Shane Beamer talks why South Carolina was aggressive to end first half
Shane Beamer was prepared for this moment. He knew if the South Carolina offense had a chance to go down the field and score he was going for it.
With less than a minute to go in the first half, Spencer Rattler threw a 36-yard touchdown pass to Luke Doty to take the lead. But this left Furman with all its timeouts and enough time to start a quick drive.
“I told Dowell (Loggains), I said, ‘Look, I don’t know what Furman’s going to do here, but if they try and get a drive, we’ve got a timeout left and we’ll use it to make them punt,'” Beamer said.
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Just like he planned it out, South Carolina’s defense got a stop with 27 seconds to go. With fourth and one upcoming, Beamer called his last timeout to force a punt.
Under normal circumstances, teams might be content with a tie game at the half and take a knee to regroup. But Beamer believed in his offense enough to generate a good drive going into the second half.
On the first play, Rattler unloaded a 53-yard pass to Xavier Legette to move to the Furman 22-yard line. However, time was not in the Gamecocks’ favor so it became crucial to make each play call count.
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After spiking the ball to preserve time and call a play, Rattler went for the end zone. He saw a window with Legette but the pass went incomplete. But a pass interference call set up first down at the seven-yard line.
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“At that point, I believe it was seven seconds left, if I’m not mistaken. So it was not a lot of time,” Beamer said. “I told Spencer, look, this has got to be a bang-bang play, we can’t screw around and wait. You catch it, you throw it, and if we don’t get it, we’ll kick a field goal. If it’s not there, just throw it out of the end zone.”
Lined up in the shotgun, two receivers on his left and one to his right, Rattler was looking to pass. His eyes were looking to the outside. He knew where the ball was going. As he dropped back, he threw to O’Mega Blake, who created enough separation at the last second to haul in the first touchdown of his career.
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It was a gutsy decision but one that put the wheels in motion for South Carolina to steam its way to a 47-21 win Saturday.
“I mean, we spend a lot of time practicing those scenarios. We do two-minute offense in practice on Sunday nights — starting offense versus the starting defense. And we do it on Thursdays in practice, as well,” Beamer said.
“I love situational football. I’m always watching other games and trying to show other teams screwing stuff up. I’ve got things to show in our team meeting on Tuesday morning of teams from last weekend that botched some in-game situations. It’s just so we can learn from it and be able to execute when we have those opportunities.”
