What Shane Beamer said Thursday at South Carolina's media day

On Thursday, Shane Beamer and South Carolina held their annual media day inside of the Spurrier Indoor Practice Facility.

Below is a summary of what Beamer had to say ahead of the Gamecocks first day of fall practice.

– Shane Beamer begins by saying that the program had “an elite summer.” Credits Luke Day and the staff for the work they’ve done with the players to get them bigger, faster, and stronger

– Says there’s no doubt that they’ve grown as a team because of the commitment the players put in to get better

– Beamer shares that Day told the players that if anyone wants to question whether they got better this offseason or not just to look at them and how their bodies have transformed since last season. Said now it’s about putting it to use on the field.

– They’ll have team meetings tonight and more team meetings in the morning before they hit the practice field tomorrow morning

– Keeps reiterating their hunger this season

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– Beamer said they met as a staff this morning and there’s a lot that excites him about this team. But adds that there are areas that they need to address. Mentions kicker, CB across from OD Fortune, the depth at safety and LB, what’s the rotation with the DL, who the starting five will be on the OL, etc. Believes they are much deeper at multiple positions, which won’t only improve competition but it’ll also create more depth.

-I asked Beamer if there’s any significance with the practice schedule having starting times of 9:23, 9:18, etc. Beamer says in hopes of keeping guys healthier, they’re adding an “activation period” this season. What that means is players will still report to practice at their normal time but for the first seven minutes or so they’ll move around a little before they stretch. Players are typically coming from meetings, where they’ve been sitting down for a while, right to practice. By moving around slightly, the hope is that players will be able to loosen their muscles more before they hit the stretch period.

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– Beamer shares that they’ve tweaked some of the things they’ve done with how they’re stretching and the schedule to help with injury prevention. Players are gonna be required to do certain stretches before they leave the building. With some of the injuries they had last year, it might not prevent every injury, but they’re being more proactive with what they can do to put their players in the best position to stay healthy.

– Adding to the injuries, they went back to last spring and they’ve tracked every injury, both major and minor. Said the number of injuries they had was on average of what both they’ve had in years past, as well as the average across the country, but it was more notable because of the number of injuries that happened at one position — the OL.

– Jerome Simmons, a 2024 signee, will not be a member of this year’s team but they hope he will be in the future.

– Shane Beamer jokes that he’s failed with his son Hunter because he committed to Miss. State in NCAA25 because they promised him the starting job at QB. A few days later Hunter told Shane that he became academically ineligible in the game before deciding to enter the transfer portal.

– Beamer said Harbor has been working hard, even going back to the spring while he was running track. Said Harbor just wants to work hard and get better and USC is committed to helping him grow.

– With the hires that South Carolina has made on their staff, he’s confident in them being able to do their job and not undermining them. Now that analysts are able to coach, it’ll allow them to get more done; less standing around.

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