South Carolina’s penalty problems continue vs Troy. It has to be fixed, Beamer says
Sunday night, Tom Brady returned to New England for a date with his former employer.
In Columbia, USC head coach Shane Beamer channeled Brady and Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians as an example of discipline as the reigning Super Bowl champs took the field on national television.
Beamer told reporters he played a video for the Gamecocks in a recent meeting that included Arians discussing discipline and penalties during the 2020 season. Arians, as Beamer put it, was prepared to tear into his team for the mental mistakes. Brady beat him to it.
“(Penalties) are important when your players make it important and they police themselves,” Beamer said Sunday. “(Arians) talked about after (a) game they got in the locker room and they were like, ‘This stuff stops right now’ and it turned their season around and probably led to them winning the Super Bowl.”
Through five games, South Carolina has made a habit of self-inflicted wounds. The Gamecocks currently have the fifth-most penalty yards accrued among the Southeastern Conference’s 14 teams. USC is also averaging the sixth-most flags per game in the league at 7.8.
Cornerback Cam Smith has been maligned for the unsportsmanlike conduct penalty he took against East Carolina. But for as much and message board pundits might fault him and the rest of the defense, it’s been the South Carolina offense that’s been handed the bulk of South Carolina’s non-special teams flags this fall.
Of the 34 accepted penalties doled out to South Carolina, the offense has recorded 27 of them — good for 79.4% of the flags. Offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield’s unit is averaging more than five flags per game.
USC’s defense, by contrast, hasn’t had more than three accepted penalties in a game this season. (The South Carolina offense has had at least three in every contest.) Further, the defense hasn’t recorded a single accepted flag since a Week 3 trip to Georgia.
“Like a lot of things with us right now in a young program with a lot of young players that are still learning how to win, (penalties are) something that we’ve got to continue to emphasize and talk about each and every week,” Beamer said. “You can’t let it slide — not that we do — but you’ve got to emphasize everything every single week. It’s where we are right now and and our guys are learning.”
Speaking with reporters during his usual Sunday teleconference, Beamer reiterated South Carolina has to be more disciplined. Some of that comes from coaching. Other bits are from buy-in. Not losing sight of the moment also plays a part.
Take receiver Josh Vann, for example. Vann was handed a 15-yard taunting penalty that washed out a 31-yard gain and a trek into Georgia territory with South Carolina trailing by only eight in that game’s second quarter. Instead of marching toward the Bulldogs side of the field, the Gamecocks were backed up to their own 37 and promptly went three-and-out.
After the game, Vann took responsibility for the ill-timed flag. He hasn’t been flagged in the two games since.
“We could’ve easily stuck with them, but we just we just beat ourselves up,” Vann said after the Georgia game. “I don’t know how many penalties we had, but we had a lot. When you’re doing that against a good team, it’s not going to translate well.”
South Carolina has assuredly created plenty of its own ills. In Saturday’s win against Troy, USC was flagged for having 12 men in the huddle, illegal hands to the face by an offensive lineman and an illegal block in the back. The Gamecocks were also flagged at least once on each of their first four drives.
Yet for as penalized as South Carolina has been over its first five games, it was only penalized once before the snap or after the whistle Saturday against Troy. The staff will count that as a win.
“The ones that really drive you crazy are the pre-snap and post-whistle penalties,” Beamer said. “And we were much better there (Saturday).”
For an offense that’s struggled to find its footing consistently, Beamer and his staff can’t continue to allow penalties to continue.
If they do, perhaps Beamer can fly in Brady on his off week to set things straight in Columbia.
