Shane Beamer shares thoughts from Gamecocks’ first scrimmage
South Carolina football held its first scrimmage of preseason camp on Saturday. The returns were positive.
Gamecocks head coach Shane Beamer spoke with the media and said he was “pleased overall.” with the performance.
Beamer was most impressed by the offense’s ball security in the scrimmage.
“Offense didn’t turn the ball over,” Beamer said. “That was good.”
The same thing happened in last year’s first preseason scrimmage with no takeaways for the defense, Beamer recalled. South Carolina ran 117 plays in the scrimmage on Saturday compared with the roughly 108 it ran in the first scrimmage of last year’s preseason camp.
“We got more plays and there were no turnovers,” Beamer said. “Now, there were some plays, some throws, where receivers got their hands on the throw and probably should have been an interception, but they weren’t able to finish the catch. So that’s good. I think when you can go in there and have 117 plays and not turn the ball over, that’s a start, because we know how important turnover margin is in college football.”
Although the defense might’ve failed to force a turnover in the scrimmage, Beamer said defensive coordinator Clayton White’s unit was able to put on a strong performance and bounced back after a slow start.
“I thought they did a good job of responding,” Beamer said. “The offense, in the scrimmage the other night, got off to a good start in their first four drives. Two of them, I thought, were really productive drives. I don’t want to say the defense was on their heels, but they didn’t get off probably to as good a start those first four drives. But then it was cool to see them respond. We had a goal line period where the defense really responded and and flipped a switch, and then played well the rest of the night.”
Beamer said the specialists had plenty of opportunities during Saturday’s scrimmage, adding he thought specifically the Gamecocks punted well.
“With the kickers, all of them got opportunities the other night,” Beamer said. “All of them certainly had some really good moments and all of them had a kick or two that they like to have back. We kicked a lot. We’re doing more of that now — just trying to figure who it is.”
Several younger players got lots of action in the scrimmage, Beamer said. The younger guys on the team did a good job of handling being in Williams-Brice Stadium for the first time, he noted.
“We played a lot of our young guys, a lot of the guys that competition is ongoing,” Beamer said. “A lot of the guys that are returning starters did not play maybe as much as some of these young guys that we need to make decisions on.”
South Carolina will return to Williams-Brice for a second and final scrimmage on Saturday.
