Video Recap: South Carolina football's SEC Media Day
Before Shane Beamer and South Carolina football players took to the stage at SEC Media Days on Tuesday, the Gamecocks were already waves.
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Much like that video, the buzz surrounding USC only picked up as they day went on. Something Beamer and his players expected in comparison to their experience at SEC Media Days a year ago.
“Last year I stood up here and there wasn’t a single person in here that was talking about South Carolina football other than maybe our beat writers,” said Beamer. “No one was talking about any of the individuals in our football team across the country last year.
“I think the most noise we made at SEC Media Days last year was when we reenacted the Coach Spurrier Arby’s picture on the way back to the airport. But there was very little talk about our football team. That’s different this year. People are talking about us nationally, which is what we want. We have high expectations at South Carolina. People are talking about our players as individuals more nationally than what they were last year. There’s more buzz about this program right now.”
Going from six wins combined in 2019 and 2020 to seven wins in 2021 will do. It’s also a reminder to the South Carolina football players of what else could be as they head into year two under Beamer.
[Win a Jaheim Bell-autographed football]
“We have to remind guys what we are capable of because we were only (predicted) to win two games (last season),” said senior wide receiver Dakereon Joyner. “The sky is the limit for us this year. Us older guys need to continue to lead.”
Coming off their first winning season since 2018, this will be the first time that the majority of South Carolina football’s roster will be feeling the higher expectations externally for the program. While that noise has grown since their Duke’s Mayo Bowl win, they know last year is in the past.
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“We still have things to do,” said senior offensive lineman Jovaughn Gwyn. “Yeah we did good last year but can we do better? Yes we can. But in order to do that we have to put last year to the side and we can’t worry about what we did last year. Even against the teams that we beat, we have to treat it like a new year.”
