What Shane Beamer said after South Carolina’s loss to Missouri
South Carolina fell to 0-2 in the SEC after a 29-20 loss to Missouri on the road Saturday. The Gamecocks were outmatched in nearly every statistical category but still led in the fourth quarter before Mizzou’s offensive success and USC’s self-inflicted errors became too much to overcome.
Here are some highlights of what Gamecocks head coach Shane Beamer had to say postgame:
Injury report
Beamer gave a short update when it came to his squad’s health, which has plagued the team all year. Offensive linemen Cason Henry and Nolan Hay went out during the game. DQ Smith and Trovon Baugh were initially cleared to play but never appeared.
“Injury-wise, obviously we had a lot of them tonight,” Beamer said. “Cason got hurt the first play, DQ had a little bit of a quad contusion that flare up in warmups and we had some guys get banged up in the game. ... [Baugh] was banged up a little bit, he had a nagging injury this week. He was available but wasn’t 100%.”
The ESPN broadcast said Hay sustained a left knee injury.
Rushing discrepancies
USC’s rushing total finished in the negatives while Missouri ran for over 200 yards and picked up two touchdowns on the ground, including a 16-yard game-winner from Tigers running back Jamal Roberts in the fourth quarter.
“I told them in the locker room, when you get out rushed 285 to minus nine, you’re not going to win,” Beamer said. “Really, really, really disappointing. You’ve got to get 11 hats to the ball on [Ahmad Hardy] and tackle him. Give them credit, when you run for 285, you run for 285, but a lot of those are missing tackles, or losing leverage, or whatever it might be.”
Penalty problems
The Gamecocks were called for 14 penalties, totaling 98 yards, and committed five pre-snap penalties.
“It’s hard to say it’s one bad night when you’ve had the number of pre-snap penalties we’ve had tonight, and it wasn’t just the offense tonight,” Beamer said. “The definition of insanity is continuing to do the same thing over and over again. So when you have 14 penalties on the road something’s got to change, starting with me.”
Looking ahead
South Carolina takes on Kentucky next week at home.
“It’s a challenge, but that’s what we get paid to do,” Beamer said. “We’ve got to look at everything, you know, schematically, personnel, everything that we’re doing. We’re 2-2 a third of the way through the regular season. We’re not where we need to be right now. We’re coming back home on Saturday night for another SEC game. We need to get better this week, and that’s all you can do.
“We’ve been a team that’s always gotten better as the season goes and confident that this year will be no different. Nobody thought we’d be sitting here 2-2,” he said. “And we know the schedule doesn’t get any easier, but at the same time, to have so many things that aren’t winning football tonight and still have the lead going into the fourth quarter, it’s one of those where you think, ‘OK, if we can just continue to get better and clean a lot of this stuff up, then we’ve got a chance to be the team that we thought we were going to be.’”
