Beamer wants more explosive plays after second scrimmage

A week ago, Shane Beamer mentioned wanting to see a more downfield passing threat after the team’s first scrimmage.

Saturday—in scrimmage No. 2—was the first chance for the Gamecocks to really show progress in that regard and Beamer didn’t see the steps he’d hoped for with spring practice coming to an end next week.

“We have to get better there. We can run the ball pretty well and certainly throw the ball but not nearly enough explosive plays in my opinion,” Beamer said. “Give credit to the defense but it’s not just the quarterbacks or receivers. We have to protect.”

Explosive plays in the pass game were something the Gamecocks struggled with last season and it seems to have at least shown up early this year in the spring.

Part of that, Beamer thinks, is one of the Gamecocks’ strengths defensively is the pass rush and that’s caused a little bit of an issue offensively.

South Carolina is bringing back All-SEC pass rusher JJ Enagbare and getting Jordan Burch back into his second year with the program along with fifth-year defensive end Aaron Sterling.

“We’re facing some pretty dang good pass rushers in our front seven and that’s making our offensive line better but we have to protect and execute to be able to convert on those,” he said. “We had some guys open today and just have to convert on it. That’ll come with reps also.”

The Gamecocks are also installing a new offense and a trying to get their quarterbacks up to speed with a relatively young or inexperienced group.

The only quarterback in the room who was at South Carolina last season was Luke Doty, who completed 60.6 percent of his passes for 5.7 yards per attempt with two touchdowns and three picks.

They also have transfer Jason Brown, who threw for 3,084 yards and 28 touchdowns in 2019 at St. Francis, and true freshman Colten Gauthier as well.

Doty still took the majority of first-team reps in this week’s scrimmage.

“We talked about getting some other guys work with the first group but Luke got the majority of the reps with the first team and other guys mixed in there,” Beamer said. “We did some 7-on-7 pass skill work at the beginning of the scrimmage so those guys were able to get some throws in as well. Luke continues to work with the ones and is doing a good job.”

In 2020 the Gamecocks were next to last in the SEC in pass plays of 10-plus yards with 78 and had just 27 pass plays of 20-plus yards, fourth-lowest in the SEC.