Everything Shane Beamer said on Sunday after the matchup against Towson

South Carolina head football coach Shane Beamer spoke to the media on Sunday for his weekly teleconference. Here’s everything he said following the Gamecocks’ 45-9 victory against Towson. Opening Statement “We certainly started way too slow offensively, which was disappointing. We had a really good week of practice and did not see the slow start coming. On the other hand, the defense started really fast. I think we had about three three-and-outs to start the game, so that was great to see. Overall, I liked the response that I mentioned last night, with the response after the half and handling the weather delay and coming out and playing better as the game went on. I felt like overall though, all three phases would agree that last night wasn’t our standard. We had two punt returns for touchdowns and should have had three. I mean the one over there on our sideline, it should have been an absolute walk in and we’d be talking about three punt return touchdowns in the same game. But their player played the play harder than we did, which was disappointing to see on that one. “Defensively, we did a lot of really good stuff. We forced 11 punts, which gave Vicari (Swain) and the punt return team that opportunity. But some examples of just running pressures the wrong way. We had defensive tackles running into linebackers and nickelbacks on pressures. We’ve got defensive ends and defensive backs on two different pages and we got away with it last night. We’ll give up 80-yard touchdown passes if we do that this Saturday. Going forward offensively, we don’t like the pre-snap penalties, we don’t like the drops, we don’t like the turnovers, and we don’t like the fact that we did not have any takeaways on defense last night. That’s not like us either. We talked to our team about it today, how we have to be better. A lot of the stuff we got away with the last two weeks, or particularly last night will get us beat going forward. Having said that though, to feel like you didn’t play great and still dominate our plan to win, and what we have to do each and every week to win the game, we dominated it. “There was one area that we didn’t hit and that was a turnover battle. They forced two turnovers, we didn’t force any. They won that. Typically you, you don’t win the game if you lose the turnover battle but we did last night. But I’ve had off-nights where you win 21-17, don’t run the ball, and all that stuff. There was a lot of good last night, but certainly not overall to our standard. Like the discipline that we played with on the punt returns. A lot of times you see those and the first thing you look for is a flag on the field because somebody hit somebody in the back. I thought our guys showed great discipline on all those returns last night. We brought a lot of pressure on their punter, and thought we showed great discipline around the punter also. So a lot of good to build up on, certainly a lot to correct defensively. After we looked at it as a staff, I felt like our players of the game were quashed. (Quay’sheed) Scott, and for the second week in a row, Tomiwa (Durojaiye) on the defensive line. (Durojaiye) is a disruptor in there and continues to play at a high level defensively. LaNorris Sellers was our player of the game along with (Emmanuel Kojo Poku) on the offensive line. I like the way he’s playing, and I love the effort and the energy that he’s playing with. (Poku) plays hard and is always around the ball. Special teams obviously was Vicari Swain. Our scout player of the week on defense was George Wilson. like the way that he has been practicing, and we need to continue to get him involved with what we’re doing defensively. Questions about this story? Walker Gaskins is discussing it with subscribers on The Insiders Forum. “Offensively, running back Neil Salvage and Neff (Giwa) on the offensive line were our scout players of the week, Then, on special teams, Tony Brown. I talked to our players about it today. There’s a lot of competition going on. Just because you’re named the starter for week one doesn’t mean you’re the starter for 12 straight weeks. Just because you were recognized for whatever you did last week against Kent State doesn’t mean that you’ve been anointed. It’s week-to-week; we’re constantly competing, and there’s guys that are going to continue to get more reps because of the way they practice and then perform, and there’s also guys that are going to have less reps going forward because of the way they’ve performed. What makes me think that some of you are going to be able to perform at a high level as we start SEC play this week? Our group got a lot of work to do. “Thanks again to our fans last night. They were awesome. They made a rocking atmosphere for a bunch of recruits that were here and I appreciate the student section and the people that stayed throughout the delay and made that fun. But a late evening, certainly we were all late, including you guys, getting out of that stadium last night. I was back in the office this morning early and I’ve been here all day. Working hard on Mississippi State and I had some good meetings this afternoon with our players. We’re finishing those up right now like we always do, and then we will hit the practice field here shortly to put last night to bed and get started on the field on what’s a big challenge this Saturday back in Columbia.” Matt Fuller’s had three fumbles in two games and you guys did