Here is what coach Shane Beamer said after South Carolina’s 36-33 loss to LSU:
Apology to fans for 13 penalties
On the number of penalties:
“I want to apologize to our fans. Thirteen penalties. You’re not going to win football games in the SEC with 13 penalties.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever seen two defensive touchdowns come back because of penalties. And not just the defensive penalties, I know those are the ones you guys are going to ask about. But offensively, big plays that came back because of receivers blocking downfield when we shouldn’t be, or linemen downfield, quarterback scrambles on RPO.
“We’ve just got to be better there, and that starts with me as the head football coach. From a penalty standpoint, we’ve been a disciplined group. And it’s disappointing, too. ... We have a team meeting every Friday afternoon where we just talk about situational football. And teams across the country, (there are) great examples of teams doing what they’re supposed to do, and bad examples of teams not doing what they’re supposed to do. That was the bulk of yesterday’s meeting. Playing clean football and not getting into any of the post-whistle stuff, which we didn’t get into any of the post-whistle stuff. It was a clean game from that standpoint. But way too many self-inflicted mistakes.
“And give LSU credit. Great football game.”
On Nick Emmanwori’s and O’Donnell Fortune’s pick sixes, which were both called back for penalties:
“I think the first one with O’Donnell, they said it was a horse collar on the quarterback. (The) coaches up top told me that they thought he just grabbed a shoulder pad and pulled him down. But the referee ... he’s fantastic, he told me that he was absolutely certain that when we hit the quarterback there was a horse collar. So he said it, I’m sure it happened.
“And then the (sigh) one at the end with Nick, I watched it. Any time there’s an interception, we tell our guys, ‘Find the quarterback, and make sure we get him blocked.’ And it wasn’t vicious by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s one of those situations. The referee in that situation is right in front of him. I watched it because I looked for the quarterback, and I saw it, and (we) can’t put ourselves in that position.”
Beamer did not specifically talk about edge Kyle Kennard, who committed three penalties, including two personal fouls on both pick sixes. Beamer also did not specifically address the Kennard’s offsides penalty on 4th and 3 in the fourth quarter that extended LSU’s drive. The Tigers scored the go-ahead touchdown five plays later.
Breaking down the game’s final drive
“We had to burn the timeout on another penalty, the fast start, because that was gonna be a 10-second runoff. So that was tough, because now we’re down to one timeout. And we were in field goal range, we told Robby that on the second-down play.
“And certainly I was thinking, ‘OK, we’d love to get two plays in before the fourth-down kick.’ But the play before the field goal, I was just concerned with the getting up there and something happening where we go backwards and don’t get into field goal range, if that makes sense.
“So, hindsight being 20/20, you try and run one more play right there because you have a timeout. But also, it wasn’t like it was 20 seconds, and we got our backup quarterback in there, and we were down a couple of receivers, too, because Jared Brown was out at that point. And just felt like, ‘We’re in field goal range. We have confidence in Alex. Certainly want to be aggressive, but let’s be smart right here, and take the field goal.’ ”
Injury report
On starting quarterback LaNorris Sellers, who came off the field with an ankle injury late in the second quarter and played one drive in the third:
“He’s got a little bit of an ankle sprain. I think he’s going to be fine. I went in the training room at halftime, and they were checking his ankle out and decided it was an ankle sprain. He wanted to try and go.
“So we taped him up. And the first possession of the second half, where we were back up, we didn’t feel great about him being in that position, backed up. So that’s when we put Robbie in.
“So then the next series, we said, ‘Let’s just give it a shot. Maybe LaNorris will get out there, and the adrenaline will kick in, and he’ll feel OK.’
“But there was one play there where he was in, and we ran a play to the left over there towards LSU sideline. And we should have pulled it, because the end crashed down and hit Rocket in the backfield. And when he didn’t pull it, not that he didn’t pull it because he couldn’t run, but we just felt like, ‘You know what, if he’s not going to be able to move like he wants to move, we’ll get him out.
“So that was where the conversation felt like. Robby could give us a better opportunity, because LaNorris certainly wasn’t 100 percent there in the second half.”
On defensive tackle T.J. Sanders:
“I think T.J. should be fine. He’s got a little bit of a foot injury.”
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