What Shane Beamer said in his National Signing Day press conference

South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer spoke to the media on Wednesday for his National Signing Day press conference. Here’s what he had to say.

— Excited about today. It’s different having signing day so early this year but loves this group of prospects he’s signed today as well. Lot of hard work went into today. So many people contributed to this. It’s everyone in the building. When there’s a prospect on campus, they’re all involved.

— Thanks the fans for their help. Part of the reason the commits are signing because of the fans and the environment at Williams-Brice Stadium. The best days of South Carolina football are in front of them.

— To be able to sign double-digit players from South Carolina is huge. Didn’t feel like they had done a good job recruiting in North Carolina but signed three out of that state today. They’re a place that’s popular and attractive to a lot of people right now.

— Had a great surprise with a possible signee/commit/flip this afternoon. Will never stop recruiting. Going to keep going hard at it. Excited about this group for 2025.

— Mike Furrey is doing a grand slam job of recruiting receivers. Excited about what they’ve done there.

— The players are signing with technology. Tries to stay in his lane but it was all basically done over the phone.

[GamecockCentral: Subscribe for $1 for 7 days]

— Joy to the highest degree on Saturday. Sunday was joy, happiness, appreciation for the season they had. Monday was a lot of excitement in the morning. Got the players in here and reviewed the tape from the Clemson game. The rest of Monday throughout Tuesday was business with everything going on. There’s a lot happening. Last night was absolute shock and disappointment. Won’t lie, that feeling really hasn’t changed since 7 pm yesterday except for the excitement of practicing today and signing day.

— It’s very surprising the committee seemingly values strength of schedule. If he hears data point one more time in his life he may throw up. There’s a lot of data points they take into making their decision but doesn’t know if SOS was one. How can you beat a team ranked higher than you and only move one spot while a team beats an unranked team moves up two spots. Doesn’t really know what the committee looks at. It’s very disappointing they didn’t start looking at with a blank slate. It’s frustrating and disappointing. Asks what the criteria is. Guesses injuries aren’t a factor this year like they were last year. If their job is to pick the 12 best teams, their decision on this is a head scratcher.

— Clearly you can go throughout the entire season without a ranked win and make the playoff. Looking forward to playing VT in Atlanta next year but the committee clearly doesn’t give a hoot about it. They made a pretty strong statement about that.

— To be able to go to into PA and beat Penn State for a guy head to head, go to NC and beat those schools for a guy, kudos to Mike Furrey for going after them and getting receivers. Says it’s a huge addition to get a guy like Jordan Gidron from in-state. They all want to play for a great quarteerback. They see what LaNorris Sellers can do. Excited about what they’ve done from an offensive standpoint.

— Didn’t see the flag planting at Clemson when it originally happened. Had a hard enough time finding his family, much less figuring out what his players were doing. That part is a tough situation. Not once did they talk about planting the flag going into the game. Knows Clemson did it last year. Didn’t see USC did it on Saturday until afterwards. Some of the stuff that happened on Saturday was a black eye on the sport. Dabo Swinney called him on Monday about it and that’s something neither of them want. Win the football game and then go celebrate. Will talk about it with the team next year when they get ready to play Clemson.

— There’s a lot of excitement for a Sellers to Sellers connection in the future. Excited about Jayden Sellers coming here as a receiver. Loves that they have three sets of brothers on the team now. That makes a huge statement about what this program is about. That’s what he’s really proud of. It says they are who they are with what they stand for and believe in.

— It hits you in the face when there’s a lot of good defensive players heading out of here after this year. Knew they needed to attack those areas without a doubt. They’re going to continue to add some pieces there without a doubt. Likes that group on the defensive line. Zavion Hardy wasnt able to get here right out of high school but hung in there with them. Caleb Williams was a guy in Virginia that everyone wanted. Both of these guys, along with Christian Ingram, are big guys from a height standpoint. Built more like Zacch Pickens. Going to need them ready to go. Feels like they’ll have to help next year.

— Thought they would be higher than they were in the CFP rankings. Got calls from national media members and some coaches today, doesn’t think he was wrong in feeling that way.

— There’s no question the success they’ve had on the field led to the day they’ve had today. Recruits are seeing College GameDay is here, they’re seeing the team in the national rankings, people are talking about them nationally. Mike Tyler is a guy that’s right here in Columbia. Thinks he’ll come in here and thrive. He’s a great athlete. That’s a guy they continued to stay the course with.

— If he’s recruiting a guy that commits elsewhere, he moves on and shifts his focus elsewhere. If a guy leaves the door open, that’s a different story. No hard feelings, wish him well if a guy is set on one school and not USC. Turns his attention to the guys that he can get and bring in. Wasn’t mad at Malik Clark when he committed to FSU. But he keeps his line of communication open in those situations.

— They had a team meeting on Monday. Told them that they opened up the possibility of the CFP with the win over Clemson but there’s no guarantee. One thing he knew they were going to do is that they will respond the right way. They are going to go compete in the bowl game. They want to be the team to handle adversity the right way. As soon as that news came out, he said they would have a team meeting at 8 a.m. today. There was a lot of shock and confusion. It’s still mind-boggling that Manuel said nothing was going to change when you just beat the potential ACC champion. But they get an opportunity to go leave no doubt.

— If you’re winning on the field, it makes everything better. There’s a lot more energy and excitement about recruiting when you’re nationally ranked compared to when you’re 2-6. There was a lot of excitement in and out of this building. It’s why they were able to keep this group of 2025 guys together. He’s had some recruits call him about the success they’ve been having when they originally didn’t believe in what would happen next. Last year was more of keeping the roster intact. This year, it’s guys wanting to stay with the success. There have been guys hitting them up with the success they’ve been having. They’ve been a group that’s been honest. They are who they say they are and aren’t going to change.

[On3 App: Get South Carolina push notifications from GamecockCentral]

— With players not opting out for the bowl game, he hopes that will be the case and they decide to play. No one has told him yet that they plan to opt out. But the players on this team are extremely motivated to get a 10th win. They have plenty of time to make those decisions.

— South Carolina won the game at Clemson. Happy the Tigers get a chance to go play for an ACC title. Wishes them well. Thyere in a different conference. Gamecocks did what they needed to do in the SEC. Clemson may be the ACC champs. But USC are the state champs.

— It’s tough with finding the right guys in the portal because all the HS guys they just signed, they’ve been recruiting them for multiple years. A lot of these guys, theyve been recruiting themf or a while. They get to learn a lot about them. With the portal guys, you may have 24 hours to get to know them and see if they can get them here on a visit. It’s more like free agency from that standpoint. You dig into them and call as many people as you can. They’re not perfect when it comes to recruiting. But they’re in the same boat as everyone.

— They’re working to try and get as many signees here as possible for bowl practice. Want to get some guys here. It’s a matter of getting paperwork and academically done at their high schools. It depends how quickly they can get things done. But they want as many guys as here as possible. That process started about 2-3 weeks ago.

— They will see on Brady Hunt for the bowl game. Josh Simon and Mike Smith were able to do decent amount in practice last week. Were Simon and Smith a 100 percent? No. But they weren’t about to miss the Clemson game.

— Cutter Woods ia great young man. He’s one they knew they needed to sign at quarterback for 2025. Watched him play in the state championship game last year down at SC State. Saw how his team rallied around him. He’s just got that “it” factor.

Discuss South Carolina football on The Insiders Forum!