Shane Beamer addresses suspended player’s status with South Carolina football team
South Carolina football coach Shane Beamer addressed local media on Thursday morning. Here are news and notes from his comments made ahead of his official appearance at SEC Media Days in Nashville.
Monteque Rhames update
Asked whether defensive end Monteque Rhames would be part of the program this year, Beamer answered succinctly with, “No.” He did not address and was not specifically asked if there’s a possibility that Rhames would on the roster at any point in the future.
Rhames and Anthony Rose were arrested and suspended from the team in February after an alleged on-campus incident involving an AR-15. Rhames — who had enrolled as a freshman in January — has yet to publicize his future plans, but he has continued to support the Gamecocks on Twitter, as recently as Sunday.
Cameron Upshaw, who was suspended at the same time as Rhames and Rose but was a minor at the time of their arrests and not named on either warrant, signed to play at Garden City Community College in Kansas in May.
Injury report
Jordan Strachan and Mo Kaba, who tore an ACL against Arkansas last season, may be a little limited at the beginning of preseason practices coming off surgeries, Beamer said. But they’ll still be able to practice and “everybody should be 100% by Game 1.”
South Carolina opens camp on Aug. 4.
Beamer has previously said that starting offensive lineman Jaylen Nichols is expected to miss at least the start of the 2023 season after “suffering a pretty significant injury” in the spring game.
‘So much newness,’ Beamer says
There are 38 new players at South Carolina who weren’t there for the Clemson game last year, Beamer said. Earlier in the day he talked about plans to play true freshmen at every position this season. How does the program’s confidence coming off last year stack up against the uncertainty this year brought about by the Gamecocks’ youth?
“There’s so much newness,” Beamer told local media. “We’ve shown that we can compete against the best in the country. We showed that in Game 11 and Game 12 last season. But every year is different, and we’ve got to be better than what we were last year for sure.
“But certainly there’s great confidence within our team going into this season. But there’s also an understanding that nobody’s taking a breath and patting ourselves on the back. We’ve got a lot to improve on as well.”
This story was originally published July 20, 2023 at 10:50 AM.
