Why Shane Beamer is feeling even more optimistic about South Carolina’s run game
Shane Beamer knows the rushing stats didn’t look good on Saturday. And, well, he doesn’t care.
Yes, South Carolina ran the ball 56 times for 174 yards (3.1 yards per rush). Yes, that’s not good enough.
But, Beamer said, when you take away the four sacks on quarterback LaNorris Sellers (minus-37 yards) and his three kneel-downs (minues-19 yards) and realize the Gamecocks ran the ball five times right on the goal line, the numbers look a lot better.
Taking all of that away, “we averaged almost five yards a carry last night,” Beamer said during his Sunday teleconference. “We had the ball for 35 minutes.”
In citing an example of his confidence in the rushing attack, he pointed to the fact the Gamecocks went for it on fourth-and-1 from their own 34-yard line early in the third quarter.
Running back Rocket Sanders took the handoff, jump cut, broke off a tackle at the line of scrimmage and burst forward for a gain of a dozen.
“There’s a pretty good example where, if we just finish our block at one position, it’s probably a touchdown,” Beamer said.
Beamer is likely referring to tight end Michael Smith, who pushed back a much-smaller safety right off the snap, but let up and watched as that same safety brought down Sanders.
It goes back to Beamer’s biggest irk from the Old Dominion game.
“We were atrocious tonight perimeter blocking,” Beamer said on Saturday night. “If you’re gonna play receiver here, you have to block. If you’re gonna play tight end here and you’re not in the passing game, you’ve gotta block.”
Still, Beamer seemed more enthused on Sunday, after watching the tape and going through a practice, than he did right after the game on Saturday night. Sanders finished with 24 carries for 88 yards, while Sellers ran 22 times for 68. Oscar Adaway, Jared Brown and Juju McDowell each had carries.
Beamer spent almost a minute on Sunday night sharing his excitement about the fact that his team is 1-0, which he knows probably isn’t what many South Carolina fans want to hear after a four-point home win over a Sun Belt team.
“We stayed together, we dealt with adversity, we kept our poise, we got it to the fourth quarter,” Beamer said. “We don’t want to get games to get games to the fourth quarter and win them versus Group-of-5 teams. I’m not saying that.
“But there’s a who’s who of college football that were in those kind of games,” Beamer continued, “and they panicked and they didn’t come together and they lost. We aren’t one of them.”
UP NEXT
Who: South Carolina at Kentucky
Where: Kroger Field, Lexington, KY
When: 3:30 p.m. Saturday
TV: ABC
