Football: Shane Beamer News Conference 08/27/24

thank you Steve um excited finally game week like Steve said uh really excited to get out there and play on Saturday afternoon our guys have been nothing but fantastic since uh since January love what we've done as a team and how we've grown uh since January and can't wait to get out there on Saturday and finally get to compete against someone else in front of our great fans uh we'll need our crowd this will be the biggest uh uh attendance That Old Dominion has ever played in in the history of their program so we certainly need to do our part uh as a fan base and know they will they've been waiting since November to get back in there and cheer on the Gamecocks so I know they'll be at their best uh Gamecock walk will be at 215 I believe uh we're leaving the hotel to come down around 150 and soon as we get here we'll be doing that so we need that to be rocking on Saturday to welcome our players to uh Williams Bryce stadium for and a lot of guys that'll be going through Gamecock walk for the very first time uh as well and looking forward to that without a doubt thought we had a great practice this morning great spirit great energy intensity uh everything that we wanted uh it to be we uh that was on display this morning great respect for old dominion and their program obviously very familiar with them growing up in in Virginia and recruiting up there for so long they're located in a hot bed of recruiting in that part of the country uh they've got good players there's no question about it you look back at last year they easily could have been a an 11- win team they had five losses last year by six points or less so they very easily could be a team that we're sitting here talking about an 11- win team that was in the mix for a uh New Year's six bowl game or whatever it was called last year um as well got a linebacker that's the preseason Player of the Year in the sun Bel conference uh and is their all-time leading tackler he is all over the field uh offensively and they play a unique stylid defense that'll present challenges for our uh guys in the Run game without a doubt play really really hard that's evident on tape offensively they'll look very much like Tennessee uh with the tempo the formations the concepts they run in the passing game the patterns the Run game uh they were very much like that last season and then in the offseason they hired two assistants off of Tennessee staff that are now uh at Old Dominion so it'll be very much a uh uh we anticipate Tennessee flavor and a lot of tempo and uh whatnot so we've got to do a great job of handling the tempo as a as a defense athletic quarterback uh that can make plays for them as well and then on special teams they've no one in the country we pride ourselves on being really good on special teams and and blocking kicks and impacting games no one in the nation or excuse me they've got the second most blocked number of kicks in the nation over the last three seasons so they're very opportunistic and uh really good on special teams as well we all if you follow college football you know about their history beating Virginia Tech two years ago um they ran they lost to Virginia Tech last year but had over 200 yards rushing on Virginia Tech in blackburg they played Wake Forest last year had uh them down two scores in the second half and then all you have to do is look at the history of the sun Bel conference and who the sun Bel conference has beaten over the last six years and it is a who's who of college football so we need to make sure that our team our fans and everyone understands that this is a a quality opponent coming in here that does not look like a group of five team from a Personnel standpoint they're they got size and athleticism up front on defense and um you know we know they're not coming in here hoping to play well or keeping it close and as a competitor you want that and we need to have a great week of practice and and put ourselves in position to go play really well on Saturday and got off to a great start with that this morning questions Shane a couple for you mentioned last Thursday that Kai Moore might be out for a while as there an update on him he'll be out for the game yes he'll be out here for a little bit definitely for Saturday he and Aon Parks uh both um if he returns we'll let you know but that'll be won't be a week toe thing for now and um Alex was on top of the kicking competition for the depth chart what uh made him won the job and will there be competition going for yeah we'll constantly continue to compete you know throughout the year it's how we do things like I told our players this morning practice matters games matter matter and uh every week's a new season but certainly coming out of preseason uh coming out of the preseason David we felt like um Alex was just a little bit farther along it was a competition I think all those uh kickers would tell you they didn't have the best first week of practice but I thought as we got into scrimmage situations uh more competitive situations Stadium environments that uh Alex uh took a step and separated himself from the rest of that group group as well I like the group it's a talented group of Specialists uh but that's what we saw you know and you would expect that from him he's an older guy that's been around here for a while and has played in games and and there should be a um quiet confidence with him not to mention he's a talented kicker Nicki man wor he said something about how maybe you tried to poke some of the guys on the defense a little bit to keep them motivated can you share any examples of of what that might sound like um no um he said that today in practice uh he didn't specify whether it was today or just I think there's certain you know your players and you know what motivates them and what gets them going and uh I think they told the story two weeks ago of we got uh rocket and Debo had a collision and I was kind of getting on Debo about it and then Debo went crazy