Everything Shane Beamer Said After Blowing Fourth-Quarter Lead to Alabama

For the second consecutive season, South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer and his Gamecocks came within reach of beating Alabama, but the home squad was unable to seal the deal in Columbia, falling 29-22 to the No. 4 Crimson Tide. Alabama has now won seven games in a row.

The Gamecocks led 22-14 in the fourth quarter, but the Crimson Tide drove down the field to tie the game with a touchdown and a two-point conversion, and then recovered a late fumble by star quarterback LaNorris Sellers and parlayed that event into the game-winning touchdown.

A full transcript from Beamer's postgame press conference is published below.

Opening Statement:

"Obviously, a gut-wrenching loss to say the least. Thanks to our fans. They were unbelievable today. It was hard to hear throughout the game. What an environment. Coming down Bluff Road when we got here, coming into the game, seeing all the cars with Gamecock flags up and down Bluff Road, all the people holding their hands out the window with the 'spurs up' sign. They were awesome. Really proud of our team and how they played today. That's not a surprise. I mean, I knew we would. That's who we are. That's the culture in this football program right now. The culture in our program is stronger than ever and it was on display today. Give Alabama credit. To be down on the road, going into the fourth quarter, by eight points, and to do what they did in the fourth quarter. Give them credit. I just told our team in the locker room, 'We gotta finish. [We've] got an eight-point lead at home, Crowd is losing their minds in there. It's electric. And we gotta go finish.' And we didn't finish, and they did, so that's a hurt locker room in there, as you can imagine.

"Proud of our guys, the way they played inspired football today. We're gonna be sick when we watch this tape. Just missed opportunities that we had, and we talked to them, or I talked to them at the hotel before we came over here about the 2010 game when we beat Alabama here and they were No. 1 in the country, and we talked about all the great players in that game that just made so many individual plays. The catch that Alshon Jeffrey made on the Alabama sideline that everybody always, you still see all the time, and he made with a one-handed catch. And the way that Marcus Lattimore and Stephen Garcia played that day, and Stephon Gilmore and all those guys. We talked about it at the hotel, that that's what won that game. Team football. And that's what was gonna win the game today. Offense, defense and special teams. Team football. We were gonna have to have a lot of guys make a lot of, just, great individual plays. We had a lot of guys that did that, but we had a lot of opportunities that we missed, too, of plays that were there to be made that we didn't make for whatever reason. Disappointing finish.

"Again, thanks to the fans. Though, our guys will respond the right way. We get to go compete again next Saturday in Mississippi, and though we've got a big challenge, we'll get right back to work tomorrow. Just a couple things before opening up for questions. I wanna send my prayers to Jay Phillips from 107.5. I know he's getting ready to go through, or is going through a tough time, and has got a battle in front of him. But I know that Jay's getting ready to kick the butt of cancer here going forward. Also want to send my prayers to the family of Doyle McBride. He was a great Gamecock that, back when I was here as an assistant coach, he used to take Coach [Steve] Spurrier and the assistant coaches on a golf trip in February down to the Dominican Republic every year, and was a great friend when I was an assistant coach here, and was a great friend still when I came back as the head coach. Just the sweetest man, and he passed away this week. Thinking of him, and definitely want to shout out, I apologize if I pronounce this wrong, Gabrielle Brault. She is a[n] honors college student here at Carolina. She's a junior. She was studying abroad earlier this year and while she was studying abroad, was diagnosed with a very, very, very, very aggressive form of cancer. Had to drop out of school and do everything online as she fights this battle. She's celebrating her 21st birthday tomorrow and was here in attendance, so, that's what Gamecock nation's about. That somebody that's truly fighting for their lives right now, a junior in college that should be up in the Cockpit with all her friends. And thanks to them today, the Cockpit was awesome. Instead, she's fighting for her life, but still wanted to come down here for her 21st birthday and watch the Gamecocks play. So, wish we'd have been able to get a win for her on her 21st birthday tomorrow, but thinking of you, Gabrielle. And with that, I'll be glad to take any questions."

On LaNorris Sellers' demeanor and what he might have said to him after the fourth-quarter fumble:

"I didn't talk to him just now in the locker room. I mean, when they broke the run at the end, we let them score so we could get the ball back. And I went up to him on the sideline and I told him, 'Look, we just let them score so you get an opportunity to go win this thing.' That's not what happened, and when it was 22-all, I told [offensive coordinator] Mike [Shula] on the headphones, 'In my mind, we've got the best player in the stadium today. Let's let him go win it.' We just weren't quite able to do that."

On plays that are hard to watch on film from the game and what he says to players involved:

"I told [offensive lineman] Tree [Babalade], 'That's a tough call [on a holding penalty].' You guys saw it better than I did. Looked like he was in pretty good position and looked like one of the greatest NBA players that flops at times in the lane. Maybe he didn't, but I thought Tree was in pretty good positon. Maybe not. But that's what I told Tree, just being honest with him. I told [running back Rahsul Faison] when it happened that, 'Look, seven points ain't gonna win this thing and we're gonna need you to come back and carry this thing today and help us go win this game,' as the game went. We had a lot of, I mean, we had a lot of great individual plays today, Jack. But we had a lot of plays where we just, we missed opportunities of just, all week long we've been talking about the old adage, practice execution equals game-day reality. And what we did in practice just needed to carry over to the game today. Plays that guys made in practice all week, we just missed them today and didn't make enough. But that's what I told those guys. Same thing with [William] Joyce. He missed a kick earlier, but I told him, 'You're gonna have to make some. You're gonna make some to win it.' Even after he made the one to take the lead, told him that, "You're gonna have to probably make another one here to help us win this thing too.' So, that's what I did."

