What Shane Beamer said during his Sunday teleconference after Texas A&M win

South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer spoke to the media one day after the Gamecocks’ 44-20 win over Texas A&M during his Sunday night teleconference. Here’s what he had to say.

— Injury wise came out in great shape. Everyone that played last night should be good.

— Offensive players of the game: LaNorris Sellers, Rocket Sanders, Josh Simon

— Defensive players of the game: TJ Sanders, Dylan Stewart, OD Fortune

— Special teams player of the game: Alex Herrera

— Scout team players of the week: Emazon Littlejohn (offense), Jackson Burger (defense), Aaron Morton (special teams)

— Gamecock MVP: strength and conditioning staff

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— A lot to get better at but an awesome performance. Team got off to a great start. The two-minute drive to end the half and tie the game was huge. A weak-minded team in that situation would let it get away from them. USC didn’t.

— Thought the OL did a great job of communicating. They played really physical in all three phases. That goes a long way without a doubt. The run game was really good. Not trying to be arrogant, but they left a lot of yards out there. Pass pro was really good against A&M’s defensive line. Overall, thought they did a good job and controlled the line of scrimmage.

— Beamer said the hit on Mazeo Bennett didn’t look good on the field or tape. Told the official it was something: targeting, face mask. They didn’t feel like it was.

— Should’ve given the strength staff the game ball in the locker room but forgot. They were the more physical team last night. One of the mantras around here is to dominate the fourth quarter and they did that last night. A&M did that last week against LSU and they were vocal about it all week. But he was in Luke Day’s ear all week about A&M’s strength staff to challenge him and the team. They played with great physicality and effort.

— Not naive and oblivious to chatter. Thinks there were a lot of people who wanted him to fire the strength staff and Clayton White. Safe to say he made the right decision not doing so.

— One thing they worked on a lot during the off week was the scramble drill. Sellers has been under pressure some where he has had to scramble. They have a structure where if the QB scrambles here’s what you do as a tight end and receiver. Wanted to do a better job of coaching that up. Sellers did a great job of finding people.

— It certainly came together when the Gamecocks only had three penalties. They’ve continued to emphasize being smart and not having penalties. They’ve done the same things in practice to hold players accountable and do the right things. Some of the lack of success, losses they had, they didn’t do enough of playing winning football. Penalties are a part of that. There’s a small margin for error. You have to have more winning plays than the other team does.

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— They had seven official visits in last night. They had been in all day today. Feedback was awesome. Best part of the weekend for them was the game and the fan environment and atmosphere. A lot of guys not there last night were texting him how much they wish they were there. Knew how big of an opportunity last night was with the game. They answered the call from an opportunity standpoint.

— Michael Smith is a talented young guy who is very athletic and continues to get better.

— Vandrevius Jacobs was able to play last night. He wasn’t 100 percent. He was good to go but after going through pregame he just didn’t feel great. So they didn’t put him in there last night. Need him and need him to be 100 percent back on the field.

— Thought Nyck Harbor played very physical. He got in there and did what they needed him to do. Practice matters. You have to practice well to play.

— On the Kai Kroeger kick out of bounds, he’s a very talented guy. If Beamer is A&M, there’s a lot of antennas that go up. They wanted to open the realm of possibilities sand give the other team more to prepare for.

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