South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer faced the media on Saturday night following the Gamecocks’ 31-7 home loss to Vanderbilt, addressing turnovers, injuries, and how the team will regroup moving forward.
Opening Statement
“Congratulations to Vanderbilt. They came in here and obviously played really, really well. We did not. It starts with me. Not good enough,” Beamer said. “You lose a turnover battle like we did tonight, when you turn the ball over four times in this league, you’re going to get your butts kicked. And that’s what happened tonight. This is not enough. Not enough winning football… Way too much self-inflicted stuff. Injury-wise, don’t have an update for you on LaNorris (Sellers) or Cason (Henry).”
Quarterback Situation
Asked if Luke Doty would take over if Sellers misses time, Beamer said it’s too early to decide:
“We’ll look at everything as Luke was in there tonight, and we all got to be better. We’ll evaluate everything as we go into the Missouri week. I understand the question, but way too soon for that, my man.”
Fourth-and-Short Calls
Beamer broke down the two failed 4th-and-1 plays:
- “First one, yeah, I mean, it’s a basic power play that we’ve run all the time… Hindsight being 2020, maybe throw it there… but not good enough.”
- “The second one was an RPO. Luke pulled it, and we’ve got Jordan Dingle. I know Luke got hit, but we’ve gotta make that throw.”
Impact of Sellers’ Injury
On losing his starting QB before halftime:
“It wasn’t good enough… when you lose the leader of your football team, and you lose your starting quarterback like that… I was pleased with a lot of the stuff we were doing offensively in the first half. But I don’t like the way that we started the second half offensively with a three-and-out… and then defensively letting them go right down the field and score. That’s on me.”
Doty’s Performance
Beamer said the senior did “okay” under tough circumstances:
“Certainly, some plays that he would like to have back, but he’s a sixth-year senior and a guy that we believe in, and the team believes in and trusts. I thought he did okay. None of us were good enough tonight. When you get beat 31-7, nobody’s good enough.”
Defensive Struggles
On the defense breaking down late:
“Yeah, I would hope like hell it wasn’t fatigued. (Vanderbilt) played 63 plays. So if we’re fatigued after 63 plays, that’s not good enough… We’ve got to tackle better. We’ve got to coach better. We’ve got to execute better.”
Beamer added that giving up “explosive” plays was a matter of players being out of position.
Penalties and Mistakes
Pre-snap mistakes once again haunted the Gamecocks:
“Really frustrating. Just a lot of not good enough football tonight, and when you have that much self-inflicted mistakes, that falls on the head coach and got to get it corrected.”
Locker Room Message
Beamer closed with what he told the team after the loss:
“When you turn the ball over four times in the SEC, you’re going to get your rear ends kicked, and that’s what happened tonight… But I told the team I was still encouraged… I saw a lot of really good tonight, too, at times, just not enough of it… We got to get a whole lot better, because right now it’s nowhere near good enough. But we have players in that locker room that care and hurt, and we got to continue to stay together, because we know the noise on the outside is not going to be positive, and we have to be positive here. We’re sitting here at 2-1 with a ton of football in front of us, and we’ve got a big trip coming up to Missouri in seven days.”
