Full transcript of South Carolina coach Shane Beamer’s Sunday night conference call with the media

Beamer:

Obviously have a hurting team right now to put so much into that game last night throughout the week and play with the effort that we did. That’s a gutting loss, and guys are hurting today. Frustrating because it literally comes down to one play on offense, defense, special teams that, if we make it, it’s a completely different feeling today. And Kentucky did. So give them credit. When we look at our plan to win every week of how we win football games around here, we dominated it. We ran the ball. We stopped the run. We had more explosives. But we did not win the turnover battle. And that’s killing us right now. To lose and to have close games like we’re having and not win the turnover battle and not be able to create takeaways right now on defense makes life really, really hard because your margin for error is very thin. Our quarterback played his rear end off last night and made some unbelievable throws and gave us a chance. For us, it just came down to some critical errors in the fourth quarter on offense and defense, and defense in overtime. Offensively, we had an opportunity there with two minutes left in the game, and we had the ball to go downfield and kick the winning field goal. And we didn’t do that. But there was some really good two-minute offense before the half; we executed, you know, and got points out of that drive. The defense, I thought, did a great job at the end of the game to stop their two-minute drive and get the game to overtime. So the key for us is, there’s no moral victories. There’s no telling them how great they are. We weren’t good enough last night for 60 minutes. But there’s a lot to build on, and the key for us is going to be to continue to get better. And we will be. There’s no question in my mind we’re a better football team than what we were seven days ago after Alabama. And the key for us is going to be to continue to get better this week and just put more winning football on tape. Injury-wise, we’ll have an update for you on Wednesday. Scott went to the hospital last night. I think I told you guys that in the postgame press conference, and he’s been released. We just got to get some further testing with him here going forward to see about his availability for Saturday. But hopefully that’ll be good news over the next couple of days.

Question:

Hey Shane, a bit of a two-parter for you. One, how do you think Nick Harbor has played this season?

Beamer:

I think Nick’s played well. I thought he made some, kind of like us last night, David, up and down. We tried to throw some deep shots to him early in the game. The second play of the game was, you know, designed deep shot to go to Nick, and we got a little bit of pressure on LaNorris, and he wasn’t able to make the throw. You know, I thought he made some really impressive catches last night. He’d love to have the third down there on that last drive in the fourth quarter. He’d love to have that third down back where we isolated him one-on-one to the field and through the slant. You know, that’s a play that he needs to make, and we know he will, and we’re going to continue to go to him. So, like all of us, some plays he’d like to have back, but I think he’s, for the most part, been good and needs to continue to just play fast and play free and go make plays like I know he can.

Question:

And what are some of the reasons you think for the lows, the downs?

Beamer:

I don’t know. I mean, I don’t know if there’s necessarily downs. Give the DB credit last night if you’re talking about one of the down plays being the third-down play last night. I mean, it was a 50-50 ball, and their guy made a nice play. And a lot of the things we’ve been able to do in the run game are because of how teams are playing us, David. You know, if they’re playing soft coverage because they don’t want Nick Harbor or DJ Black or whoever to run past them, that’s going to open up some things in the run game too, which is good. I think Nick’s done a lot of really good things, perimeter blocking. Go back to the first play of the Alabama game and go watch him perimeter block. He had a knockdown on their starting corner. So, it’s a competitive game out there, and the teams have good players, and Nick works really, really hard. We targeted him nine times last night, and we’ll continue to find ways to get him and our other receivers the ball.

Question:

Jabri didn’t get another touch after that fumble in the second quarter. Really, he hardly played at all after that. But throughout the year, there’s been cases where guys have made mistakes, and they continue to stay in the game, and nothing really seems to change as far as their workload goes. So what I’m asking is, what dictates letting a guy continue to play versus not really playing or utilizing them after making a mistake in the game?

Beamer

Yeah, no different with Jabri. I mean, there was no, “Let’s not put Jabri back in the game.” We never said that. Really proud of Jabri’s response. He owned the fumble. He came over to the sideline and apologized to his teammates. And I thought he continued to have great energy throughout the night. He did play Jack. He played kickoff last night, and he covered kicks. So I’m sure you saw that too. He continued to play and stayed engaged. We certainly wanted to ride Matthew Fuller and get him the bulk of the carries. And that’s what we did last night. And then we had some other backs in the game, Jawarn and Isaiah. That wasn’t because we were taking Jabri out. That was just with the personnel package that we had in the game. We had decided that on those plays, Jawarn and Isaiah were going to be the backs in the game on those particular personnel packages. But there was no “Take Jabri out” because he fumbled on a critical play. I mean, we got momentum, and we got a chance to go up, whatever it is, 24-nothing, I think, at that point. And that hurt, but fumbles are going to happen. And he was playing hard and trying to play with great effort. And to answer your question, as far as what dictates it, body of work and evidence of what you’re about and your work leading up to that. And Jabri works really, really hard and brings great spirit and energy to our team. And we got a lot of faith in Jabri, and none of that has diminished at all because of the fumble last night.