the next three plays and TJ Sanders said that you meeting me cause that as well I think it's just knowing your players and what kind of uh MO motivates them and getting them going and certainly I know how to this he was talking today specifically to Debo I know how to get Debo rout up and going as well but it's just nothing more than just having fun at practice and and um um trying to find different ways to motivate guys out there and one more defensive related thing with the tackles rotation um I guess a lot of it's based on who's doing well throughout the course of a game but how much do you guys talk as as a defens or how much do you talk with the defensive staff about hey let's try to rotate X number of snaps or however often and I'm guessing you probably feel a little more flexible yeah absolutely I feel like uh you could realistically see six guys play on Saturday you will see six guys play Saturday between Tonka Boogie TJ Kell jwes um and Nick Barrett um and then Rondo Porter Ronnie's brother and Jamal Weiss are in that mix as well uh but certainly you're going to see a deeper rotation than what you had last season we want to play our players Clayton and I talked about that yesterday myself Clayton andow just we have some we have more depth and we need to play our guys we know it's going to be hot Saturday um so play our players and keep them fresh where we're at our best in the fourth quarter certainly if a guy's not doing what he's supposed to do we're not going to keep him in there but we're going to play a lot of defensive linemen and it's something that we do talk about on on Saturdays before when we're at the hotel home or away we always meet as a a staff um at the hotel during the day and we literally go through every single position okay travan how are you going to play them today you know if we're in this Personnel grouping how you starting out this guy were to get hurt what you're thinking here okay Mike furry what we looking at at receiver today you know what are we thinking and in different scenarios so we all hear it as a staff and Joe D Camis is on the same page as far as what we're doing so we have an idea of there shouldn't be any surprises coming out of a game as far as how much people played because we discussed that as a staff and before the game and then it's conveyed to the players throughout the week also with Juju being right behind rocket in the rotation at running back how much does his ability as a pass catcher kind of play into the decision you made to go with him as the backup to Rocket and then what has kind of impressed you the most about him in Fall Camp yeah you guys have clearly done some deep analysis on that depth chart yesterday and I can assure you guys it's not etched in stone uh at any position without a doubt Juju is a guy that we have confidence in he may be did we list him sec I guess we listed him second on the depth chart um or and one of those three guys may be in there there may be somebody else in there early in the game before it's all Personnel driven for us in so many ways as far as certain plays certain schemes how the game's going uh just like just because there's there's guys that aren't listed on the depth chart that are going to play a lot on Saturday for us on offense and defense also most likely but but in regards to ju gu JuJu's it's his birthday by the way so happy birthday ju gu um he's just a he's a competitor he brings great spirit to our team he is under siiz but he is tough as heck he knows the offense we can do a lot of things with him Jack and getting the ball in his hands uh in and out of the back field he's been really good for us as a kickoff returner uh like I said knows the offense pass protection it just brings energy to us when the ball is is in his hands and I hate that he got hurt last season late in the year because you know we we're looking at some stuff uh um over the summer I mean you go back to the Jacksonville State game he caught a screen pass out of the back field and did some really good things with the ball in his hand so he's just a he's just a really good football player want to ask about two of the transfers on the offensive line that are in pretty good positions on the depth chart with Kamar and Tores s what have you seen from those two over the last few weeks to be able to entrench them with really important spots on the offensive line and to get a lot of snaps yeah they've been that way since day one the moment uh or the environment wasn't too big for them ever since they came back in here in January they've they've both both have brought a toughness to the offensive line they've both brought a competitive spirit and energy you know to the offensive line that uh we want to play with uh you know torus was a guy that uh had a really good career at North Carolina Central and Kamar had bounc bounced around from Auburn to FAU but they're older guys that are great young men they're smart they've just been very steady and it's allowed us you know tron's going to play a lot for us and and whatnot we and Marquee is going to play a lot for us as well so we like that offensive line group and like those guards without a doubt but tus Elli and Kamar two older guys that have just brought an awesome spirit and energy to the to the offensive line unit you said on Thursday on your radio show that you're probably going to be starting a true freshman at left tackle with Josiah 1 do you remember ever doing that any you know analyst assistant coach coordinator ever being on a team where that was the case and two why is he so unique um I said that on the radio show he's got an or by his name he and tree both are out there battling and out um he's really athletic he I go back to this too Allan like he was here for spring practice we started a true freshman left tackle last season that didn't even get here until June at least Joe and Cam and Blake and those freshmen they all got here in January so they were able to go through spring practice which has been huge for them