What Shane Beamer said after South Carolina's win over Kentucky

Following South Carolina’s win over Kentucky on Saturday, head coach Shane Beamer spoke to the media after the game. Here’s what he had to say.

— Told Mark Stoops after the game he knew South Carolina had to be really good to beat a program like his.

— What a team win for this football program. They showed it all today. You’ve got to have great toughness, physicality, composure and togetherness on the road to win. Checked all those boxes.

— There wasn’t a lot of belief in the program to come in and do what they did today. Told the team on Tuesday there’s perception and there’s reality. Reality is they played very well today in all phases. Reality is they have great belief.

— This isn’t some surprise. They expected to win this football game. What a win. But a lot of work to do.

— So happy for the older guys that have been around in this program. Remembers this game was the one in 2020 where Beamer was offered the job by Ray Tanner. That was a great memory. Came here two years ago and got the win. Same deal today. 1-0, atop the SEC standings.

— Knows he’ll put this team’s physicality and toughness up against anybody. It was going to be tough and not pretty when playing Kentucky. Needed to be gritty and tough and they were. That defensive front South Carolina has is really good.

— Notes they’ve won five of their last six games. Knows they’re just scratching the surface of what they can do.

— They’ll continue to get better in all three phases, especially on offense. Played a lot of young guys.

— Great belief in LaNorris Sellers and what player he can be. Proud of Robby Ashford for coming in and playing the way he did. Loves that QB room.

— They knew they were going to be able to generate pressure on Vandagriff. Any time you play Kentucky, it starts with stopping the run. He’s a really good quarterback. But this was his first SEC start too. He’s never played against a defense like theirs. Wanted to give him a lot of different looks and disguising coverages.

— All the talk this week was about Kentucky’s defensive line. Was in his DL’s ear the entire week about it. Jokes they moved up from JV to Varsity.

— Never mentioned that they were underdogs this week. Everything was confidence with what they had to do. You have to play with confidence to win in here. Tried to show them they did some good things against ODU, although it wasn’t the standard they need to play to.

— Likes the depth at EDGE. It helps that you don’t always have to bring a linebacker to create pressure. They’ve got some guys that can rush the passer up front. Made it really tough on Kentucky.

— Sellers doesn’t get too high or low. Sometimes he wonders what goes on inside his head. But knew today they would all need to pick each other up to win. That’s what it has to be. Sellers is confident. He’ll continue to get better. When something bad happens, it wasn’t like he was rattled. He knew what he did wrong and played the next play.

— Mazeo Bennett is a competitor. Credit to Sellers, he can extend plays on some of those big throws. But credit to Bennett for making those catches that he had, as well. Told the receivers at halftime they’d need to make plays in the passing game to win. Got a good group and happy with the progress he made.

— Ball security needs to be better if they’re going to run Sellers. But thought he was poised and settled in. Scrambled out of the pocket and made some plays. Wasn’t afraid to run.

— Kentucky jumping offsides on the decision to go for it on 4th and 1 in the third quarter was huge. Being able to stay on the field and be aggressive was what they needed to do. It’s something they’ve worked on going back to fall camp.

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