Question:

Has anything changed with Dylan’s status, and what can you share about his latest?

Beamer:

Yeah, no update, Hale. I’ve met with Dylan pretty much every day last week and visited with Dylan today. We’ll keep those conversations between us, but no update right now.

Question:

With these leads y’all built early against Mississippi State and yesterday against Kentucky, what do you think is leading to just not being able to hold on to the momentum that you’ve built early in those games, and then, kind of a second part, when the other team gains that momentum back, not just not being able to quickly respond and shut that momentum down?

Beamer:

We’ve got to be better at shutting it down. I mean, we had a turnover last night talking about Jabree’s fumble, and then our defense has got to go out there and, what we say, put the fire out, and we gave up a touchdown. Then we went for it on the 4th down at midfield, and we didn’t get it. And I think they scored on that drive too. So we’ve got to be able to go out there and respond. And we talk about it, Alex. I mean, we’re going to play really good teams. They’ve got really good players and coaches, and they’re going to make plays, and it’s all about just playing the next play and just continuing to push forward. And I thought we did that in a lot of ways last night. We had about a 10-play stretch on defense that wasn’t good last night, where we gave up a 4th-down throw when they went for it on 4th and two. And then the very next play was a touchdown pass. Both of those are just missed assignments and guys not doing what they’re supposed to be doing and overthinking, maybe. So I think to answer your question, I was proud of the response, and that we lost the momentum in a lot of ways, but we had total confidence going into the fourth quarter and had a chance to win the game at the end of the game, and we didn’t do it. We just got to continue to play the next play and not try and do too much. And I know these guys care, and they’re, you know, playing their hearts out and battling their butts off. And we’ve just got to continue to emphasize, don’t try and do too much. Just execute your responsibility, and if you execute your responsibility and it doesn’t work, then that’s on us as coaches for having you in the wrong scheme.

Question:

Going off that a little bit, you know, over the last two years, are you able to put your finger on anything or any reasons why you guys have struggled so much when you have the lead?

Beamer:

Combination. I think you look at everything and give credit to the other team. They got good players and something I’ve thought a lot about, Jordan, certainly. That’s why I think it’s a multitude of factors that we certainly have to be better at. And to answer your question, Jordan, look at since I’ve been here. Typically, we’ve really been good when we have the lead. Our record when we score first before this season, I think, has been really, really, really good. And I go back to our first season here. You weren’t here covering us, but we had three double-digit deficit games that we came back and won that season: East Carolina, Auburn, and Florida. I think back to that, and we played from behind and came back and won. And then, we’ve always been a team that’s been really, good when we’ve been ahead. But for whatever reason, we’re in this rut right now where we get ahead, and we just haven’t been able to finish. And it’s something that we’re emphasizing, but clearly I’ve got to do a better job of getting us to finish games.

Question:

I wanted to ask, obviously Cutter only gets in for a few games and not exactly in traditional quarterback spots, but what can a quarterback take from going in there like that, getting sort of his first action in a really competitive portion of the game?

Beamer:

I think just being out there and feeling it, and the crowd’s engaged and it’s electric, and he’s out there on the field. There’s no substitute for playing, Ben, and he got that opportunity last night.

Question:

Before the game yesterday, Marty Smith had a pretty lengthy tweet about a convo that you guys had. Not asking for anything that Dylan told you. I’m just wondering if you’re able to confirm, because part of what Marty said was that Dylan did apologize. Are you able to say yes or no, if he’s had an apology, whether that’s to you or the team?

Beamer:

Yes, both. Me and the team.

Question:

You guys have gotten Vicari involved on offense the last two weeks. What went into the decision to incorporate him, and how would you evaluate the small sample size?

Beamer:

Yeah, I think he’s been really good, Michael. Great question. Glad you noticed that we had him in there against Alabama too. I didn’t get any questions about that last week. I talked to Kendal and the offensive staff about it. Vicari’s been on me since the summertime about getting out there and playing offense. So it’s something that we’ve been talking about really since July. And he’s playing at a high level on defense and special teams right now for us. And Kendal and I talked about it after the Mississippi State game that we just needed to continue to find playmakers. The loss of Jaden Sellers hurt in regards to his playmaking ability and what he brings to the table. So we were just trying to find ways, continue to find ways to get guys that have make-your-miss ability in the game. We certainly have deep threats that can run past you. When Jaden Sellers got hurt, we lost a little bit of that intermediate quick game: slot, tight, catch a ball, and make him miss. I thought Mazio Bennett played awesome last night. You know, we’ve got to continue to bring him along. He played his butt off and competed, but really just trying to find another playmaker with the ball in his hands. We’ve done a little bit of that with Sequel (Patterson). The backs certainly bring that to the equation. A guy that we felt like we could get the ball, get him some touches and could add another element to our offense. And I think he’s been really, really good. We had a package of plays for him last night. We got the most out of them, and we had a package of plays for him against Alabama that were different than the ones that we ran last night. So we need to continue to integrate him into the offense along with the other playmakers that we have.

