What Shane Beamer said during his Sunday night teleconference after Missouri win

South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer spoke to the media one day after the No. 21 Gamecocks’ 34-30 win over No. 23 Missouri during his Sunday night teleconference. Here’s what he had to say.

— Really proud of the guys. The mental toughness they showed was so impressive after losing the lead in the second half. There was no panic on the sideline. Very business like. Very proud of them.

— The key for them was scoring in the red zone and holding Missouri to field goals. The two-minute drives were huge.

— Defensively, they weren’t as good as they’ve been. Need to be better. But they were dominant on third down and held them to field goals.

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— There’s a lot to correct but a lot to build on. Knew it wouldn’t be easy. Two tough games in a row after the Texas A&M game. Missouri had all the motivational tactics for this game. They played great. But South Carolina found a way to win.

— Offensive players of the game: LaNorris Sellers, Nyck Harbor, Dalevon Campbell

— Defensive players of the game: Nick Emmanwori, Bam Martin-Scott

— Special teams player of the game: Hunter Rogers

— Scout offense player of the week: Djay Braswell

— Scout defense player of the week: Isaiah McClary

— Scout special teams players of the week: Connor Cox

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— One of the bigger plays in that game came in the first half on third down where they ran a mesh concept and Martin-Scott did a great job of not getting picked and forced an incompletion.

— Most significant injury from last night was Brady Hunt. He’ll miss the next two games. He’s got a little bit of a leg injury. Expects to have him back for the postseason. Judge Collier should be okay. Michael Smith should be okay, as well.

— From a tight end standpoint, Maurice Brown has played. Nick Elksnis and Connor Cox are the other guys who can help. They’ve all played in games before. Got confidence in those guys. But certainly have to be smart with what they’re doing personnel wise and groupings.

— Teams are going to move the ball, teams are going to hit some plays on you. but you have to do a good job tackling and get stops in the red zone. They did a good job of that in this game. Just continue to make them put the ball down. Need to create more takeaways. Need to continue to take the ball away. But the defense got stops when they needed to and the offense picked them up and played well.

— For the unsung heroes who made a big impact last night, it starts in practice. Certainly with Campbell. He wasn’t great the week of the Vanderbilt game. Practice matters. The roles change every week and you have to practice well. The WR room is a bunch of really good guys that can do multiple things. Practice matters. They don’t sit there and say these four are going to be out there. The guys whoa re out there are the ones that practice well and do what is asked of them. Everyone has to be ready. There’s no question about it.

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— They’ve progressed well throughout the season on offense and defense. There’s no question about it. They talk about being a team that gets better as the season goes and they have in all three phases. They’re playing at a high level. Every week is a battle. But they’ve gotten better as a team that’s able to execute screens on offense. They’ve done that two weeks in a row to score a touchdown. They have to continue to get better. But in all three phases, they’ve made strides, but they’ve got a lot to continue to get better at.

— Josiah Thompson was available to play last night. Thought the best interest for everyone was to have Tree Babalade go at left tackle. They chose not to play him and had him in the back pocket if they needed him. Thought Babalade was good last night. He was very solid in the pass game and run game.

— There are conversations in the offseason about a general idea of whether older players walk on senior day or potentially use their extra year of eligibility. But they’ve started having those talks last week in staff meeting last Thursday. He gave the coaches a list of all the players who will participate in senior day for guys that don’t have eligibility and then there’s a list of guys for each position who have another year of eligibility. The players don’t have to tell them right now what their plans are. But the conversations have started. He got an updated list of guys who are planning to come back for another year.

— There’s plenty of time to talk about the CFP down the road. But the focus is on Wofford this week and then Clemson after that. If they’re able to handle their business, there will be plenty of talk for that afterwards.

— In terms of the defensive mindset on Missouri’s final drive after the Rocket Sanders touchdown, there’s a walk through on Fridays and the last thing they cover is the end of the game. There are different ways to prevent on the big plays on the end. They were multiple in that situation. You think about the kickoff first after the go-ahead touchdown. Do you kick it deep? Do you squib it to take time off the clock? That was the first conversation him and Joe D were having. Then he was talking with the defensive staff about what’s next. They wanted to be in prevent coverage. Missouri had time for one or two, maybe three plays. They could hit a chunk play, call a timeout, then throw it to the end zone. Then you’re talking about how to play for laterals and what not. They did a good job in that situation on defense to not give Missouri a chance.

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