Shane Beamer is the first to acknowledge that the win by his South Carolina team Saturday over Old Dominion was not a work of art, but apparently, he also believes it wasn’t an Etch A Sketch drawing either. Speaking at his Tuesday press conference, Beamer pointed out several positives from the game for the offense and the defense, while noting his team can certainly play a whole lot better, and he and his staff can also do a better job.
The Gamecocks will open SEC play Saturday afternoon at Kentucky. The Wildcats are coming off a 31-0 win at home over Southern Miss in a game that was shortened due to the weather. Kentucky is favored by 9.5 points.
Beamer press conference highlights:
- Lots of respect for Kentucky coach Mark Stoops, Kentucky has a quality QB and a top DT.
- In the ODU game, have to credit the ODU defense for their style, knew they could take some things away, but they put drives together and just have to finish, the offense didn’t stink, but they aren’t happy with the performance.
- Wants Sellers to relax and have fun, he has good players around him and needs to know he doesn’t need to do too much. His deep ball to Brown that was dropped was a throw that not many QBs can make.
- Bennett competed his rear end off in perimeter blocking and others need to pick up on that, they always work on that on Tuesday’s and did so this morning.
- They played really, really hard on the offensive line vs ODU, Thompson didn’t look lost as a freshman and played really, really hard, Lee played great and was a player of the game, they have some protection issues to clean up.
- Receivers and Sellers still in the process of jelling, and that’s something that needs to happen now.
- Two years in a row he’s had to come to his presser after the first weekend and talk about red zone issues, they’ve got to get better there and coach better to finish the drives.
- On the early big pass play by ODU, they did have an issue with the communication from the sideline to the player on the field, only time that happened in the game, but that’s not the reason for the big play, can’t let a receiver get behind you.
- Stewart has a lot of God given talent and Sterling Lucas has done a great job coaching him, and he got a lot of help from the other ten guys on the field.
- Thought they would throw the ball better and more effectively vs ODU though against their six man secondary knew they wouldn’t throw for a huge number and would run the ball a good bit. ODU took away a number of short routes with their scheme.
- Having a QB who can run creates new problems for the opposing defense, you can do things differently with formations and having a 240-pounder running down hill is a good weapon, but they don’t want Sellers rushing 20+ times a game.