you know Josiah is very much like lenorris in that he doesn't say a whole lot he's just the same every day and it may be like complete chaos going on in his head and all around him out there on the field but he doesn't show it he's just he's he's he's got great tools um he's extremely athletic and uh he's just he's a gifted player comes from a awesome family and and uh excited for his future here at Carolina you know there was a reason he was recruited by every school in the country and turned down every school in the country to come here as far as starting a true freshman offensive tackle I can't I can't remember there maybe was but I'm trying to run back through my head of all the places that I've been and and nobody uh nobody comes to mind but you know again we've got uh tree out there that's played some as well case Henry is an older guy that can play Both Sides uh jatavius shyers is doing a good job as an offensive tackle for us and and uh and then we've got to be good about you know helping these offensive line offensive tackles uh as well with calls and and whatnot you mentioned that this group has been fantastic since January what qualities does this group have as a whole that get you excited about this season uh there's a lot uh maturity because we have a lot of older guys that are returning that as I've mentioned before have been here and have played a lot of football for South Carolina uh the transfers that we've added it's a mature group of guys that handle their business as well which really excites me Demetrius Knight at linebacker rocket Sanders on the offensive line or we just talked about Kamar and tus Elli I can go on and on and on with the Trans Oscar outway with the transfers that we've brought in for sure um just their hunger to uh work and just the consistency day in day out you know there's days this is year 26 25 26 in coaching for me and uh there have been preseason camps where you could say okay we maybe took a step back today or we didn't have a great day today and and whatnot I don't remember ever walking off the field this month and saying you know what we didn't have the day that we needed to was it always perfect no was it but the effort was always there the intensity was there and just the way they uh the way they handled their business just on and off the field they're a really really really fun group to coach and just um they don't best thing I can say is they just don't waste days you know we had a mck game week last week and I thought we went out last week and had three four Amazing Days of practice we do a situational practice on the Friday before the first game or two Fridays before so Friday afternoon we went in the stadium about 4:00 and went through just a a script of all the situations that can happen and we did that at a faster Pace than we ever have in my four years as the head coach which to me means they're locked in they're focused they're paying attention they're getting their work done and we're getting off the field just things like that uh that I see it was kind of weird to watch college football this weekend and realize there's two-minute warning and some other stuff what what practice have you done as a coach to get yourself you know prepared preped uh to be in a game and understand those situations and decide hey what are we doing at this and this and this yeah uh great question it's hard until you really do it uh one taking time over the summer and um looking back at scenarios whether it be the NFL or college situations where if there had been a two-minute warning how this situation would have been handled with a two-minute warning would it happened without it in the in the past in other words um watching NFL games and kind of anytime I watch a game it's hard for me to just watch it I think about it as a head coach okay what would I do here and whatnot so watching NFL games and thinking about that but that's even different because the clock doesn't stop on a first down in the NFL so but trying to put yourself in as many of those situations and then we do two minute quite a bit in practice and making sure that we have enough scenarios for myself but not just myself but Clayton Dal jod D that I create a scenario in practice where it involves the two-minute warning and whatnot because there'll be things that come into play on special teams because of it now offense and defense and and probably the biggest thing for me is just you you have to adjust all of your okay in the past I it was ingrained in me all right if there's two minutes whatever left on the clock and the other team has this number of timeouts or that number of timeouts here's the magic number that we need to get to to be able to take a knee if we're winning or here's the magic number that we can get to to here's when we need to call our timeouts to potentially get the ball back and now all of that has changed so really just trying to wrap my head around the new numbers if you will but it'll certainly be uh certainly be different and and it'll be U great you know great change and we've tried to implement it as much as we can in practice as well hey Shane whenever we talk to Lenor he always seems so even killed when you have someone like that um are you not as concerned about the moment being too big even if it's quarterback making his first career start and with added expectations added pressure the crowd yeah you always worry about it no matter we talked about it as a staff yesterday Rick like no matter what their demeanor is it's still going to be a lot on Saturday they're 18 19 20 21 year old young men and uh for a lot of these guys some of the transfers that are maybe coming from smaller schools it'll be the biggest crowd they've ever played in and Lenor it'll be the biggest crowd that he's ever started a football game with as well once the ball kicks off it's all football we know that but certainly we as coaches know that it's still going to be a lot on Saturday but absolutely with loris's demeanor he gives you a a quiet