Everything Shane Beamer said on Tuesday
Following spring practice number six of 2024 in Columbia, South Carolina head football coach Shane Beamer spoke with the media on Tuesday.
Below is an edited transcript of his remarks during his weekly press conference.
Opening statement…
“Another good day, just finished practice number six. I mentioned last week, gave our guys the weekend off. So they had Easter weekend off. Hope everyone had a great Easter. Guys had a great practice last Thursday, then Friday, Saturday, Sunday off, back at it yesterday and with meetings and lifting. And then, back on the practice field today. That’s a lot of situational work done today. Some more third down work, introduced a short yardage goal line. So we had some live goal line reps at the end of practice, which is always good to increase the energy and the competitive spirit at practice. Like the way these guys are working without a doubt and over a third of the way done with spring practice, got a lot of work to do, but like the start that we’ve had so far.
“Nothing really, not too much to add injury wise. The only new addition that’ll be out for the rest of the spring is Bradley Dunn. Had a little bit of an ankle injury that is going to keep him from being able to finish the next three weeks of spring practice. Nothing long-term. He’ll be back and be fine by this summer, but he just won’t be able to finish spring practice. Brad’s done a good job for us, getting reps at running back and then did a lot of good things on special teams for us last season. So obviously our running back depth is thin right now with Juju, obviously we’d already talked about being out for the rest of the spring. Rocket was already out with his shoulder injury going into spring practice. So we’re getting pretty thin there right now, but Jawarn Howell and Oscar Adaway are healthy and getting the bulk of the reps right now. Doing a great job.
“We will be back out on the field Thursday, introduce a little bit of red zone work on Thursday, or a lot of red zone work on Thursday. And then we’ll have our first scrimmage of the spring on Saturday morning as well, followed by our annual ladies day for all the fantastic ladies that want to take part. We’ve had it done in the last two years, been awesome attendance, a lot of fun, still open for anyone that wants to come. If it’s sold out and we’ve already cut off registration, I apologize, but I think we still have room as well.
“Hopefully at that time we’re also celebrating Coach Staley and our women’s team’s first win up in Cleveland, and then they’ll be getting ready for the national championship the next day as well. So congratulations to Coach Staley and her team and what an awesome run they are on. Got to get two more here this weekend, but so much respect for them and just every single game to be able to get the best shot of the opponent and still just continue to respond week after week. So ton of respect for them, cheering hard for them and excited for the opportunity they’ll have this weekend.”
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Main things he is looking for in Saturday’s scrimmage…
“Just guys being able to get out there and execute and be efficient without coaches on the field and coaching every single play, just letting our guys be able to get out there and play a little bit would be for one. We’ve done a little bit of live tackling work in a couple of our practices already this spring and whatnot, but it’ll be the first day where the entire day i tackling and playing it like a game. We’ll have SEC officials that’ll be out there on Saturday.
“There’s going to be penalties, but hopefully we get in that stadium and we don’t have a lot of the pre-snap penalties and things like that that we can control. And then really just guys, how guys respond. And we talk a lot about when we go across the street into that stadium, our mentality and what an opportunity and blessing it is to be able to go into Williams-Brice Stadium and some people, whether it’s 80,000 people in there or a Saturday morning with about 50 people in there, a lot of guys, they flip a switch and they rise to the occasion Eager to see who really steps up because we’ve got some great competitive battles going on in a lot of different positions and it’ll be the morning time. So the lights won’t be on, but, you know, figure of speech-wise, when the lights come on, who responds, and that’s what I’m eager to see.”
On the transition to Joe DeCamillis coaching special teams…
“It’s been a learning process, for sure. What he coaches, what he teaches, what he wants. And then we’ve tried to marry a lot of the stuff that we did here previously with Pete. There’s things when I met with Joe and when we hired Joe that I talked about, look, I’m a big believer in this, I want to continue to call it this, whether it be a team or a technique or a scheme or whatever it might be. But for the most part, I hired him for a reason. I want him to be able to implement his system. And there’s certainly, there’s a lot of carry over, but there’s a lot of things technique-wise that are a little bit different as well.
