Believe it: An emotional Beamer and South Carolina are bowling in Year 1 in Columbia
Shane Beamer bit down on his lower lip.
The pause was slight. Only four seconds worth of press conference time passed. But for a man who spent 11 games preaching, 20 years preparing and a lifetime dreaming, Beamer’s brief pause for reflection was a glimpse into the coach who’s overseen South Carolina’s whirlwind rebuild after USC’s 21-17 bowl eligibility-clinching win over Auburn on Saturday.
“Just so happy for our fans,” he said, choking up as he wavered toward the end of his sentence. “So happy for our players.”
Beamer is never one to hide his emotions. He races around the sidelines like a man on fire. His press conferences have included everything from questions on which actor would best play him in a Hallmark movie to references to the Uncle Rico character of “Napoleon Dynamite” acclaim.
Yet there’s a sincerity in his voice when he speaks. Beamer largely avoids college football coaching cliches. He speaks from the heart and — at least from the outside looking in — seems to mean it.
The first-year head coach and son of a legend spent months contending that South Carolina could compete this year. Blowout losses at Georgia, Texas A&M and Tennessee certainly didn’t inspire confidence. Neither did narrow wins over Vanderbilt and East Carolina.
But Saturday was different. Saturday was proof of concept. Saturday was a statement.
“You really can’t listen to projections, especially when they’re outside your way,” senior defensive end Kingsley “JJ” Enagbare said. “You just look at it and move on and continue to prove them boys wrong. And I guess we’ve been doing that so far.”
South Carolina’s season has gone anything but to script. The closest comparison might be a roller-coaster ride through an abandoned mine shaft.
The Gamecocks have started three different quarterbacks this fall. They include a talented but green second-year player (Luke Doty), a converted graduate assistant (Zeb Noland) and a former FCS starter (Jason Brown). They all have two victories to their names.
South Carolina lost a first round NFL draft pick in cornerback Jaycee Horn from last year’s squad. His running mate and all-time Gamecock defender Israel Mukuamu also departed Columbia. Naturally, the Gamecocks rank second in the conference in passing defense.
Saturday, USC looked the part of a team that might be finding its stride. Brown was effective and patient, completing 10 of 15 passes for 157 yards, three touchdowns and a single interception — a play he said he simply didn’t see a safety over the top of his receiver.
Tailback ZaQuandre White ran with the ferocity of a lion and with the productivity of a Ford assembly line. White gashed the Tigers for 6.2 yards per touch on what Beamer said were the same two plays. He finished the night with 168 yards combined on the ground and through the air — or 55% of South Carolina’s total offense.
Then there’s offensive lineman-turned-fullback Trai Jones, who caught his first touchdown reception since, by his estimation, he was 10 or 11 years old. Yes, all 6-foot-3, 305 pounds of Jones notched a crucial scoring catch.
It’s just another day for Beamer’s cardiac ‘Cocks.
“When I ran the play, I didn’t see Jason Brown — I did not see him,” Jones said through a grin. “But I saw the ball coming and I was like, ‘Oh crap.’ So I just caught it.”
South Carolina was picked to win somewhere between three and four games by most national outlets. Media members picked USC to finish second-to-last in the SEC East ahead of just Vanderbilt — a team that had gone a combined 3-18 over the two years prior.
Fresh off a two-win season and a program whose glory days aren’t too much more than a decade past but feel far more removed than that, it was a fair indictment of the rebuilding job Beamer inherited.
But predictions be damned.
Brown smirked Saturday as a reporter listed off the preseason prognostications. His head bobbed with each ensuing word. Donning a white T-shirt emblazoned with the words “Bowl Bound” and a South Carolina logo in the center of his chest, the block lettering carried as much weight as his sentences.
“We’re going to come out and give our very best no matter who we’re matched up against,” Brown said. “It could be our next opponent or it can be the Green Bay Packers — we’re going to come out and play with everything we’ve got.”
Beamer bit down on his bottom lip 39 seconds into his postgame press conference. He fought back the tears percolating in his eyes. The spots of Gatorade that stained his garnet hat and black hoodie still felt damp in the underbelly of Williams-Brice Stadium.
After South Carolina’s throttling of Florida two weeks ago, Beamer proclaimed nights like that were on the horizon. A major misstep at Missouri felt like a harbinger of games to come.
Saturday, though, South Carolina righted the wrongs of a trip to the SEC’s other Columbia.
Some might pass off Beamer’s overwhelming positivity in the wake of the Auburn win as inspirational jargon. A loss next week to archrival Clemson would assuredly add gasoline to the ever-combustible message boards in Gamecocks circles, too.
But on a night in which South Carolina was better than one of its more storied SEC counterparts once more, Beamer put another touch on a vision quickly coming to life and increasingly difficult to ignore.
Saturday, he said, was a starting point. As the clock crept toward midnight in Columbia, that baseline brought tears to Beamer’s eyes.
This story was originally published November 21, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
