In each of South Carolina’s fall scrimmages, Shane Beamer has thrown everything possible at his players. It might sound extreme, but it’s all by design.
Now after the team’s final scrimmage wrapped on Saturday, Beamer has a better idea of what his team, specifically on offense, will look like in 2024. It’s certainly not a final product, but it’s given him an early indication of where the unit is at right now.
“I feel good,” Beamer said. “Are we where we need to be? No. Do we have a first-round draft pick out there and an NFL quarterback like we did last year with Spencer (Rattler) and (Xavier Legette)? No. But we’re going to be good enough.”
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In last Saturday’s scrimmage, Beamer said the defense performed better than the offense, and that’s always been the case in the first scrimmage with any program he’s been a part of. This time around, he noticed some better offensive play in the scrimmage, but there were still things to clean up.
“Offensively, I thought we moved the ball well and did some good things. Just too many negative plays from an offensive standpoint,” he said. “When I say that, I’m talking the first group, the second group, the third group — everybody. So in totality, if you look at the offense, we had some young guys that were trying to get better as quick as possible.”
One of the main issues from last week were dropped passes. It wasn’t perfect the second time around, but Beamer noted it was something the coaches worked on with the wide receivers and tight ends to correct. He said they spent more time this past week in walk throughs working on a catch circuit, where the players focused on catching more passes in practice.
“When you have 100-plus plays, you’re going to have some drops, and we did,” Beamer said. “Certainly had some moments they would like to have back. But pleased with it. We’ve thrown the whole offense at them the last two weeks of practice. I mean, everything that we do, we’ve thrown at them. So now, we start to get into game planning and having a smaller game plan of plays and things that they have to know each week. We’ll continue to eliminate the clutter in their head and allow them to play faster.”
Much like the first time out, the offense had some good drives spoiled by tackles for loss and penalties. One difference Beamer noticed, though, was that they looked much more prepared coming out of the halftime break.
“(I) was really proud of, particularly the offense, the way they responded and put together some drives,” Beamer said. “We did a two-minute drill at the end with LaNorris (Sellers) and Robby (Ashford), and both of those resulted in being able to kick a field goal to win the game.”
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So in hindsight, it’s not as bad as it seems. After all, what the offense may look like now will not be the same once the season starts. It’s also important to remember South Carolina is still figuring out what the offensive personnel will look like. Beamer has an idea of who the key pieces are this year, but it’s also about fully adjusting them to the system before then.
“You think about it, two of the top receivers that we’re counting on this year, Nyck Harbor and Dalevon Campbell, and Vandrevius Jacobs, none of those three were even here during spring practice. This is literally their 14th practice as a Gamecock in 2024, or Gamecock ever if you’re the two transfers. We’re counting on those guys. So they’re continuing to get more and more comfortable with our quarterbacks — they continue to flash and make plays. They’ve had some really good moments in practice this week, those three in particular,” Beamer said.
“But all of our guys, Gage (Larvadain), Payton Mangrum caught a ball today and had a long touchdown run after catching a pass. I mean, he’s a guy that we have a lot of confidence and faith in. So we’ll be fine at receiver. And then you add the tight end element to it as well. That can help us in the passing game. So I feel good, don’t feel great. But you never feel great. It’s always a work in progress.”
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