Everything Shane Beamer said during his Sunday teleconference

South Carolina football head coach Shane Beamer spoke with the media during his regularly scheduled teleconference on Sunday night.

The Gamecocks knocked off Jacksonville State on Saturday afternoon to go to 3-6 on the season; Beamer gave the latest on his team a day after the game.

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OPENING STATEMENT: Going back and looking at the tape, really proud of our guys. It wasn’t pretty at times, that’s for sure. But no one panicked. And in the fourth quarter, we outscored them 10 to nothing. And against a good team, found a way to win it. Certainly want to – and I told our team today that, you know, a team that wasn’t mentally tough would probably have found a way to lose that game. And we found a way to win it at the end.

Certainly want to thank our fans. I know noon kickoffs aren’t the easiest, particularly for people traveling from a distance to get up here. But, you know, they, as always, created a great atmosphere. Had a high school prospect in my office this morning at 9 a.m., one of the best players in the entire country. And I asked him, you know, what did you think of the weekend? And the first thing he commented on was the atmosphere in the stadium yesterday and how amazing it was. And he was a guy that was here last year for the Georgia game. And he’s a guy that was here two years ago for the Florida game. So he’s seen this place. So thank our fans for that. I know that yesterday we’re happy about the win. Certainly going to celebrate victories around here.

And like I told you guys yesterday, we’re always going to come in on Sundays, win or lose, and learn from it. And tell the truth and correct and hold guys accountable. And there was a lot of good yesterday. But we are well aware that yesterday’s performance will not be good enough the next three weeks. And our team knows that. And all three phases, offense, defense, or special teams. So we have to be better. It’s good to, you know, to get a win, obviously. A lot to correct. And we got to get better as a team and do it quickly here with another SEC opponent coming to town on Saturday.

Offensively, our players of the game were Spencer Rattler and Xavier Legette. Obviously, you know, Spencer, we didn’t run the ball well yesterday. But we threw the ball for a lot of yards. And Xavier had a fantastic day as a receiver. Two of the best players in this conference, in this country. And they showed it yesterday. But then we also named all three running backs, Mario Anderson, Juju McDowell, and Dakereon Joyner. We, as coaches, felt like they deserved recognition as players of the game also. Because we played with three running backs on the field yesterday. And they had to do everything. Not just run the ball. They had to understand everything from a passing game standpoint. Because they were doing the same things that our receivers and tight ends normally would do. They had to know run blocking. You’ll see Dakereon Joyner in there blocking defensive ends. And blocking down on toss-crack plays. Things that were new to them until this week. And they came in and did an amazing job.

Defensively, our players of the game were Debo Williams, Tonka Hemingway, and Nick Emmanwori. Both of those guys made a lot of impactful plays yesterday and flew around. Special teams was Mitch Jeter and Boogie Huntley. You know, Boogie is another guy I thought stood out on defense as well. There’s a great play. We’re in man coverage. It’s a third down. And the quarterback starts to run. And he’s going to run for a first down. This is in the second half. And they have the lead on us. And Boogie makes an unbelievable individual effort from the backside to get the quarterback on the ground. And it was an unbelievable play. Told him that yesterday. And it’s even more impressive today. And then from a special team standpoint, we recognized him. He makes all the calls on our punt team. And we were facing a team yesterday that literally they come after you and try and block every punt. So, there was a lot on Boogie’s plate. Great job getting us in the right calls protection-wise on punt and then block him.

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We always recognize our Gamecock MVP. Somebody, you know, maybe not necessarily a player, but somebody that went above and beyond the call of duty and did their part. And that was our scout team defense. They did an awesome job last week. Just the energy and the spirit they practiced with. They increased the energy in practice with their competitive spirit last week. Our scout team offensive player of the week was D.J. Twitty. Scout team defensive player of the week was DeAndre Martin. And our scout team special teams player of the week was Isaiah Norris. Injury-wise, I would say Trai Jones will be out again this week. And I would say Dakereon at this point is probably doubtful for this week. I’ll have more for you on Tuesday. He was getting some tests done this afternoon. And Trey Knox is questionable. Anybody else that got banged up yesterday during the game should be fine for Saturday. Questions?

Q: I wanted to ask about the three running back stuff that you guys were doing with that. I guess what went into deciding to have that package? And what did you guys feel like you were able to get out of it when I guess all three of those guys were available and able to be out there together?

