Can Shawn Elliott fix the South Carolina offensive line’s biggest concern?
Shane Beamer is aware that changing an offensive line coach is not the same thing as changing the actual offensive line.
So, yes, Beamer decided to change offensive line coaches after Saturday’s 20-10 loss to LSU, firing Lonnie Teasley, and shifting tight ends coach Shawn Elliott to the O-Line. But how much improvement can that actually create?
Think about it: The Gamecocks are still banged up, with O-linemen Cason Henry, Nolan Hay, Markee Anderson and Shed Sarratt all questionable for Saturday’s game against Oklahoma, Beamer said. So that leaves Elliott with the same group that Teasley’s been working with all season. Centers that struggle to snap the ball. Tackles that consistently get beat off the ball. An entire group that struggles to communicate.
So far this season, South Carolina has given up 20 sacks (second worst in the SEC) — and, if you’ve watched all six games, it’s almost a miracle that number isn’t double. Quarterback LaNorris Sellers has been a sitting duck for a majority of the season; and, while his athleticism often gets him out of trouble, the constant pressure usually puts USC behind the chains.
“Certainly we’re going to add some things to the scheme,” Beamer said. “But we also can’t just blow everything up and just say, OK, all of a sudden we’re gonna become a whatever-type team when we haven’t done it all season.”
In other words: It’s unrealistic to expect Elliott to completely fix this offensive line in 2025, let alone this week.
So. Many. Penalties.
The good news is that South Carolina doesn’t need him to fix the entire offensive line. It just needs him to fix the offensive line from committing so many penalties.
The Gamecocks are the second-most penalized team in America (55 total), and the biggest culprits have been the offensive linemen. Through six games, the South Carolina O-Line has committed 15 penalties — 11 of which have come before the snap (eight flags for false starts and three for illegal snaps).
The Gamecocks have struggled at offensive line under Teasley before — heck, they allowed 41 sacks in both 2023 and 2024. So why did Beamer wait until now to pull the trigger? It’s hard to not look towards all the penalties — especially the pre-snap penalties, which drive Beamer mad.
The Gamecocks head coach said that firing Teasley was about wanting a new voice inside the offensive line room. But can a new voice lead to fewer penalties?
“That’s the hope,” Beamer said Tuesday. “Shawn was literally lined up across from the center pretty much every play at practice screaming, yelling, clapping, barking, blowing whistles, making move calls himself, just trying to make things as difficult as he possibly can.”
Is barking during a Tuesday practice with no fans watching going to stop an offensive line from jumping early? It’s hard to know. Beamer claims that his team has worked constantly this season on avoiding penalties, especially on not jumping offsides. Then these offensive linemen step into a real stadium with a massive edge rusher across from them and, well, suddenly it’s easy to forget the emphasis during Tuesday’s practice.
But that brings up another question: Are they offensive linemen false starting because it’s habitual or because they feel like they need a quarter-second head start to successfully block their man?
“You’re in the game, it’s already loud,” said Sellers. “It’s like, you don’t want to be late off the ball.”
The fewest touchdowns in the SEC
It is easy to criticize Gamecocks offensive coordinator Mike Shula for no other reason than that he’s in charge of an offense that has managed just 11 touchdowns all season, the fewest in the SEC. But this offense often falls out of rhythm because of the offensive line, either due to a sack allowed or a penalty.
Think about this: Against LSU, South Carolina’s average distance on third down was 10.4 yards.
No offensive coordinator in the world is having consistent success when your offense is always facing third and long. None.
It is those sacks and penalties that push the Gamecocks so far behind the chains that a drive ultimately stalls. It might take South Carolina an offseason to fix the sacks, but it’s counting on Elliott to clean up the penalties.
This story was originally published October 15, 2025 at 7:00 AM.
