Shane Beamer embracing excitement for much-anticipated 2022 season
Shane Beamer can’t go anywhere around Columbia and not hear about how excited fans are for the 2022 iteration of South Carolina football.
The excitement is certainly building around the Gamecocks a month out from the season. With it comes a lot of hype externally from the fan base.
It can be a lot to try and tune out. But Beamer would rather this than the other side of the coin.
“I would rather have that than none of our fans giving a crap we’re playing in four weeks or not excited and not being trending on Twitter and having millions of views,” Beamer said. “I’d rather have that than the alternative for sure.”
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South Carolina certainly overachieved based on preseason betting totals. The Gamecocks beat Auburn, Florida, North Carolina and others en route to a seven-win year and a Duke’s Mayo bowl win.
That enough was enough to excite the fan base. The excitement grew even more with the addition of Spencer Rattler and a host of other quality players out of the transfer portal.
There are a few SEC analysts who think the Gamecocks can make some noise in the SEC East.
But Beamer is quick to caution putting the cart before the horse, mentioning South Carolina hasn’t won anything yet.
“We’re happy with where we are right now. But nobody’s walking around saying, ‘hey man, we got picked fifth in the SEC East. Let’s freaking go,’” he said, mockingly patting himself on the back.
“Or, ‘Hey nobody on our team made first team all-SEC.’ There’s plenty of bulletin board and motivation I can use as well. We’re not where we need to be right now but we’re certainly on our way.”
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What Beamer will stress is how much work it took last year’s team to get to seven wins. Then how much more it will take to continue making progress.
“The reason all this is taking place is because of all the work that went into last year along with all that we’ve up until this point as well,” he said. “It’s been a grind. There’s a lot, a lot, a lot of work that’s taken place by the individuals in this program to get to that point. There’s a lot that.”
South Carolina did win seven games but struggled, especially offensively, at times last year. There’s plenty to try and get better at before the season starts, and Beamer know that.
“If you look back at last season, we have to do a lot better,” he said. “We did some really good things last year, don’t get me wrong, but there’s a lot to improve on. That has been made clear and will continue to be made clear to our players and staff as well.
South Carolina begins its season Sept. 3 against Georgia State at 7:30 p.m. They’ll then play consecutive noon games against SEC competition at Arkansas and home for Georgia.
