A night game at LSU. That’s what awaits head coach Shane Beamer and the Gamecocks coming off their open date. LSU’s Death Valley is hallowed ground, and when the sun fades over Baton Rouge, La., it creates a magical atmosphere, unique to the deep south. According to Beamer, it is challenges like this one that draws the best competitors to the SEC.
Beamer held his weekly press conference, Tuesday, dismissing any notion of USC entering Saturday’s trip with “revenge” in mind after a roughing the passer penalty erased a game-changing interception in last year’s game. Instead, Beamer said he’s focusing the team on playing winning football and handling a hostile environment.
The trip to LSU is the first in a string of challenging games facing the Gamecocks in the coming weeks. USC will square off against Oklahoma, Alabama, Ole Miss and Texas A&M to close out its conference schedule.
But Beamer doesn’t want to hear about the difficulty of the Gamecocks’ upcoming schedule. “I told our players, if you don’t want to play that schedule, you chose the wrong conference to come play in. If you don’t want to play that schedule, you came to the wrong school. That’s life in this league. As a competitor, that’s what you chose to do. I get tired of the ‘look at South Carolina’s schedule,’ but look at everybody else’s schedule in the SEC … let’s go compete because that’s what you came here for.”
South Carolina and LSU are schedule to kick off from Death Valley at 7:45 p.m., Saturday.