“Meetings, as I mentioned before, are intense. Practice field’s intense. And the competition out there is really high and intense. So it’s been great, certainly high energy. I think they’ve connected well with Joe. He’s really done a good job of connecting well with them. He can show, okay, we’re doing this drill today, and here’s Aaron Donald from the LA Rams doing the same drill on field goal block, or here is so-and-so on this kickoff cover drill that we’re going to do today or whatever it might be. So being able to show NFL practice clips of here’s the pros doing it, and here’s what we do has been good. And I think it’s been a good transition. We still do a lot of drill work, but probably a little bit more just 11-on-11 work in the spring. And a lot of guys are getting reps, and it’s really going to be good for our just overall development, the amount of guys that are getting reps in a team-type setting, 11-on-11 setting.”
Has there been any separation at the quarterback position?
“I wouldn’t say separation. Those guys are continuing to battle. Obviously, when you talk about going in the stadium and guys being able to separate themselves, that’s a position that they’ll all get a lot of reps on Saturday, and they’ll get an opportunity to kind of show how they handle operating the offense when the coach is not out there telling them everything and coaching every single rep.
“So I think some guys, there’ll be some separation on Saturday, I would imagine, just how we’re going to set it up, and you hope there is. But there’s great competition going in there. A lot of those guys are getting reps, and they’re all competing and making each other better. The biggest thing I would say is, one, how they operate. Okay, they’re in the stadium now, and it’s a scrimmage, game-like setting with officials and everything. How can guys operate? Can they run the offense and communicate and the things that you have to do? And then certainly protecting them, protecting the ball. They’ve done a really good job of that. As the head coach, you love it when there’s a lot of turnovers from a defensive standpoint because they’re taking the ball away. And then you don’t like it as an offensive coach, or as a head coach, because the offense is turning the ball over too much. And then when the offense doesn’t turn it over, you’re excited for the offense, but then you’re like, man, we got to continue to take the ball away like we’ve done a great job of defensively.
‘But the last two practices, we’ve done a really good job offensively of protecting the football. I think there was one turnover today, and then one interception today, but it was a ball that got kind of ricocheted, bang, bang, play with a receiver and a DB, and the ball popped up in the air. And it was DQ Smith running to the ball and made an interception. But for the most part, the quarterbacks have done a good job of making good decisions and want to see them continue to just do that on Saturday for sure.
Will the quarterbacks be live for tackling during Saturday’s scrimmage?
“It’s a good question. I was thinking about that last night. don’t know yet. We’ve done that in the past, in the springtime and August. Last year we did in the scrimmages, we made everyone but Spencer and Luke were live and we tackled it. It was good for them to understand that if we’ve got five guys blocking and the defense brings a sixth guy, you’re going to get hit and you can’t sit there and hang on to the ball. So it’s good for them to learn from that standpoint. Some of those quarterbacks love it because I blew the whistle today one time and Robbie Ashford was mad at me because he didn’t think there was any way that the defender would have been able to make that tackle in a real game. And LaNorris really stepped up last year in those situations where we made him live. So it’s something that we’ll talk about as a staff.”
How are the wide receivers progressing and is there a first group?
“Yeah, I think I’m still trying to figure it out. We’re over a third of the way through, but we’re not even halfway done with spring ball. So I think those guys right now where guys continue to flash at times, you know, I would say that Gage is somebody that every day I’ve noticed for something, whether it be getting a great release off the line of scrimmage or a catch and run, you know, guys that were freshmen last year, like Tyshaun Russell, he’s flashed. I think all those guys have at times. So I think for them right now, it’s continuing to learn what to do, trying to eliminate the clutter out of their head so they can just go play fast and not have to think so much. But I think all those guys are doing a great job and to sit there and say, okay, these are our top four right now, we’re not to that point. I bet you if you asked every offensive coach, who would be the top six receivers right now if we played a game, I bet you you’d get different answers from all of them. I think they’ve all done a good job of competing and eager to see what they do when the ball gets in their hands on Saturday.”
