team offensive line and the second team offensive line.’ It was kind of just a mix and match of guys,” Shane Beamer said. “It was a lot of guys on that offensive line that hadn’t been playing necessarily alongside each other.”

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South Carolina’s offensive line allowed 12 sacks in the game — six by each team. It was a tough night as the defenses were blowing past them and getting to the quarterbacks.

“The protection wasn’t great at times,” Beamer said. “I saw some pressures we were running that were pretty exotic. And at one point that I had to tell Clayton (White), he let some of the other guys call it on defense. So I had to tell these young GA’s to slow down a little bit with what they were doing.”

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It also wasn’t the strongest outing from the running backs. Multiple players only accumulated a handful of yards, failing to break out for a big run. Three players had runs go for more than 15 yards, with two of them being quarterbacks.

Beamer strayed away from putting all the blame on the offensive line and instead looked for the positives from the outcome.

“We had some guys that were playing in some new spots and things like that,” Beamer said. “So it’s hard to evaluate it but overall pleased with the run game and pleased with our running backs that ran tough and hard tonight.”

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Since it was a glorified scrimmage, not all offensive linemen were present and accounted for. Jakai Moore and Cason Henry did not play in the game. Moore was attending a funeral, while Henry has been recovering from offseason surgery.

During the game, the Gamecocks did suffer a blow on their line. Jaylen Nichols, who shapes up to be a starter at left tackle, went down with an injury midway through the first quarter. The training staff had to help him off the field and immediately went into the medical tent.

“Jaylen, we’ve got to get checked out, it’s a lower-body injury,” Beamer said. “We’ll see. Nothing firm to report right now. Going to get it checked out here either (Sunday) or Monday and have a more definitive answer. Hopeful on that one.”

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That would be the only hiccup in an otherwise fun and exciting night for the Gamecocks. While the offensive line didn’t anticipate giving up as many sacks as they did, there’s still a long way to go until the regular season.

And there’s reason to believe they’ll be just fine with Lonnie Teasley and Greg Adkins coaching them up. Teasley, who was an analyst before coaching the offensive line in the middle of last season, became the full-time coach in January. Adkins, meanwhile, transitioned into an analyst after taking a step back from full-time duties due to health concerns.

“I wanted the best guy for the job and felt like Lonnie’s relationship with the offensive line was really good. There was consistency from the recruiting standpoint as well,” Beamer said in March. “Then let’s not forget I wanted Greg Adkins here. He’s one of the best offensive line coaches in the country. And I wanted Greg to be part of this as well. I made that clear to Lonnie and Ad both that I wanted them here.”

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