What went wrong in South Carolina’s loss to Florida? Shane Beamer reacts after the game
One word to summarize Shane Beamer’s thoughts on his team’s 41-39 home loss Saturday to the Florida Gators: Disappointing.
South Carolina is now 2-4 (1-3 in SEC play) for the first time in Beamer’s tenure.
“Certainly this is a gut-wrenching loss,” he said. “I get it. But we’re at the halfway point of the season, going on the road and then we come back home and we got four home games in November. So we’ve got to get a lot better as a team.”
His message to the team in the locker room? “Every single week in this league is a war. And you’ve got to prepare. And they did. ... We were confident coming into this game. We should have been. My message was we didn’t make enough plays, they made the plays when it counted.”
Here’s a recap of what Beamer said after the game:
On South Carolina’s last drive
The Gamecocks offense got the ball with 47 seconds left in the game after Florida scored a touchdown to take the lead by four points.
“Let’s be honest, as soon as they got the ball back, we were talking on offense about, ‘Let’s have our two-minute offense ready because we haven’t stopped them all day.’ Was hoping to get a stop right there, and we should have. ... We had three timeouts and really had plenty of time. We work two-minute drill every Sunday night at practice and everything Thursday at practice, and really felt confident. With three timeouts and Spencer Rattler at the quarterback position, thought we were gonna go win the football game. ... We just can’t throw an interception there. Tough way to finish.”
On the defense’s mistakes
Through much of the game, it seemed whichever team got a stop first would win. Heading into the contest, USC’s total defense ranked No. 13 in the SEC, and South Carolina’s opponents averaged 29.4 points per game. The Gators scored 41, which is the most points South Carolina has allowed all season.
Beamer rattled off several defensive mistakes: not bringing enough pressure, jumping offsides, allowing Florida to convert on fourth down.
The Gators were 50% (4-8) on third-down conversions in the first half. South Carolina shut them down in the second, denying all seven of their attempts. But Florida found success on fourth downs, converting on three of four, with one of those coming on UF’s game-winning touchdown drive.
“Disappointing that in situational football like that, we weren’t able to get it done,” Beamer said.
A hallmark of South Carolina’s offense has been quick starts. Other than the Tennessee game, USC has scored on every opening drive this season. But finishing games has been a struggle.
“Disappointed that we had a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter, and we aren’t able to finish it, and that’s not like us,” Beamer said. “There were some great individual plays and efforts out there tonight, but at the end of the day we just didn’t make enough plays.”
South Carolina’s passing defense ranked last in the SEC heading into this weekend. Beamer was upset with the lack of pressures that actually reached Florida quarterback Graham Mertz (South Carolina sacked him three times). The Gamecocks surrendered a career-high 423 yards to Mertz and three touchdowns.
“When you give up that many explosive plays in the secondary, it’s tough to win,” Beamer said. “It’s not like we’re a super young group. Obviously (Jalon) Kilgore is a true freshman, but O’Donnell (Fortune) and Marcellus (Dial) are older guys for us, and Nick (Emmanwori) and DQ (Smith) are in their second years.”
On injuries
Linebacker Stone Blanton left the game with a thigh bruise, but Beamer thinks he’ll be fine moving forward. Right tackle Vershon Lee had a knee issue, which the team will look further into Sunday. Lee tried to go back in during the second half, Beamer said, but didn’t feel like he could do what he needed to do.
This story was originally published October 14, 2023 at 8:02 PM.