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Did the transfer portal opening on April 15 influence Beamer’s scheduling decisions this spring?
“I think there’s a lot when you set the spring practice schedule. I love it, but I’m in a unique state where no matter when we make the spring game, half the fan base is going to be ticked off at me because it’s either the Master’s weekend or the Heritage weekend. And if it’s the Master’s weekend, everybody’s mad. How could you do the spring game the weekend of the Masters? And if you do it the weekend of the Heritage and Hilton Head, they’re mad at me. How could you do the spring game the same weekend as the Heritage and Hilton Head? So that enters your thinking a little bit. So this weekend, this year, it’s the same weekend as the Heritage. So I apologize to that segment of the fan base. Certainly I thought about the portal when it’s opening, but it is what it is. I really just kind of liked it that we have the spring game and then literally the spring game is Saturday and our last day of class is on Monday. So it’s literally 48 hours, not even 48 hours after the spring game’s over. It’s the last day of class. I think it’s Monday this year, but it’s that week as well.
“So I like just being able to finish finish spring practice. And then end of the semester and they go right into exams. We’re having kind of our exit meetings as well. And then going back to the beginning of spring practice, probably the biggest thing that we just pushed it back was giving our guys an extra week in the weight room after spring break. So we’ve always done our off-season conditioning, winter workouts, weight room plan, January, February. They would go on spring break and then they come back from spring break and then it was right in the practice on like Tuesday. As much as I like to think when our players were in Mexico or wherever else that they were working out and they were training for spring practice the next week, they probably weren’t. So instead of just throwing them right back into it, let’s give them a week to kind of reacclimate to the weight room, running, get ramped up and then be ready to roll right into spring practice the following week. And gives us an extra week in the weight room physically and gives us another week in the meeting room to continue to learn with so many new players that are learning a system, offense, defense and special teams for the first time.
“So it’s a combination of golf, class schedules and physical ramping up for spring practice. I think Carolina Cup was a factor at one point. There’s a lot. All the things they don’t tell you about when you become a head coach, all the things you have to balance.”
On WR Kelton Henderson’s departure…
“That was our decision. Think a lot of Kelton, wish him well, but there’s a expectation level of how we’re going to do things in this program, inside this building and outside this building and just a body of work that wasn’t what we wanted as well. And I care about him, want to help him in any way. Told him I would call anybody for him. He’s a guy that has ability and be pulling for him, but just, he won’t be here.
On Gilber Edmond and the EDGE position…
“Really good, a lot more depth for sure. We lost Jordan Strachan and Tyreek (Johnson) as welll. But when you look at who you return, guys that are a year older, that were freshmen last season like Desmond, you bring in a guy like a Dylan Stewart, and then you bring in transfers like Kyle Kennard. It’s an athletic group. They look the part. There’s more depth in that room. And that’s another one that we’ll be able to play a lot more guys on Saturday. And I think we’re going to be even more disruptive at that position than what we were last year in regards to stopping the run and being able to rush the passer also.
Has Nyck Harbor been catching passes/how many practices has he been at this spring?
“Yeah, I believe so. In regards to he and LaNorris and other guys being able to do stuff on their own, he and Coach Furrey being able to do kind of stuff on their own within the rules and whatever Nyck wants to do. When class isn’t conflicting with his schedule, he’s here. I think the last two weekends, they’ve had track meets. I think they were in Florida and the weekend before they were here. So he hasn’t been around on Saturdays. We weren’t here this Saturday, but he hasn’t really been around on the weekends. And then Monday, Wednesday, Friday are days that we meet and lift as well for the morning. So he’s working around class schedule on that, but it works out pretty good for the practice days. He was here today as well. And he’s adamant about being a great football player. And it’s not like when he’s here, oh my God, Nyck’s in the building and all that. It’s just what you kind of expect. And walking in, there he is, sitting in front row in the team meeting or second row in the team meeting right in the middle and involved. So he wants to give his all to track and be the very best he can be there for those guys. But then he also wants to be his very best for football and give everything he can to football also.”
