What South Carolina coach Shane Beamer said about playing at No. 21 Tennessee

What South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer said about Saturday night’s game at Tennessee (7:30 p.m. ET, SEC Network) during his weekly appearance on Wednesday’s SEC Coaches Teleconference:

Opening Statement

“A great win for us Saturday night. Got our first SEC win of the year at home in front of a great environment here in Columbia. Know it’ll be an amazing environment Saturday night up in Knoxville. Have a big challenge on our hands with Tennessee. Veteran team. Josh (Heupel) has done a great job with them this year and they’re playing really, really well and operating at a high level in all three phases.”

His review of South Carolina’s play on special teams so far this season

“I think we’ve been okay. It’s not what we expect around here. We haven’t had as many game-breaking plays, if you will. We got a long pun return the other night, which was good. We haven’t blocked any punts yet. Return game on kickoff return, we really haven’t had a chance to get that going. Punt coverage, we’ve been okay. We’ve got a big challenge this week with Tennessee. So overall I think we’ve been solid. It’s not what we expect though, because we expect to make more momentum plays and we’ve had some of them. Obviously the onside kick against North Carolina was a big play that unfortunately did not lead to points, but that was certainly a momentum play.

“So we haven’t been bad, but we haven’t been as good as we expect to be. And I think a lot of that is, one, when we’re playing, when we’ve had the injuries that we’ve had, that directly reflects special teams as well. Because if your depth is limited at certain positions because of injuries on offense or defense, that also affects your special teams as well. So we’ve got a lot of new faces that are in some key spots and, they’ve just gotta continue to come along and understand what special teams is about and how important it is as well. It’s a work in progress and hopefully we’ll just continue to get better.”

South Carolina’s challenge facing Tennessee’s run game

“It’s a big challenge. And then you throw in the quarterback (Joe Milton III) who went, whatever it was, 80 or 75 yards on the first play of the game Saturday. He’ll run as well. I know he ran a quarterback draw in for a touchdown this year. So when you talk about Joe Milton running the ball, you talk about three running backs. They’re all really, really talented. I’m really impressed with them. The more I watch them, just their vision, their balance, they have speed. They can make you miss, they can run you over, they catch the ball well. So those three running backs will be a big challenge.

“And then obviously Tennessee’s always been good on the offensive line. I told our team, this isn’t like they just hit some big runs and all of a sudden ran their average up. I mean, they’re handed the ball off 30-plus times a game, running the ball. So we’ve got to do our best to stop the run. We did a decent job of it last week against Mississippi State. And it’ll be an even bigger challenge this week because of the depth they have at the running back position. And then the size they have on the offensive line along with a quarterback who who can run it.”

How Tennessee’s three running backs (Jaylen Wright, Jabari Small and Dylan Sampson) are similar or bring different skillsets

“I think they’re very similar in my mind. No. 6 (Sampson) just maybe a little bit of a different style runner in some ways than No. 0 (Wright) and No. 2 (Small), right? Small and Wright, 215-pound type guys. That is what they’re listed at, I believe, and, and what they look like on tape. And then certainly Samson came in and did a great job the other day running the ball, as well. And I think he’s not tiny by any stretch of imagination, but he maybe has a little bit of a different skillset set. But they all run hard and they all have the ability to make you miss.”

If South Carolina can be hurt by thinking too much about last season’s game against Tennessee

“I think, in my opinion, and I don’t wanna speak for Josh (Heupel), but from my standpoint, if you’re thinking so much about last year’s game, you’re really not thinking about what you need to do in order to play well in this year’s game. Now, don’t get me wrong, are there things that we’re gonna take from last year’s game? Absolutely. I mean, every coordinator — offense, defense and special teams — is basically the same other than our offense, but we’re doing a lot of the same things we were doing last year on offense. So you watch last year’s game for schematic things from a game planning standpoint.

“Just like last year, we watched the 2021 game, as ugly as it was and took things from that. So that’s one thing. Two, there’s a lot of the same players. We’ve graduated and lost a lot of guys, so have they, but there’s a lot of guys that played in that game that will be playing on Saturday night. So certainly you can watch things from a personnel standpoint as well. But if we just sit there and say, okay, we played really well against them last year and just go do what we did last year, you know, there’s a lot that’s changed. So that’s our mindset.

“And that’s not just Tennessee week this week. It’s every year, win or lose, from the season before. You focus on what you have to do in order to play well that upcoming week. Because if you don’t, I don’t think you’re gonna play well if you’re not thinking about what you need to do to be at your very best that particular week, if that makes sense.”