confidence where the moment's never too uh too big for him it's the way he handles himself and and a lot of the you know really good quarterbacks that I've been around I'm not comparing them to jayen Herz but jayen at Oklahoma jayen was that way I mean he was all the time and uh and he and that's the way that he the way that he played Spencer I mean showed emotion but Spencer never got too high too low so I think that's a great quarterback to have or great quality to have not just in a quarterback but any leader in my mind sort of on that topic I guess do you have any specific Recollections of what lorse was like coming off the field after those handful of plays he had last year when when youall scoring touchdowns and everybody's going wild um excited um we uh I'm trying to think the Ferman one was certainly excitement because he got out there and he rolled out and he actually absolutely ripped the ball down the right sideline to taon and the whole sine was like oh my god um as well so that was just I think pure excitement and joy the Vanderbuilt one where he had that touchdown run was a little bit more disappointing because we didn't expect it to quite unfold that way because we knew the next week was going to be Kentucky and we were going to maybe do some stuff with him in a in the game at quarterback going into that week and he kind of blew the surprise by keeping the ball and running for a 40 yard touchdown or whatever he did and then the Kentucky one I think was a little bit um I just got the crap knocked out of me by a Kentucky linebacker on that play that we ran as well but in all those not too high not too low all different but just you know what's next ready for the next play and that's very much um who uh who he is not that we've talked about Lenoris enough but another Lenoris one what are the conversations with him this week leading into his first career start and besides a win and throwing for four touchdowns and x amount of yards what does a successful start look like for for him in your eyes and dal's eyes yeah I think just being efficient you know the conversations most of it right now is with uh is with da and and to me you're prep not just him but all the quarterbacks my conversations with him preparing throughout the month of of uh August and and going back to um Jordan's question about two minute like anytime we do a 2- minutes inario we did it Sunday night in practice and getting with lenorris right afterwards like hey here's what I was thinking here and here's why I call time out here and here's why we clocked here trying to help him as much as you can on that with those scenarios you know we ran a play in practice on Sunday night and he uh it was a play that he knows that I like cuz we call it sooner from Oklahoma so he texted me first thing Monday morning about hey tell me again the coaching point on this one so it's a lot of dialogue back and forth that um that we've that he and I have had myself and all the quarterbacks I'm in the quarterback meetings during the week I was in there this morning so I'm able to hear what Dal and Coach schula are telling those guys and and we'll continue to have those conversations more one-on-one as we get closer to game day and then as far as successful we're not asking lenorris to go out there and win the game and do everything by himself you know just being able to get things called get things communicated ated and then operate the offense efficiently protect the football we can't turn it over and and um you know making the right decisions with the football and and knowing whenn not to forc things all that stuff but he's played a lot of football I know it's not college football but um he won a state championship and and had a heck of a senior year so he's won a he's played a lot of football and and once we get out there on Saturday that's it is what it is with veran Lee you named him your top performer in the fall what has stood out most about him and how important is it to have a veteran on that offensive line and in the offense like him well I appreciate Allan was listening the Carolina calls on Thursday night because he heard that and you clearly watched uh Gamecock football with Coach Shane Beamer on TV so appreciate that as well uh we did we named ran Lee the kind of in my mind the top performer just the um in of the preseason camp to me just his consistency you know you talk about a guy last year that played center guard tackle he had to do it all last season because of the injuries that we had on the offensive line he has been just kind of the glue of that offensive line ever since really last season but now from January on hasn't missed a day of practice or anything he's just been Mr steady Mr consistent just like the question earlier about this CL or this team uh and what excites me about him verson embodies that he's just a guy that I think appreciates every day that he gets to be a part of this program and and his spirit and and passion that he practices with shows every day and uh he's doing a heck of he's a heck of a player but he's doing a really good job leading the offensive line and really being one of the leaders on this football team and has been since January Shane anybody for for a a non-injury reason out for this week no yep no so hopefully nothing happens between now and Saturday but NOP I'll be honest with you on when we don't have anybody right now the coaches in the booth depth chart also was released yesterday you like that don't you I do Steve covers it all like we're gonna have every answered who else will be in the booth with uh I guess Dow and and Toren or I guess some G yeah um support staff you know so offensively um Ryan Urich is up there with with uh Dal and does a great job of you know talking to Da and communicating what he sees uh John Rikki who's one of our offensive graduate assistants he's up there um works with our offensive line does a great job so he's able to help with what's going on up front uh defensively Trey money who works with our