What has he seen from Howell and Adaway at running back?
“I’ve really been impressed with those guys. You know, obviously Oscar’s an older guy that’s been around. So he’s got a great maturity and mindset about himself and all business as well. You can tell he’s played a lot of football. Jawarn was obviously was a decorated player last year at South Carolina State, but you forget he’s still a freshman and a year out of high school. So he’s still very raw and learning, but two unique skillsets. Those guys are just steady. They don’t say a whole lot. They don’t get too high or too low. We did a live five play goal line period today, offense versus defense, put the ball down on like the one yard line and a half and just best out of five. They had a couple runs in there that to me showed what they’re about. Downhill, put their face in there and would not be denied in regards to trying to get it in the end zone. So like what those guys are about and how they continue to get better. And both are going to be really, really good players for us this season as well.”
What has stood out about freshman EDGE Dylan Stewart?
“Probably just the natural, God-given size and ability. He’s big, he can run, he can jump, he’s physical. He’s not your typical freshman without a doubt. And obviously he was very highly recruited for a reason, but he’s another one that you don’t notice him. He’s just out there. You notice him, but you don’t notice him for the wrong reasons. He’s just kind of steady. He does his job day in, day out and has fit in well with that group. And to me, just continuing to learn the techniques that we want to play with and the techniques that we’re coaching and the effort that we want to play with, but doing a lot of really good things for us out there right now.
On the red zone, comparing last year to this year…
“I think overall weren’t good enough. If you just look at our record and whatnot, we didn’t do a lot of things well enough last season, in regards to being able to finish drives. I think we had our moments, but certainly games like North Carolina stand out where I think we were, I think we were inside the 20 yard line three times and didn’t score, if I’m not mistaken, as well. So being able to get down there and then finish, and then defensively, a team’s going to get down there, but when they do, you got to hold them to field goals and try and keep points off the board in general. Certainly need to be better without a doubt. Every year is different looking at scheme, offense and defense, as far as what you’re going to do. Each week’s different depending on teams and what their philosophy is in the red zone. Are you playing a defense that they’re going to pressure you once you cross the 20 yard line? Are you playing a team that they’re going to rush for and play coverage and make you make throws? Every week is different, but overall got to be better. We got to make sure we come out of there with points, preferably touchdowns without a doubt. There will be some schematic tweaks week to week and year to year. And then practice-wise, nothing too crazy. A couple of little tweaks, not this week, but next week that we’ll do in practice, just to kind of make the offense-defensea little bit more of a competitive period when we do the red zone and kind of a point system for the defense and a point system for the offense, where you can compete and have a winner offense-defense down there that we’re going to implement this year for the first time, just in practice.
How do you structure practicing three and four down fronts?
“Yeah, a great question. It may be a thing where the defense is going to rep both today, but not both of them against the offense. Last week it was, all right, when we do this period versus the offense, defense, you’re only going to play four down this period. This period, you can play three down. Or this period, the first four plays, defense is going to be four down. Next three, four plays are going to be three down. So it’s kind of, each day is different. And a lot of that is based on what you’re installing, too. So today was a big short yardage goal line emphasis day. So you’re probably not going to do a lot of three-three stuff on that day. But being able to mix it both up, and I’m not saying that the defense is aligning for the offense to be able to go execute, but just so the offense knows, okay, we’re going to get a bulk of this period, we’re going to get a bulk of that next period. All the while, the defense being able to get done what they need to get done from an installation standpoint also. So both, we want to be multiple and be able to bounce in and out of it, but also good on good. We’re not trying to win a game this Saturday. We’re trying to develop our guys and figure out who can do what for us also from a personnel standpoint.”
