Shane Beamer reacts: What USC coach said after win over Auburn, clinching bowl berth
In his first year as head coach, Shane Beamer has led South Carolina football to a bowl berth.
The Gamecocks (6-5, 3-5 SEC) won 21-17 against Auburn (6-5, 3-4 SEC), taking their second-straight victory over the Tigers and earning the sixth win needed for postseason eligibility.
Here’s what an exuberant Beamer had to say after the Gamecocks’ win in their conference finale at Williams-Brice Stadium.
Opening statement: “I told you guys two weeks ago, what a night for South Carolina and what a night overall, and I didn’t know that two weeks later, it was gonna be even better. What a performance from our team. What a performance from our fans. We challenged them about coming out and bringing the energy and making noise, and they did. So thank you to our fans. That was amazing. And give credit to Auburn, they’ve got a heck of a team. We knew this was gonna be a physical SEC football game, and that’s what it was. Just so happy for our fans, and so happy for our players. That’s a special group in there. And I’ll be honest with you, we don’t talk about bowls and all that stuff during the week, it was just about whatever we got to do to do our best this week.”
On reaching bowl eligibility: “So proud. I’m so proud to be their coach. It wasn’t pretty last week out at Missouri, and that was a long bus ride back to St. Louis after the game to get on a plane and fly back. That was a really, really hurt bunch on Sunday, but they just come right back to work. Just so proud of these guys. I met with the super seniors, the guys that came back for an extra year when they didn’t have to, and this was their last go around. I met with them back in January, and I can still remember sitting in the staff room and telling them, ‘Look, you don’t know me, I don’t know you, we’re gonna work together, but you’re the older guys. This isn’t some two- or three-year rebuild we’re building for the future, we’re gonna win now. It’s not fair to you guys to not.’ They bought in, and you know those guys, Jabari (Ellis), Jaylan Foster, I mean all those guys, just happy for them too. For all the adversity they’ve been through. The coach that recruited them to South Carolina is not their head coach now. For them to be going out with the sixth win and an opportunity to get to seven next week, and then to be going to a bowl game, just really happy for them, and very, very proud.”
On the future of the program: “This is just the start. ... Like our goals aren’t to win six games every year and go to a bowl game. We have higher expectations, and this is just the start. But for this to be the year one, and for us to be sitting here right now 6-5 when we’re playing our third quarterback of the season, and we lost our middle linebacker in game two against Georgia. We had our starting defensive back go down with an injury tonight, our best DB who’s leading the SEC in pass breakups, he goes down in the first quarter. But next man up, and man just Marcellas Dial and Darius Rush and those guys, it’s a fun group.”
On Cam Smith, Xavier Legette injuries: “Cam has got a knee injury, not sure the severity of it. We’ll have to evaluate tomorrow and kind of see how bad it is. Xavier, I’m not really sure, I think he got, you know, he got hit over there on the sideline, I’m not sure if it was wind knocked out of him. I don’t know the status.”
On the offensive line: They were awesome. That is a really, really good defense. I watched the Texas A&M game on television, and a lot of teams have had a hard time scoring points against those guys. I know (Owen Pappoe) didn’t play tonight for them, and he’s a heck of a player at linebacker, but they’ve got a fantastic front seven like Auburn always does, and that’s what excites me. That was a big boy SEC defense we just played, and our offensive line went toe-to-toe with them. ... I think it shows that when we execute, we can go up against anybody. We’ve got another big challenge next week. I know what kind of defense — the crowd we’re about to face coming in here next Saturday — what kind of defense they have as well, so we’ve got to do a great job of getting ready to do it again, not take two steps forward and then take a step back next week. We’ve got to continue to get better because there were a lot of plays we left out there tonight as well.
This story was originally published November 20, 2021 at 11:17 PM.
