WHAT HE SAID: South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer shares thoughts on upcoming game vs. Ole Miss

OXFORD, Miss. — No. 12 Ole Miss travels to South Carolina to Williams-Brice Stadium this Saturday to face South Carolina. The Gamecocks and Ole Miss have played twice since 2018; however, the Rebels have not traveled to Columbia since 2009 when South Carolina upset Ole Miss, 16-10.

The Rebels own a 9-8 record in the series, but the Gamecocks have won three of the last four matchups. The past two games have seen a combined 193 points scored with a 48-44 South Carolina victory in 2018 and a 59-42 win for Ole Miss in 2020.

Head coach Shane Beamer held his weekly press conference Tuesday and here’s what the Gamecocks’ head coach had to say about his team and facing Ole Miss.

On Ole Miss

“Really talented as we all know and very well coached team without a doubt. Defensively, a lot of really good players. A lot of new players all across the board from a personnel standpoint. They have size in the secondary. Athleticism at linebacker. Really, really good up front on the defensive line. Lead the SEC in sacks. They have ends that can rush the passer. Tackles that can take over games. So they are really good defensively. Offensively, you look at statistics, they are pretty much number one in everything right now from an offensive standpoint. We have to be able to do a great job of handling their tempo. No question about it. Offensive line, big. Probably the biggest offensive line that play all season when you look at height and weight. Veteran guys, transfer from North Carolina. Two transfers that started at Washington. Really good up front. Quarterback is extremely talented. Very experienced. Really good group of running backs and then a really good group of wide receivers, as well. Big challenge, but that is life in the SEC every single week, as well. We know Saturday at 3:30 will be awesome in our stadium, as well. Can’t wait to be back in there. We only have three games in the month of October and this is the only home game in month of October. Know it will be rocking in there on Saturday and we certainly, absolutely, need it to be. Looking forward to getting back in there. Injury wise, we will obviously put out a report tomorrow night but we are in pretty good shape. That is all I will say about that.”

On addressing mistakes he feels he has made:

“Try and learn from them and be better the next time. If that makes sense. Whether it be decisions that I have made in games. You try and learn from them. I am still mad at myself that I punted at midfield against Clemson last year in the fourth quarter when we had fourth and six or seven. I am still mad at myself in 2021 that we had the ball right before the half at Georgia on our one-yard line we tried to max protect and threw a deep shot and got tackled for a safety. There are some things in the LSU game that I am disappointed in myself that I didn’t do better. I am still mad at myself in the Gator Bowl. Notre Dame faked a punt on us and I saw it coming and I recognized they were in a different formation and something was up and I saw it and I thought we would be OK defending it even if they did do something and we didn’t and we gave up a fake punt. Those to me are mistakes that I made that still eat at me. You just try and learn from them where, OK, we are in that situation again. How are we going to handle it? For me as the head coach, it is in game decisions but it is also, I think, looking at practices. I take notes on everything. Every single day, I am writing down notes so it helps me now being in Year 4 where I could look back at this week in Year 1, Year 2, Year 3. Coming off a bye week. Notes from last year that I like, didn’t like. You are constantly just trying to learn. Coach Day always uses the term around here, course correct, where if we do make a mistake or we do something that gets us off course, we are able to correct ourselves and get back on course. That is what I try and do.”

On South Carolina QB Lanorris Sellers:

“He was good today. He did everything in practice, for sure.”

On his relationship with Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin:

“Solid. I have a ton of respect for him. I wouldn’t say we talk regularly. We certainly have crossed paths whether he was at Tennessee as the head coach and I was an assistant coach here at South Carolina. When he was at FAU. We played them my very first game as an assistant coach at Oklahoma. Blocked a punt for a touchdown, so that was good. I crossed paths with him then and being in meetings in the league. Had a lot of respect for his dad and certainly, there is a lot that we can relate to because we are both sons of coaches. I will get an occasional text or phone call from him about something randomly kind of like you would think with Lane Kiffin where it will come when you least expect it where you just kind of laugh and shake your head. Ton of respect for him as a coach in a football mind. He has done an amazing job at Ole Miss winning 11 games last season and then the team he has put together right now. They are certainly fun to watch.”

On if he feels the South Carolina offense is starting to whittle down what it’s best at: 

“I think so. I think every week, that is a process. There is no question that we are better at running the ball. There is no question that each week, we have to be creative in how we run the ball. There is no question that we have athletic quarterbacks that continue to accentuate those positives. You see our receiver corps, those guys continue to step up and make plays. I think it is understanding our personnel even better. Realizing how we are going to win football games around here. Then, you mention the self scout. That was critical after four games to really be able to step back and say, ‘What tendencies do we have whether it be personnel wise, formation wise that we really need to attack and combat?’ I think every week you continue to get better. That will be the whole key for us not just on offense but defense and special teams that we continue to get better every single week.”

