When Shane Beamer was leading the charge just three months into his job as South Carolina’s head coach, the Gamecocks had to get a fire lit under them around this time last season.

Beamer and the rest of his coaching staff were forced to provide their own energetic sparks during practice and get the players to give more effort. Be more physical.

As the program expectations have grown, the players have become more experienced and the overall buy-in is higher, it’s been the opposite so far this spring. That’s one noticeable difference that Beamer has gleaned from the first seven practices of the spring.

“The way we expect our players to practice – the speed, effort, physicality, toughness – that’s non-negotiable. Last year, they were learning that day in and day out. Now, we haven’t had to tell ‘em to crank it up and be more physical. If anything, it’s ‘settle down a little bit’ because they’re really getting after it. I think that’s the biggest thing is the expectations of how we expect to practice.

“I think the biggest thing is the players know what to expect and we know what to expect. There’s no feeling your way through, ‘what’s practice gonna be like today?’ Don’t get me wrong, it’s not cookie cutter where we do the same thing every day. We wanna create adversity and things like that on the field and constantly keep them on their toes.”

South Carolina returns its entire starting offensive line and a bulk of its starting defense. Though there are tweaks to what both sides of the ball are being asked to do, the returners are already comfortable with the operation.

The Gamecocks, though, have had an influx of new players into their program in 2022.

There are seven new transfers who have come in (Spencer Rattler, Christian Beal-Smith, Lovasea Carroll, Antwane Wells, Devonni Reed, Terrell Dawkins and Austin Stogner, who has not yet arrived as he continues finishing classes at Oklahoma) and seven freshman signees who enrolled early (Braden Davis, Anthony Rose, Donovan Westmoreland, Peyton Williams, Felix Hixon, Jamaal Whyce and D’Andre Martin).

Whether it’s the former seven or the latter seven, it’s been a key element this spring for the coaching staff to get the new players acquainted to the ins and outs of the program and how the ship is run. Thus far, there haven’t been many issues in that regard, Beamer says.

“There’s been a lot of retention [with the returning players], and the new guys that have come in have done a great job of learning the system and they aren’t looking lost out there,” Beamer said.

Beamer and Co. have planned for the Gamecocks’ rookies to mesh with the veterans ahead of their arrival in Columbia. There haven’t been any roadblocks in terms of the veterans being so far ahead of the rookies that it causes issues with the program trying to take itself to the next level.

“You certainly wanna continue to build and tweak. So I don’t think you really change too much,” Beamer said. “You know that every time you start practice – whether it be in January or August – you’re gonna have new faces with transfers, high school enrollees, whatever it may be. I think you just install your offense and know that R.J. Roderick, Brad Johnson, Zacch Pickens and the returners on defense and the returners on offense are gonna be a little bit farther along because they do have a year in this system – compared to maybe a Donovan Westmoreland or an Anthony Rose or a Peyton Williams or D’Dndre Martin, whoever.”

What has aided in those 13 players’ (minus Stogner) ability to hit the ground running smoothly is that the NCAA allows the coaching staff to conduct walk-through practices with them prior to spring ball starting up. South Carolina got four weeks of “installing, teaching and learning,” with the new guys, Beamer said.

The coach spotlighted offensive players such as quarterback Braden Davis, running back Rashad Amos and offensive lineman Hank Manos, plus defensive players in EDGE Tyreek Johnson and linebackers Bam Martin-Scott, Andrew Colasurdo, K.J. Scott and Ronnie Porter as either the younger players or guys who are looking to have a bigger role this season who have flashed in the spring’s first three weeks.

Those players and a few others will get their chance to show off a bit more during Saturday’s first scrimmage. There is some eagerness to see how the practice progress will translate into a scrimmage setting and how the blend of rookies and veterans plays out as we continue to grind toward the April 16 spring game.

“We have a general idea with returning players of what they can do,” Beamer said. “But let’s see who in the next group of guys is really gonna take a step up and show that they can have a significant role in the team going forward.”