Question:

You mentioned last night how you didn’t get away from the run game. A lot of it came down to maybe just what the read said on RPOs. I’m curious if there’s anything you’ve seen that led to more passes on those RPO reads.

Beamer:

I think when you have a RPO called, it’s going to be based on what the defense does. So what led to it was how the defense played us. And certainly you can call some design runs that don’t have an RPO element to it. But other times you’re going to have runs, and they give us one-on-one coverage on the outside. We need to be able to kick it out there and turn it into a big play, which I thought Lenorris did a really good job of last night.

Question:

Pete Thamel reported yesterday that Cutter had received an uptick in first team reps this week during practice. I’m curious if that was the case, how much of that had to do with what Cutter was doing in practice and doing well behind the scenes, and how much of that was to potentially push LaNorris?

Beamer:

A little bit of both. Ya’ll have heard me say it a million times, Jack, competition is a core value here, and it’s real. And accountability is a core value, and it’s real. And LeNorris will be the first to tell you that he needed to be better against Alabama with his play. We all needed to. We stunk it up in Tuscaloosa. And accountability is a real thing. And I can’t sit here and tell the players that I’m holding everybody accountable, and competition’s real, and then not hold the quarterback accountable. So clearly, Lenorris responded the right way. I thought he was freaking awesome last night and, without a doubt, played his best game of the football season. I mean, some of the throws he made last night, Jack, like, wow. Timing, stepping up in the pocket, taking hits, showing an arm strength to be able to get the ball out to his target, some of his runs. I mean, he was awesome. But going back to last week, we needed to hold everybody accountable for the way we played in Tuscaloosa. Cutter’s a heck of a football player. He just happens to be the backup to a really good quarterback right now.

Question:

How hamstrung have you guys been defensively with the lack of production, obviously with Dylan being limited and Caleb Herring having not produced much as far as stats go. But how much has that contributed to some of the issues you guys experienced the last few weeks?

Beamer:

We certainly need to be able to affect other teams’ quarterbacks more. I thought we did a better job of it last night, Hale, with being able to sack the quarterback. I think we sacked him three times last night and had an opportunity to affect him even more as the game went on. But yeah, there’s no doubt we need to get more out of that front four and they’re coming. Dylan not being out there; he’s a really good player, and you love to have him out there on the field. I thought Caleb’s continuing to come along. Julian’s a freshman that continues to get better. Anthony Addison is relentless out there on the field. George Wilson got in there last night for really the first time and gave us some quality reps. Qua Dodd did some really nice things on special teams for us last night. So we’ve got to continue to be able to bring those guys along and develop them and continue to find ways to affect the other team’s quarterback.

Question:

Are you surprised at all by the amount of drops that the wide receivers have had so far this year?

Beamer:

We had way too many last night. There’s no doubt about it. I thought we made some really good ones. I think we counted six drops; I think is what we had, by the way we counted, John. But yeah, too many. We got to be able to help our quarterback out and make plays for him. And we didn’t do enough of that last night. I see us catching the ball. I see how hard we work. I don’t question our guys’ abilities to catch the ball, but certainly we had some drops last night where we got to be better.

Question:

It seemed like last night you guys went maybe a little deeper into the playbook, kind of the quirkier, funkier looks. What kind of conversation sets that up with Kendal, and what goes into that approach?

Beamer:

Two quarterback stuff is just a way to make them think and have some fun with the guys on the first couple plays of the game. But we had a pretty good idea of how they might defend us if we had two quarterbacks out there. The direct snap, that’s something that we’ve always had in. Some of the tackle over, unbalanced stuff, we had that in against Alabama and Mississippi State both. So I think all those things, Ben, we’ve had on the call sheet and in the game plan every week. We just, for whatever reason, didn’t call it in every game, but it’s always been available and something that we always want to give other teams a lot to prepare for and be able to keep teams off track or get teams off track and keep them off balance.

Question:

You mentioned talking again to Dylan today, and from that, do you think there’s any chance at all that Dylan will rejoin the team this week and be able to play against Florida?

Answer:

Like I said, Phil, at the beginning of the call, there’s no update on Dylan. And when there’s an update or news to share, I will certainly let you guys know.