recover two of them. But is that something that maybe required or has already required an individual heart-to-heart with him? “No. Certainly he’s got to hold on to the ball better, so we’re not excusing it. We’ve got to be better. I haven’t seen that in practice and, I wouldn’t say heart to heart. We talk to our players all the time about ball security and holding onto the football. Putting the ball on the ground last night isn’t our standard. I’m more upset about the blocking that took place and where people are hitting Fuller. He shouldn’t even be there if our wide receivers go and block the right people.” When you look at the drops on film, I know the weather played a part in the second half, and I think you mentioned last night you don’t want to use that as an excuse, but how much of the drops were impacted by just the elements and maybe guys just not catching the football there? “Yeah, you’re right. I don’t want to use it as an excuse, but we had drops before the rain even started, so clearly there was an issue last night. It can’t happen. Like I told you guys in the press conference, if I had seen a lot of drops in practice and thought it was a concern, then I could understand it, but I hadn’t seen that in practice. We got to be able to throw and catch and make plays in games.” Visit our exclusive Gamecocks-only, no-trolls message board! How do you find the right balance of letting a guy play through mistakes, versus going to the next guy? What factors do you consider when a guy is having a problem catching a pass or fumbling the ball? “I think you just look at the overall body of work, and we’re fortunate that we’ve got great depth and competition at every position on our offense. That’s what I talked to the coaching staff about today. Let’s make sure we keep an open mind about our players. I don’t care. Senior, freshman, whoever they are, just get our best guys out there. They give us a chance to perform. That’s all three phases. Not just offensively, but you look at the body of work, and I don’t want to be ripping guys out of the game left and right for every mistake, and they’re afraid of making mistakes. We want them to play confidently and play freely. But it’s also a production business, too. But I have no concerns about our ability to hold on to the football or catch the football, but we’ve got to be able to do it more consistently in games. No question about it.” How would you evaluate the coverage from the defense? And then especially going into this Week 3 matchup going against Mississippi State. “Yeah, I think they’ve been solid. I think you give them credit, but I think they had four explosive passes last night. Now that’s four too many, and we have to be better. But I looked at it last night. One time we were in a zone coverage and the quarterback scrambled out of the pocket to his left and our linebackers pushed in the zone coverage a little bit too far and then had a receiver get behind us, and then we missed a tackle and turned it into an explosive pass. There was the play y’all asked Vacari (Swain) about last night in the press conference. That was a touchdown. There was another scramble over there on their sideline where we’ve got to do a better job of what we call plastering. So I think our secondary has been good and we’ll need them to be that way and be even better Saturday against this squad coming in here.” Following up last night on Ethan Sanchez. Was that decision rooted in any kind of legal hurdles that still need to be cleared, or is he good to go? “Yeah, like I said, it was my decision not to play him. And we’re constantly in contact with our compliance department, and we’re on the same page as far as how we want to handle Ethan Sanchez, Ethan Johnson, and all of our players.” You mentioned (Carter) Miller, (DJ) Black and (Moe) Brown were kind of banged up last night. Any further diagnosis on those guys? “Yeah, I should have said that at the beginning. We have an SEC availability report that will release on Wednesday. But coming out of last night, no long-term concerns. All the guys that didn’t play last night or the guys that left the game last night, I wouldn’t say they’re 100% today, but I’m certainly optimistic that they’ll be in good shape on Saturday. Nothing is more serious today than what we thought it was last night. We just have to get them healed. I know you guys are going to, as you always do, ask about Dylan (Stewart) and (Jacarrius) Peak and we’ll see where they are as the week goes, but they’re certainly trending in the right direction.” You mentioned at the start that you felt like the guys had a really good week of practice. I’m curious when you’re watching in the game and even watching on tape, at what point do you kind of notice this isn’t looking like what you were doing in practice? “I don’t know if there is one moment; it’s just a combination of things. When you go out on the first drive and you have two pre-snap penalties, one by your left tackle and one by your running back, then you have a drop by your receiver, and then you have a fumble, all of which takes place on the first drive, you say to yourself that doesn’t look like the group that I’ve been watching in practice. So right then and there, but each play is its own entity and we didn’t start well, but we did a lot of good as we went by. But our players certainly understand that that’s not the expectation in terms of how we played overall. There was a lot of good last night, don’t get me wrong, but overall