Education key to avoiding penalties for Gamecocks

After both games this season head coach Shane Beamer has pointed out that penalties have been a problem for the team.

Through the first two games of the season the Gamecocks have had 16 penalties and lost 116 yards because of them. So far it's averaging eight penalties and 58 yards a game.

These numbers put the Gamecocks at fifth in the SEC in penalties, relatively speaking that's not too bad, but it's certainly an issue worth addressing.

"It's the million dollar question," Beamer said when asked on what the best way to do just that in his weekly media availability on Tuesday. He went on to say that throughout his coaching career everywhere he's been has addressed penalties differently.

Beamer said in one place they didn't talk about it and it naturally went away, in another they made the players do up downs at practice and in another they spend team meetings showing every single penalty the team had.

The latter is Beamer's strategy here at South Carolina.

"We teach off of it as much as we can," Beamer said. "What the expectations are and what we're not going to condone."

The Gamecocks usually have officials at practice to help with that, Beamer said the education side of it is a "big point of emphasis."

Against East Carolina South Carolina had eight penalties for 55 yards something Beamer said was the "most disappointing thing about Saturday."

During team meetings the week of the ECU game, Beamer said he showed the team plays where ECU and App State got, "a little chippy," and talked about how to avoid it.

"I obviously did a crap job because we made a big point of emphasis about keeping our poise and composure against East Carolina," Beamer said. "We made a big point with our guys last week of if we get in this situation, we're not turning it into a one-on-one war of words and battle where we're talking."

The opposite ended up happening. East Carolina ended the game with three penalties totaling just 17 yards.

"I guess we mind tricked ourselves," Beamer said, "because we ended up being the team that didn't handle that the right way and lost our composure."

Beamer said during Carolina Calls Thursday night that he doesn't see the point in "blowing a gasket," on the sidelines after a penalty but that he did have to tell coach Torian Gray to get a guy off the field after a penalty on Saturday.

One can assume he was referring to Cam Smith who was given an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty during the game after making a great play in coverage.

Defensive coordinator Clayton White said that despite Smith's extracurriculars on the field that he's still a great player.

"We just gotta do a great job of getting his passion and energy in the right direction with the rest of the program," White said during his weekly media availability on Wednesday.

Despite most penalties seeming small and easily controllable through the eye of a layman, Beamer acknowledged that it's football and penalties are a natural part of the game.

"Things that are just gonna happen and you live with," Beamer said, "It's the pre snap and post snap stuff that make you wanna throw up as a coach. So we gotta get better at that, two weeks in a row where I've said it and hopefully we'll be better this week.”

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