linebackers is is uh is up there does a great job as well talking to talking to Clayton and communicating to him what he sees and what's going on uh who else is up there uh Jordan Dove who does a really good job as our defense of graduate assistant working with the dline those guys are the primary guys up there in the Box I know I missed one or two uh I'm sure but those would be the the the main guys up there with um with d and torium as far as the running backs is is rocket on any type of not not pitch count but I mean are you guys just going to you know have him go most of the game or are you expecting to rotate that between you know three guys and him come off the field a decent amount no um first question he's not on any kind of pitch count to my knowledge now if Clint Haggard or somebody comes to me and says that he is then we will but no he's um he's uh not limited in any way so he'll play as many plays as we need excuse me we need him to play but certainly we all no matter who is your running back it's a it's a long season it's a long game we want to keep those guys fresh and keep rotating guys in and out so we'll absolutely rotate um without a doubt between between Oscar and ju guu and we're excited about jaar and how and we're excited about Matthew Fuller and and Bradley Dunn and DJ brell we got a lot of running backs in there that were that have played and that we're um fired up about and certainly it'll be a rotation but you know assuming Rockets out there on the first play depending on the Personnel grouping it'll be kind of his show and we'll run with it and and certainly rotate those guys in and keep them for us too you mentioned in your opening statement about old Dom minions history of kind of playing spoiler for a couple of larger schools and programs in the last several years but what makes them such a good spoiler program and how do you guys prepare for not overlooking them and hammering that message home yeah I think it's not just them it's that entire there's so much parody today in college football and and it really is I mean you think about teams nowadays that because of covid you had a lot of guys that got lost in the shuffle of recruiting and maybe didn't get recruited their senior year of high school like they would have if there hadn't been covid t s Simpkins is a great example of that um he is an SEC football player and nothing against North Carolina Central but he didn't have a senior season I don't think and and if he did the coaches weren't able to go out on the road recruiting so I think there's more parody than ever nowadays because of it I mean we had them this morning in our team meeting we had all of the players on our team that transfer here from a non power for school I had them stand up and when you look at look around the room there's some dudes uh on our team that that a lot of them will be playing a lot of snaps for us on uh on Saturday so I just think it's more parody than ever in college football you look at the sun Bel conference specifically and I meant that whether it be uh I'm not going to name names because then I'll every fan base will be after me that Beamer's calling out the vs which I'm not doing but you've got a lot of teams in the C and ACC and Big 12 that have lost two teams from the Sun Bel uh as well great respect for Oklahoma States program they won 10 games last year and and played for the Big 12 Championship I just said I wasn't going to call anybody out now I am but South Alabama beat Oklahoma State last year convincingly and uh in still water as well so we we've shown and uh the sun Bel conference has shown that you better be ready to play every single Saturday and then to Old Dominion specifically they're located in a great region for recruiting so they've got really good players uh to me and and uh for teams to quote unquote pull up sets you need an athletic quarterback they got one you need a opportunistic defense that they have one uh they've got size up front they play A Unique Style that makes it difficult particularly in the Run game to get everybody blocked and and communicate to get a hat on a hat and then you need to be able to make plays on special teams and like I said they've blocked the second most number of kicks in the country over the last three seasons um so it's a it's a it's a good program very familiar with it and have a ton of bless you have a ton of respect for the way they do things whether it's game by game or or week by week how difficult is it for you to balance what you saw over the course of Camp uh versus what you see in a game in terms of playing time and rotation how how difficult is it to figure out how long of a leash to give a guy if they're not quite performing well but they were awesome in Camp along those lines yeah no it's a excuse me it's a great question um I think it's a individual basis body of work you know what have they shown in the past uh are they young do you live with some things a little bit more maybe because they're young whatever it may be uh but our players know that like I said at the beginning of this thing practices matter games matter and it's a total body of work where we know what people are capable of and it's a production business I get that and if if we're not getting the production that we need from from someone we've got to be willing to to make changes and get somebody else in there but I'm excited though because of the depth more than we've had around here on our entire football team we'll be able to play a lot of people and and get a lot of guys some work and we're going to play as the whole ore at the receiver position there's a ton of ores I'm well aware because we anticipate all those guys playing I mean I told the receiver this morning I'd be surprised if we didn't play nine receivers on Saturday and you know we're going to be a team that continues to get better as the season goes and that's going to be because of playing a lot of people and guys continue to continue to uh to develop thank you all right thank y'all