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Why Shane Beamer is optimistic about South Carolina's offensive line

UVA BIO PICby:Mike Uva07/19/22

Mike_Uva

South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer speaks at SEC Media Days in Atlanta
Shane Beamer at SEC Media Days (Photo by Joe Macheca/GamecockCentral)

It’s no secret that if South Carolina wants to have success in 2022, the offensive line needs to play better.

But while some on the outside may be looking at the positional group with concerns, Shane Beamer sees it much differently.

“When you return everyone on the offensive line like we did, that’s a great advantage for any program,” said Beamer. “They’ve played a lot of football together. The continuity you need to have with all five positions; they work well together. They’ve played a lot of snaps. So to have those guys back, and to come back hungry – and they got beat up last year. They’ll be the first to tell you that they needed to play better.”

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In the spring, offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield shared that despite USC allowing 31 sacks last season, he found that the offensive line were only responsible for 14 of them. Beamer echoed those sentiments on Tuesday at SEC Media Days

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“It’s easy when the running game doesn’t look good to blame the offensive line. It’s easy that when the quarterback gets sacked to blame the offensive line. Well, it’s not always that simple. Sometimes a tight end may have missed a block or the wide receiver should’ve pushed-crack on the safety and he didn’t and the safety hit the running back for no gain. Or the quarterback got hit in the back of the head. Well, we could’ve been in a pass protection with only five players and the defense rushed six. Simple math tells you that if the defense is bringing six and if you only have five guys blocking for you as the quarterback then you better get rid of the friggin’ ball. That didn’t always happen last year.”

[Win a Jaheim Bell-autographed football]

Last season South Carolina allowed the second most sacks in the SEC. In addition, USC ranked near the bottom of the SEC in mainly every major metric recorded by Pro Football Focus.

“We have to be better as coaches coaching that up. But the offense line is much like the quarterback. Sometimes it gets too much blame and too much credit when things are bad and good. I love these guys on the offensive line. They didn’t miss a single practice during spring on the offensive line. Not one. 15 spring practices. So they’re tough (and) they’re durable.”

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