Shane Beamer explains and takes responsibility for fake punt on South Carolina's opening drive
Instead of starting off strong versus Ole Miss, South Carolina started the game with a bizarre fake punt attempt.
Many were left confused by Shane Beamer’s goal for the play as it ended up proving costly in a 27-3 loss to No. 12 Ole Miss on Saturday.
However, Beamer explained his true intentions post game. The idea was to try to gain a few yards for an offensive advantage and extend the drive.
“Felt like we had a good cause. I think we’ve been prepping since August,” Beamer said. “Not very good on my part, certainly wish I could have that one back. (Ole Miss) played it really well, little bit differently than we expected off the edge.”
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Beamer believed his team was prepared to execute the fake punt, but South Carolina players looked to be on different pages. The Gamecocks’ failed fake punt set up Ole Miss to score its first touchdown of the game.
“I screwed us and put us in a bad spot on that fake punt,” Beamer said. “And then, we had the turnover when we were driving. I think that’s the biggest thing is just settling down, playing football.”
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Having a major negative play early on made it difficult for the Gamecocks to recover. South Carolina went on to continue to struggle offensively throughout the matchup and only put together three points.
“Hate that I put our defense in that position,” Beamer said. “And that to me was really the key to the first quarter. Just to be frank, excuse my language, it sucked, the way that we played in the first quarter.”
[Win two tickets to the South Carolina-Texas A&M football game]
In hindsight, Beamer certainly regrets the decision to run the play. Could he have left his offense out on the field to try and get the one yard needed for a first down? Sure. But there’s nothing he can do now about it other than move on to next week.
“It’s a four-quarter game. Need to be able to continue to run the ball well, like we’re doing right now, and then being able to get off the field on defense on third down,” he said.