A: I think it was a combination of things. One, they practice really well, and they’re three of our better players. You know, when you talk about guys that work in practice and compete and play the way that we want to play, we put those three guys all at the top. Juju practices the right way, brings great energy to the field. Mario’s play this week speaks for itself. And then Dakereon, it’s just such a, you know, Swiss Army knife. He can do everything, quarterback, running back, receiver, kick returner. He’s done it all. And so just trying to get three of our better players on the field at the same time.

Certainly, Xavier Legette and Nyck Harbor and Ahmarean Brown and those guys, they can’t play every play. So we’ve got to continue to develop depth at receiver. But this helped us from that standpoint. And then also, they’re really smart. So you can put that on their plate, and they can do it. And then obviously, Trey Knox being down was a big part of that decision as well. The fact that, nothing against our backup tight ends, but we didn’t expect Josh Simon to go from playing 20 plays to maybe playing 70 plays. And then Nick Elksnis and Connor Cox are good players, but we need to be smart about what all we were asking them to do. So from our standpoint, it was just trying to get three of our better players on the field at the same time, give Jacksonville State and other teams something to prepare for now. And then, you know, you got guys on the field that can do multiple things as well.

Q: Just to clarify, what is Jones’ injury? And Nick Harbor, you know, hard to complain about a 399-yard passing game, absolutely. You know, excellent. But Nick Harbor didn’t do very much as catching the ball. What’s the deal with that?

A: As far as Trai, I thought I said that last week. I’m sorry if I didn’t. But he was out yesterday, kind of tweaked as he hurt his ankle against Arkansas as well. So I apologize if I didn’t say that last week. Thought I did. And then as far as Nyck, one, he wouldn’t be out there for as many plays as he was yesterday, if anything was wrong. You know, he did a lot of good yesterday as well. You know, he played 63 plays yesterday. And you know, because of, it wasn’t like we went into the Texas A&M game and said, all right, we’re going to throw the ball to Nyck 15 times today or whatever it was. And it wasn’t like we went into the game yesterday saying, OK, we’re not going to throw the ball to Nyck. It’s really what the defense is doing.

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And certainly, we’ve got to be able to force-feed him at times and be able to get him catches. There’s no question about it. But a lot of what we were doing yesterday was because Jacksonville State is so multiple on defense. Normally, we go into a game and say, OK, on first down, you can pretty much know they’re going to be in either cover three, cover two, or cover one. Or hey, on third down, you know they’re going to play quarters and cover one. With these guys, they’re all over the map. And every game is different. So you really couldn’t go into this game saying, here’s what they’re going to do. Because every week, it’s almost like a different game plan. So for us, our passing game yesterday was a lot of, all right, we’re going to call this pass. And you’re looking at this guy first, this position first, this position second, this position third. And if the first guy’s open, throw it. And if he’s not, you go to the second guy. And if he’s not, you go to the third guy. And it’s nothing unorthodox.

That was our entire passing offense at Oklahoma with Lincoln Riley. It’s what people call progression reads. And that’s what we were doing a lot of yesterday. But certainly, Nyck, we’re better when the ball’s in his hands. And certainly, I understand the question. We need to be able to get the ball in his hands more. But it just happened yesterday that didn’t quite happen. And certainly, some of those balls that went to Legette could easily have gone to Nyck. And we’ve got to continue to do a good job of moving our receivers around and putting them in different positions where we can get them the ball.

Q: I wanted to ask, with the shuffling on the offensive line, is there any temptation to cut down on the amount of run game you do? Or is it you trust all the guys to do that? Or I guess, what are the challenges of having a more diverse run game with having all those guys popping in and out?

A: Yeah, I wish we were able to do more in the run game. I don’t know if you’re referring to that we don’t do a lot because we don’t. And a lot of that is because we’ve had so much shuffling and guys in different places and things like that as well. But certainly, when you have had to move guys around. And last week, for example, because of depth, I mean, Cason Henry was coming back from injury. We were having to rep Kayson at right tackle and left tackle. We didn’t envision Vershon Lee having to go in and play left guard yesterday. Thought he’d be the right tackle the whole game. So it’s tough. No excuse. I mean, everybody’s dealing with injuries right now. But certainly, you can’t be overly multiple because you’ve got to block a lot of different looks. And that was going back to Jacksonville State and how multiple they are on defense.

