Shane Beamer isn’t happy with USC football’s record. How he says he’ll fix it
Let Shane Beamer be the first to tell you: He and South Carolina are disappointed to start a year filled with promise as a 2-2 football program.
“We have a lot of work to do and know it’s not good enough,” he said at his weekly press conference Tuesday. “No one’s happy about being 2-2. There’s no question about that.”
But Beamer, who cited John 16:33 from the Bible in reference to the “trials and tribulations” his team is facing, said the Gamecocks are in good spirits and on the road to fixing the multitude of problems they’ve faced in back-to-back SEC losses against Vanderbilt and Missouri.
“We’re going to build on how close we were,” Beamer said. “We played like garbage in so many ways, but we were leading going into the fourth quarter. Just imagine, if we can get all this other stuff fixed, which everything is fixable, how good this football team can be.”
The two biggest “fixable” problems that Beamer harped on repeatedly were shortcomings in offensive scheme or personnel, which led to negative nine rushing yards for USC against Mizzou, and his defense’s struggles with tackling, which led to 285 rushing yards for the Tigers. He said addressing these issues begins with some tough conversations.
“Part of being a leader, which I am as the leader of this program, is having really, really, really hard and uncomfortable conversations with players and coaches, whether it be in a team setting or individual meetings,” Beamer said.
As for the play calling, fans have lamented over the performance of Mike Shula’s offense, which is averaging an SEC-worst 300.5 yards per game, and are casting blame on Shula’s scheme as the reason. Beamer acknowledged that when you lose games, it means the play calling wasn’t at the level needed.
“I’m sure there’s plays Mike would like to have back,” Beamer said. “Every play call that’s made, I hear it. If I have an issue with something, I will certainly address it. But ultimately, when you don’t win the game, it’s not good enough.”
Beamer also said personnel and potential movement on the depth chart is something his staff evaluates weekly, and changes will be made if his staff deems it beneficial towards winning.
“What I told the coaches and what I’ve told the players is there’s not a single position on our team where if a guy’s not getting it done, we’re just gonna keep him in there and keep watching him not get it done,” he said. “We’re evaluating people all the time. ... It’s not just because we’re 2-2 right now, but we need to have our eyes wide open.”
Missed tackles have been a killer for USC
Defensively, missed tackles have been a killer for USC. The Gamecocks have missed 44 tackles this season and are 89th in the nation for tackling grades, per Pro Football Focus. Because of those issues, USC put an extra emphasis into tackles in practice Tuesday.
“Today, we had a lot of circuits where we just focused on mainly tackling,” defensive back Vicari Swain said.
Beamer said he doesn’t think the missed tackles come from a lack of effort, but rather a potential lack of finishing on defensive plays.
“I think there were too many examples the other night of guys just assuming that somebody was on the ground and didn’t finish the play like they needed to play,” he said. “It wasn’t a lack of want-to or lack of effort. ... You can’t assume that somebody’s got it.”
The self-reflection and focus on the fixable problems isn’t a new thing, Beamer said, and while the Gamecocks have a “healthy respect” for this weekend’s matchup against Kentucky, the focus is on internal improvements.
“What we do in practice is always about us and that’s what matters, and every opponent is just the next person on our schedule,” Beamer said.
South Carolina football this weekend
Who: South Carolina vs. Kentucky
When: 7:45 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 27
Where: Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia
Watch: SEC Network
This story was originally published September 24, 2025 at 7:00 AM.
