Shane Beamer and South Carolina are set to make the rounds starting with a brief gaggle-style press conference with a select group of local media. That will take place at 10:30 a.m. ET. From there, Beamer will start in the big room at 12:35 p.m. ET. Debo Williams, Alex Huntley, and Luke Doty are scheduled to arrive in the big room at 1:15 p.m. ET.
For Beamer, this will be his fourth SEC Media Days with the Gamecocks. Last week, I asked on The Insider Forum, what question would you ask Beamer if you had the chance. While Beamer may not hit on every question that some of you asked, below are several that I answered.
Q: With Spencer Rattler, Xavier Legette, and Juice Wells gone, how will the offense get better?
Uva : Replacing Rattler and USC’s two most productive wide outs over the past two seasons won’t be simple. But it starts with the offensive line. With more proven depth on the OL, if they can stay healthy, the OL could be one of the strengths of this offense this year. With the talent that was acquired at running back via the transfer portal, being able to not only run the football but get strong pass protection will be key. Especially when you have a young QB. If you can get that type of production from both of those rooms, it will take some of that pressure off of LaNorris Sellers.
Q: As a head coach when you’re selecting assistants and coordinators, which is more important: ability to recruit, ability to coach X’s and O’s, or ability to teach/develop talent?
Uva: Beamer might answer it differently but in my opinion the order is recruiting, ability to teach/develop talent, and then coach X’s and O’s. In today’s era of college football, the ability to recruit doesn’t only mean recruiting high school players or even players from the transfer portal. It also means being able to keep the talent you already have on your roster by having to “recruit” your own room daily. If you’re not authentic, players will read through the BS. X’s and O’s are important but being able to have coaches who can develop talent to me is more important.
Q: What keeps you awake at night about this coming season?
Uva : Aside from injuries, who’s gonna step up in that wide receiver room. Even if the offensive line improves and LaNorris Sellers is able to prove his worth, without the ability to have at least one or two wide outs who can get open and catch the ball consistently, it’ll all be for nothing.
Q: What are you looking for on defense to signal the improvements that needed to happen this offseason?
Uva : It starts in fall camp and that’s competition. Prior to last season, South Carolina lacked proven depth at multiple positions on both sides of the football. That was evident once injuries started piling up. By adding depth on all these levels, players won’t be able to be as comfortable knowing there’s more talent. As far as in the season goes, stopping the run, being able to get off the field on third downs, and forcing turnovers are the first three things I’m looking at. Creating more tackles for loss would be up there for me as well.
Q: Will the offense feature slants or any other short yardage passing package?
Uva : Like a good chef in the kitchen, you have to know that you can only work with what you have. So to answer your question, yes I expect them to. With LaNorris Sellers’ skillset, I expect USC to put him in many situations where he’s rolling outside of the pocket and throwing to receivers who are running slants and crossing routes. If teams start to come up in the box to put more pressure on Sellers, that’s when you should expect to see some shots down field.
Q: With the addition of Texas and Oklahoma and now moving to a 16-team conference, are you in favor of playing a nine-game conference schedule?
Uva: With the SEC doing away with divisions, winning the conference now is tougher now than it’s ever been. But that’s why the SEC is the hottest ticket in college football. If you’re a competitor and pound your chest about playing in the SEC, you embrace the opportunity to play an extra conference game. Ideally? You open the season off with a lesser opponent, since you don’t have a preseason and you close the regular season by keeping the one of the best rivalries in all of college football by playing Clemson. Add in an additional non-conference game and play nine conference games. Making a bowl game might be tougher but with as tough as schedules are gonna be in the SEC, having a team who has two or three loses from the SEC making the new 12-team college football playoff will likely happen at some point.
Q: Young QB at the helm. How do you prepare him, and the team, for some of these tough road test?
Uva : Aside from making practices tougher on them than the games themselves by piping in crowd noise, creating sudden change situations in practice, and doing all of the typical things a college team does to prepare for playing on the road, you play to their strengths. That will especially be true with Sellers early in the year. Gaining confidence early in Week 1 against Old Dominion is a must before traveling to Kentucky for a critical early season Week 2 matchup.
Q: Have you decided on a true identity on offense going forward and will you recruit for that style going forward?
Uva : I know you asked about the offense but I also want to answer this question for the defense. Defensively, it appears that South Carolina is doing just that by adding length and speed at by OLB and DE and recruiting players who are capable of playing in both a four-man front as well as a three-man front.
Offensively, I think it’s a bit premature to say that they have simply because you need to see how LaNorris Sellers performs in games. We’ve seen the Gamecocks add a lot of speed at both wide receiver and depth running back, sure, but just like Mike Tyson once said, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.” If Sellers lives up to the hype, I would expect South Carolina to recruit more towards his strength. Especially with the transfer portal.
Uva : Big picture, I’d be surprised if that’s the case this year with how much experience was gained last season due to injuries. We knew heading into the year that South Carolina was gonna be thin with experience at multiple positions last season. While that’s not an excuse for every struggle they faced, when you’re playing multiple inexperienced players on both of the football even your experienced players could look loss. If one guy is wrong, all 11 as a unit will be wrong.
The post Welcome to SEC Media Days 2024: South Carolina Q & A appeared first on On3 .
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