We needed to make sure that we were very simple and sound in the run game yesterday because they give you so many different fronts and pressures. You’re going to have to block. You may have two run calls, but you’re going to have to block it against eight different defenses. So we needed to be, we were very simple in the run game yesterday schematically. I want to be able to do more. And we’ll continue to find ways to do that, where we get enough guys reps during the week, where they’re able to go out on Saturdays and perform. Regardless of what scheme we run offensively, regardless of how many injuries we have on the offensive line, we need to be able to run the ball better than 89 yards and 2.3 yards per carry yesterday. It’s not good enough. It won’t be good enough the next three weeks.

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Q: You and many other coaches often say after a game that doesn’t go perfectly that you all got to coach better. But do you feel like this has been a well-coached football team this year?

A: I think at times, we’ve all got to be better, starting with me. And I’ll be the first to admit, there were times yesterday that I didn’t think we were. And that obviously starts with me. The frustrating thing for me, John, was just a lot of things that we corrected or we did correct during the week, multiple times, we get out in a game on Saturday and we don’t do it. Maybe it’s trying to block a punt yesterday. I thought we were going to come out of that game yesterday with about three blocked punts, blocking their punts.

And it’s one of those things that as a coach, you’re looking at it and you got one or two young men on the team that did it the exact right way every single time in practice last week. They do it the right way the first time Jacksonville State punts and we almost block a punt. And then for whatever reason, don’t do it quite the same way versus the same look. And as a coach, you’ve got to ask yourself, why is that happening? But certainly, when you’re three and six, you can’t sit there and say that we have done a great job. We haven’t. We all have to be better, players, coaches, staff, starting with me as the head coach.

Q: I think fans or the media or whatever, just kind of look at sometimes with defense, just look at the numbers and don’t necessarily know the scheme behind it or the players or anything like that. I mean, do you feel like your defense is developing week to week? Or is there more you need to see from it?

A: No, I mean, I think kind of going back to not being able to run the ball well enough offensively. Looking at yesterday, for example, we gave up when a team rushes the ball 57 times, they’re going to add up some yards on you. But on third down, they were better than we wanted them to be. And they had a lot of first downs and all that as well. So I think we’ve certainly made some strides. We’re, you know, we made strides in that yesterday. We got takeaways. We hadn’t been getting takeaways all season. We got four yesterday. To me, that’s improvement that we’ve made from a takeaway standpoint. You see an interception for a touchdown yesterday on defense to go along with those takeaways.

I saw some good things yesterday, certainly. But I also saw too many explosives that we gave up. You can’t give up a 54-yard touchdown pass on third and two and an explosive run on third and two. So like all areas, offense, defense, special teams, we can be a lot better than what we’ve been. And that’s what we talked about today, that we found a way to win that game yesterday. It wasn’t pretty. And we can be a lot better still. But we’re running out of time. So we certainly, we got three guaranteed weeks left. And we need to be a lot better Saturday than what we were yesterday. And that’s in all areas.

Q: When you all rep something so hard and still see some mistakes, do you think there’s more carelessness or not carelessness, as in they don’t care, but attention to detail maybe? Or do you think guys are maybe putting a little bit too much pressure on themselves to be perfect and just not executing properly from that standpoint?

A: Yeah, it’s a good question. I wish I knew the answer. It’s something that we’re continuing to try and find. It’s something that we’ve talked a lot about is continuing to find ways to reach these guys and connect with these guys. I don’t think it’s a lack of attention to detail. You know, it’s sometimes I think guys may be overthinking things. Certainly, there’s something to that. But we’ve tried to simplify everything that we do. And we’ve also talked about it, too, that we don’t need to feel the pressure of just trying to do too much. What we need to worry about is not getting three more wins, or it was four more wins going into yesterday, to get to a bowl game.

Let’s just prepare the right way and do the best thing that we can, or prepare the best we can each and every week to go play really well on Saturday. And that’s what I want our guys focusing on. So I don’t know. We had a good team meeting today and talked a lot about those things. And certainly, there’s got to be, we’re in week 10. And we as coaches all have to continue to do a better job of coaching and teaching. And then players and as a team, we’ve got to take ownership and continue to make sure that you’re not trying to do too much and just doing your job, which is very cliche.

Q: Just wanted to ask if we could get an update from you on a potential return to action in the remaining regular season for Juice Wells and Jaylen Nichols. Can you update us on that?