that’s not what we’re about.” Have a question for the GamecockCentral staff? Ask it now on The Insiders Forum. Run defense had one of the better performances, really in program history. Top four fewest run yards. What about the run defense have you liked so far this year and how do you feel going into conference play from that standpoint? “I think they’ve been good. We’ve done a nice job. I think part of that is we’ve taken tackled well. When you look at run defense, it’s all right there in the box at the point of attack. But you better be able to tackle and keep plays from getting out of there. We’ve tackled well, and I think we’ve done a really nice job up front. When you look at what they were trying to do last night, we were building walls at the line of scrimmage. I thought our linebackers did a nice job playing downhill. Our defensive backs, when they’re involved in the run, did a nice job. What I would say is they’re active, they’re playing hard and they’re playing physical. But we certainly understand that we these are two teams that we’re better than and we have better personnel than. We’ve done a nice job through two weeks, but we should have, and we have to continue to work and continue to be better going forward.” I think this week a lot of people around the country are going to be talking about the comparisons between Kamario Taylor and LaNorris (Sellers). I don’t know how much you’ve been able to watch on him in the last 16 hours, but what have you seen from him going back to last year and this year? And do you see those similarities with LaNorris? “Yeah, I caught a little bit of their game on television yesterday before we left the hotel and then kind of in between meeting with recruits in my office at the stadium before the game yesterday. I caught a little bit of it. But two really talented quarterbacks, two weapons, and we’ll have our hands full on Saturday.” I noticed A.J. Holloway wasn’t on the dress list yesterday. Is he okay? “Yeah, he’s got a little bit of an injury. He’ll be fine.” It seemed like Carter (Miller) wasn’t real consistent in the placement of his snaps yesterday. He had a few that were low, and a few that were a little bit off. Was injury a part of that? “I hope so, because snaps hadn’t been an issue in practice. So that one kind of flared up and you say to yourself, where did that come from? So I would like to think that the back flaring up a little bit was a part of it. I don’t want to seek comfort and make excuses. We’ve got to be better with the snaps; there’s no question about it. He knows he needs to be better and I have no doubt that he will be. And then I thought Nolan Hay came in and did a really, really nice job. He started at guard and then came in and played some center as the game went on.” What does this mean for the Gamecocks? Walker Gaskins and fellow subscribers are discussing it now on The Insiders Forum. One more question on the drops, if you don’t mind, with Nyck (Harbor) specifically. He had the two there in the red zone on passes from LaNorris (Sellers). What did you see on those plays, and what’s the message to him? As guy that he’s been in the program for a long time now, you probably expect him to catch those balls. “I do. And he does. He works hard. I see him and Mazeo (Bennett) in here every morning during the season. We start our first meeting with the players every morning at eight and I’m in the weight room every morning at six working out. And every morning, a little after six, I see those guys and they’re in the indoor facility catching extra balls on the jugs. So those two guys work really hard at catching the ball. They do it every morning. They’re really good players and they had a couple drops last night. We thought the third-down play over in the red zone was a play you got to make. Their guy was in good coverage, but we got to come down with that. And then I think with the fourth-down play, I think he certainly let the third-down play affect the fourth-down play. He’s got to make that catch. But I was more disappointed in the route that he ran on the fourth down play. We’re trying to sell it like we’re going in there and blocking and, and then trying to hit him on a little pop pass, kind of like we did with Brady Hunt earlier in the game down in the red zone, and kind of like we did with Brady Hunt last week on the two-point conversion. We did not sell the run at all because I think he was upset about what happened on the third-down play. So that’s what I talked to him about. Don’t let one play affect the next play.” With Jeff Lebby and Kendal Briles‘ obvious connection to him, how do you guys try to plan for something like that when they obviously have a similar connection? Is there anything you guys can do? “I think there’s certainly some similarities. They go back a long ways, and obviously they’re family. So there’s that aspect of it. I think sometimes that can be overrated. And, yes, Kendal may have some ideas and things on Coach Lebby and how they do things, but the same is true for Coach Lebby and Kendal and how we do things. So that’s certainly something that we talked about in the summertime when we spent time back in June working through as a staff. Going through all 12 opponents and working on our summer scouting reports and that’s something that we’ll lean into this week. I’m sure Mississippi State’s defensive staff is doing the same thing with Coach Lebby and Kendal.” What do you think? Join the discussion on The Insiders Forum.