South Carolina begins game week prep for Texas A&M after bye week

It’s back to business for South Carolina after a few days off from the grind of the season.

After a resounding victory over then-No. 13 Kentucky, the Gamecocks will face Texas A&M with an extra week of preparation.

In college football, it can be tough to get excited about a new opponent after winning a huge game. But Shane Beamer believes his group will be just fine.

“I think, honestly, it’s good that we had the off week because we were able to, I don’t want to say celebrate the Kentucky win a little longer, but certainly had some time to come back down to earth a little bit and then correct and reset where we are as we go forward into the second half of the season,” Beamer said.

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Beamer referenced the way the team handled having more time to prepare last season, with both the good and bad. South Carolina came out of its bye week and crushed Florida by 27 points. But he also said he didn’t think they handled their excitement well after beating Auburn last year since they fell to Clemson 30-0 the following week.

Whether the Gamecocks will repeat those mistakes is unknown. Beamer, however, thinks there’s a difference in maturity this season.

“This is a mature bunch and I know that they’ll be excited to play on Saturday night,” Beamer said. “Confident that they’ll prepare the right way so they can go play well on Saturday night.”

Without an opponent to game plan for last week, Beamer and his staff were able to look at how the team is performing, which he said was “really beneficial.”

“Last week gave us a time to really dive in and work hard on getting better at things that we need to get better at, and see where we are as an offense, defense and special teams unit going forward,” Beamer said.

While the Gamecocks have had more time to regroup, so has Texas A&M.

“They’ve had a week to get rested and healthy and better themselves as a football team,” Beamer said. “I’m sure we’ll see the best version of A&M coming in here on Saturday night.”

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The Aggies will look to get back on track after losing to No. 24 Mississippi State and No. 6 Alabama in their last two games.

There’s a possibility that the Aggies could start either Haynes King or Conner Weigman at quarterback. Max Johnson, who was the team’s starter, broke a bone in his throwing hand and could miss the rest of the season.

Without knowing who will start this weekend, Beamer said he’s going to have South Carolina ready for any scenario.

“You’re always preparing for multiple quarterbacks. You’re always aware of who’s on the roster as well,” Beamer said. “We’re always going to run our system. We don’t change because of who’s in there unless it’s two radically different styles of plays. Coach Fisher is going to run his offense and do what they do. It’s no different than any other week for us from that standpoint.”

One thing that creeps into Beamer’s mind during these longer periods of preparation is overdoing it. Having too much time to get ready for an opponent could be good or bad, depending on how it’s looked at.

“Sometimes you can overprepare, so I think each case is different. The opponent that we were playing certainly playing Eastern Illinois and Georgia State aren’t necessarily SEC teams that we’re playing week in, week out,” Beamer said. “We played really well at Kentucky and we played really well in that bowl game and against Florida last year. So I think there’s a combination of factors, motivation and just how you execute and coach. But we’re going to need to keep that going this week.”

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