On his thoughts after watching Kentucky vs. Ole Miss:

“I don’t want to say so much a blueprint or worried so much about how Ole Miss is going to come out. I am sure Ole Miss is going to learn from that Kentucky game. I am sure they walked out of there thinking that they left a lot of plays out there and want to do things better. Certainly, you think about what their answers are going to be to things that gave them trouble against Kentucky. I know Lane talked about it in his press conference yesterday. Kentucky’s defense is structured a lot differently than we are. You can’t really look at it and say it is going to be the same because we are just different in a lot of ways. Kentucky did a fabulous job and Ole Miss certainly had their opportunities. When I watch a game like that, watch it as a fan but also as a coach. You certainly think about some things that Kentucky did. That is every week when you are watching a team that you are going to take ideas from or steal things from. Whatever you want to call it. That is every week. I walked out of that game thinking, you know what, we knew Kentucky was a good team when we played them. They showed that against Georgia the next week and then showed that against Ole Miss Saturday. Then, I also walked out of there saying I knew Ole Miss is a really good team and they showed that on Saturday and it was just a heck of an SEC football game is how I kind of look at it. When you get back in here on Sunday, you really dive into the tape and maybe things that you thought were happening on the TV copy. You really dive into it when you see the sideline and end zone views and kind of see different things on both sides, as well.”

On RB Rocket Sanders:

“LaNorris and Rocket were both out there. They both looked good. Were they 100 percent? I wouldn’t say they were 100 percent but they both told me they felt great and they looked good. They will both be able to do even more tomorrow, I would think, as well. … Jared Brown was out there today, too.”

On how the coaching staff ensures the emotions of this Saturday’s game don’t boil over and cause penalties:

“I think that is every game. You want to make sure you play with great poise. They have a good football team and I know we are going to get the best version of Ole Miss and what we are focusing on is they get the best version of South Carolina. They have a lot of really good players on offense. Juice is a good player but when you sit there and watch number 9, the other receiver, they targeted him 15 times Saturday. We better not be caught up in one player. We better be aware of him and then we know what a weapon the tight end is. 19, the slot receiver, Cayden Lee, we recruited the heck out of him. He had a lot of targets on Saturday when they threw to him. The running back had a lot of targets in the pass game. For us, they have a lot of really good players that we have to prepare for in all three phases. It is always about playing smart football and poise and doing out job. Especially when you are in chaotic environments like our stadium is going to be on Saturday.”

On the level of play South Carolina will have to have from its secondary:

“They will have to play well. We will have to do a great job tackling and that is a key for us this week is we really have to tackle well. That is one thing that I thought Kentucky did a great job of last week is making 1-on-1 tackles. Ole Miss is going to get their yards. They are going to get their carries and catches. We just have to do a great job tackling. Not just in the secondary but all 11 guys on defense to make sure that those five yard gains don’t turn into 30 yard gains. Certainly, the secondary without a doubt because they get to going fast and then there is a miscommunication or somebody doesn’t play the right technique and you are giving up touchdown passes over your head. That is what can’t happen. It is not just the secondary. It is the linebackers and everyone that has to do a great job from a coverage standpoint but starting with tackling all three levels of the defense.”

On what he would say is the theme of the SEC:

“Really deep and really good. There are a bunch of really good teams in this league. I know that the SEC, we have lost some marquee non-conference games to teams from the Big Ten or the ACC. If you just look at what we have done, some of the other leagues that have been upset or lost some games to some non-Power Four team compared to the SEC. Just a level of really good players. That is probably the biggest thing that jumped out is when you watch SEC games all weekend, you watch these teams and you are like, ‘My God. There are some really talented players in this league.’ There is a reason that the SEC has led the country in draft picks close to 20 straight years because there are some really, really talented football players. That is just life in this league. I don’t come into the office on Sunday and get ready for an SEC game and turn on the tape and be like, ‘Alright. These guys will be a little bit of a breather this week because they are not very talented.’ Everybody is good. Everybody has NFL players. It was reaffirmed over the weekend watching so many games.”

On if he has to address the Kentucky vs. Ole Miss game with his team:

“I don’t think I need to with them but I did because I am sure people are saying that. ‘Hey, you guys beat Kentucky. Kentucky beat Ole Miss so you just automatically supposed to beat Ole Miss.’ It doesn’t work that way. We played really well against Kentucky that day. It was a dog fight last Saturday over in Oxford between those two guys. The expectations externally of what people think are supposed to happen but then there is also, making sure that our players, and we talked about that this morning in our team meeting. Making sure that we have a great respect for how hard winning football games is and making sure we have great respect for the process that it takes throughout the week in order to play well on Saturday. Then, realizing that no matter what has happened up to this point, all that matters is Saturday and that we have to play really well in order to win this football game because this is a really, really talented team coming in here. There is no question about it.”