It’s typically a cliché when a coach, especially after a loss, while talking to the media, to mention him and the rest of his staff needing to coach better.
The statement typically comes without context or specificity about what specifically needs to improve from a coaching perspective, but Shane Beamer offered some of it in his Sunday night teleconference.
“I probably didn’t put our players in the best position,” Beamer said. “I told them that at halftime, I told them that after the game and told them that today in the team meeting also.”
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What Beamer is specifically referring to is the final minute of the first half where the Gamecocks went from trailing 21-6 to then 26-6 in 40 seconds.
It started with Beamer and the staff calling a timeout with 40 seconds after Jabari Ellis rocked Kenny McIntosh in the backfield for a loss of four.
The thought, Beamer said, was to give the Gamecocks a chance to either block a field goal or get the ball back with a chance to score before the end of the half. Georgia punted, pinning the Gamecocks at the one-yard line with 31 seconds left.
The first play of the drive quarterback Luke Doty executed a play action pass only to be sacked in the end zone for a safety, something Beamer takes the full blame for.
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“We max protected out of the end zone and I—not Marcus Satterfield—told Marcus to take a shot. That’s what we did. We had max protect and we had eight guys in protection and it was a two-man route," Beamer said. "They brought some pressure; we turned a guy free and gave up a safety. Then we were not very good when we went out there on defense for two minutes. Again, that’s on me.”
Georgia would get the ball back and march down the field—five plays, 39 yards in 18 seconds—to kick a field goal to complete the five-point swing.
“The end of the first half, that is totally on me and no one else,” he said. “I told the team today I gave Georgia five points. I’m always going to be aggressive but that probably wasn’t the time for it.”
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Saturday’s 40-13 result was the first loss of Shane Beamer’s head coaching career as he continues to go through his first full season as a head coach.
It’s been a learning experience for Beamer going through an entire season as a head coach and the good and bad coming with it.
“I’m not sitting here patting myself on the back about us being 2-1 but I’m just trying to maintain positivity, maintain composure on the sideline and help our players throughout the game be successful, like all of us and our entire staff does,” Beamer said.
“I’ve probably learned about the team we have a bunch of guys who will fight their butts off and compete their butts off and not worry about the scoreboard. Our effort and emotion and physicality and emotional spirit isn’t dictated by who we’re playing or what’s on the scoreboard.”
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