A: Yeah, I wish I could. I don’t have much to report new. Juice is closer than Jalen is at this point. Juice did a little bit of running. Our guys are finishing up weightlifting right now. Juice did a little bit of running here today, this afternoon. So he’ll hopefully get a good report from that and feel good. He did a little bit of running last week and felt good. I know he wants to get back. And like I said last week, it’s just making sure that his body’s where he needs to be physically when he does come back. Jaylen’s a guy that’s in great spirits. And certainly, I’m sure would love to get out there and be able to play a little bit this year. He’s working hard in the training room and rehab to get back. And I don’t think it would be anything anytime soon. But we’ll see two guys that are working really, really hard and certainly hate not being out there right now.

Q: It seemed like there were a couple of plays that were RPOs, where it looked like something kind of went awry and Spencer kind of had to eat it. When you looked on film, was there something they were doing on those plays that sort of threw them off kilter a little bit? No. Thanks.

A: Want to ask another running back question. DJ got in for a couple carries, maybe just one. What do you all think you can get out of him these next few weeks? And is the plan to keep him below that five-game threshold to preserve the redshirt this season?

A: Yeah, we’ll do everything we can to find a way to win these next three games, whatever that might be. DJ was on our kickoff team yesterday and did a good job covering kickoffs. And if Dakereon’s not able to play, obviously he’ll have more of a role on offense as well. DJ’s a guy that’s got a good competitive spirit about himself and has a speed element at that position that he brings to the table. So we’ll kind of see. Every week’s different. And we’ll dive into Vanderbilt tonight when I get off the phone with you guys and start trying to formulate a game plan. But certainly, we always want to do what’s best for the young men in our program, but also want to do what’s best for our team in order to go win football games. And DJ’s a guy that we have a lot of confidence in and is a talented, talented running back.

And then Ben, regards to (the question about the RPOs), I mean, they weren’t. A couple of those, we probably should have. One of them was a short yardage play that we just need to hand the ball off and go get a first down. And certainly, it wasn’t anything that they were doing. We just need to execute.

Q: Obviously, Rattler has pretty crazy home road splits this year, and just as obviously, I mean, your schedule on the road been way more difficult. But with all the audibling that he’s allowed to do with Dowell, which is really pretty cool, is noise on the road versus no noise at home, is that part of the reason, too, for that?

A: I don’t think so. I mean, he’s got some freedom. But it’s not like he’s out there just changing things left and right, home or road. Certainly, there’s some looks that he’s been able to, throughout the season, has been able to get us out of a bad play and do a good play. If anything, it’s really been more in the run game. There were more, wasn’t so much audibles as it was checks yesterday in the run game, where if they come out in this defense, we’re going to run this play that’s a running play. Or if they’re in this defense, we’re going to run this play. We’ve probably done a little bit more of that than we have anything in the passing game.

But certainly, it’s something you’ve got to prepare for, because he does. He’s able to get up there, and if he needs to change protections, he can. And that’s something that we’ve always got to be cognizant of, home or away. But we haven’t gone into a game saying, all right, we’re going to be able to do less this week with Spencer because we’re on the road or more because we’re at home. It’s really by plan. And certainly, it makes it more of a challenge when you’re on the road. Don’t get me wrong. When you’re playing in front of 100 plus thousand fans like we have multiple times this year, it’s not easy. But it has, and I don’t think it’s deterred him from playing well at home or not playing as well as he would like on the road.

Q: I know you had a bunch of guys over the weekend in from the 2010 team and so on. Good to see those guys back, and Coach Spurrier. Anything from the weekend from that standpoint going to stick with you?

A: I saw Stephen Garcia on the field after the game yesterday, and it appeared as if he had a hell of a time at the pregame tailgate and during the game and postgame. That’ll stand out knowing Stephen. But no, it was cool. Chaz Sutton came by my office on Friday, and Chaz sat in my office, and we were able to visit for like 20 minutes. So it was good to see Chaz, good to see Clifton Geathers. It was good to see Brian Maddox on the field after the game.

It was pretty cool just after the game, Stephen Garcia and Brian Maddox as I was walking off the field both come up to me and say some things to me that really means a lot coming from them and how they feel about me and how I feel about them. That was a pretty cool moment and wish I had a chance to spend time with more of those guys. Garcia was, we were at the hotel obviously on Friday night from 6 PM on, and Garcia was texting me from the event they had on Friday night wanting to know why I wasn’t there and was I coming by and things like that. And certainly wanted to be there, but felt like I had an obligation to the team to be with them on Friday night as well. But cool having those guys back. And like I said last week, it’s just a great statement about what can be accomplished here at South Carolina.

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