On Sellers getting out into space and wrinkles put into the game plan:

"We talked about just that, that we needed to, it's easy to say, simplify. But we were probably less volume in the game plan today, just because I told Mike and the offensive coaches, 'We ain't gonna out-scheme Alabama. Let's get whatever our best freaking stuff is schematically and let's get it in the game plan. And figure out who our best players are and just feature our best plays and our best players over and over and over again. And I don't care if we have 10 plays in the game plan. Just run those 10 over and over again.' So we tried to really dial in, and we do that every week, so it's not, 'Oh, Shane took until game eight to figure that out.' No, we do that every week, or seven, whatever today was. But really just kinda trying to condense on what we're doing.

"We wanted to be able to spread them out a little bit more with a few more open sets, whether it be empty, or two-by-two open, four wides, whatever you want to call it, just to kinda spread them out and bring less people into the box for our offensive line and tight ends to have to block. We wanted to be able to run him [Sellers], we threw a couple wrinkles in there with just some formations and run schemes. And then we wanted to, I told Mike earlier in the week, 'Look, if we drop back 25, or if we throw 25 passes today, it doesn't need to be 20 just sit in the pocket and drop back. We need to be able to move the pocket. We need to throw screens. We need to be able to get the ball out of his hands quickly.' That we've got playmakers at the receiver position and tight end position and running back. And we need to be able to sit in the pocket and throw the ball downfield at times, but we've also gotta be able to just get the ball out of his hands quick and get them in space and make people have to deal with us."

On decisions to either go for it or kick in the game and looking back on them:

"It's hard to say right now, Hale, when we just lost the game. I mean, surely, yeah, we missed a field goal. I'd love to say, well, I wish I'd gone for it and gotten the fourth-down. I mean, of course. But I felt good about getting points right there. That was well within his range. We missed the field goal. But, I thought getting points was big there, and we were in range, and knew it was gonna be a four-quarter game and points were at the premium."

On whether the mentality was always to let the Alabama player (Germie Bernard) score on the Crimson Tide's last drive:

"If he got the first down. Same scenario as last year. If you look back at the game last year, they really shouldn't have scored the touchdown. If you remember that play, they scored on fourth down. We busted the coverage. The only reason that we had a drive to throw to Nyck [Harbor] and an onside kick was because they scored and gave us the ball back. I wanted them to kick, that's why I used my timeouts. I wanted them to kick a 40-something yard field goal, but we said if they get the first down, we need to let them score because otherwise they're just gonna run the clock down and basically kick an extra point to win the game."

On Ty Simpson looking uncomfortable because of the South Carolina defense:

"You talk about individual efforts, I mean, there were just so many guys up front. I mean, Monkell Goodwine, thought he played his rear end off. This game was important to him, being at Alabama. Shawn Murphy, another one from Alabama. Colin Bryant, covering kicks. He transferred from Alabama. J.O. [Justin Okoronkwo] coming from Alabama. I mean, we had a bunch of guys with Alabama ties that this game was important to, and hurt for them like I do the rest of our team. But I thought Monkell and Nick [Barrett] up front were really disruptive and did a great job. And we were confident coming into the game, no disrespect to any team that they had played, but we really felt like we would present them some problems. And that if you looked just statistically in the SEC at pass defense, we statistically I think, were better in pass defense than anybody they had played. So we liked our matchup out there. I mean, we didn't do anything different defensively. We wanted to heat him up a lot and put pressure on him and stop the run, and we did that. They had two yards rushing at halftime. We did a nice job stopping the run and keeping him in the pocket and missed a couple sacks that turned into big plays, but proud of the way those guys played up front."

On what he thinks needs to be changed going into the next game:

"I'm thinking we need to finish in the fourth quarter. When you've got an eight-point lead at home and you've got a team on the ropes, you've gotta put them away, and we didn't. We had an eight-point lead and we allowed them to go, whatever it was, 80 yards down the field and convert some third downs. We did not play well on offense, defense or special teams in the fourth quarter, and that's disappointing because one of our keys every single week is to dominate in the fourth quarter. I don't know what the record is, he's the guru, but our record's pretty freaking good around here when we're leading going into the fourth quarter, and disappointing that we didn't finish today."

On how he personally copes with difficulties:

"[Blows raspberry] It's hard. I meant what I said Tuesday in the press conference, as the head coach and the leader of this program, I feel like I'm letting a lot of people down, and I know today, let a lot of people down that we weren't able to get this win. Because our players put so much into it, and I wish I had something that I could say to them to make it better. I know our fans hurt, but you know, I just told the team in the locker room, 'Yes, it's been a tough year. That weighs heavily on me as the leader of the program.' I don't see my family much during the week because I'm in the facility, which sucks, but outside of seeing my family when I come home at night if they're still awake, the best part of my day is the four hours that I get to spend with the players when they come in our building. They're just an awesome group of kids, and I really hurt for them. But I love coaching them, I love spending time with them. And I realize that everybody is looking to me as the head football coach, so I know if it's weighing on me, then I'm not doing my best to help them.

"So as I look at it, I'm the leader of the program and I've gotta be strong, and one of the things that I'm doing right now with a group of friends is we're in a two-year, couple group of friends outside the program, we're in a two-year project of reading the Bible from start to finish. So, shoutout to Coach [Dan] McDonnell, the Louisville baseball coach, for giving me the push to do that. It's been awesome, where I read that, and one thing that we talked about this week in the lesson was, throughout the Bible, and I understand that not everybody in here is people of faith, but throughout the Bible, there's great stories of leaders showing leadership. And that's what I'm trying to do. So I know all the haters on social media are gonna be like, 'Hey, look at Beamer, he's comparing himself to Moses leading the people across the Red Sea.' That's not what I'm doing. But it was a great lesson that there's great leadership. Leaders show leadership in that time, and I'm just trying to be the same person, and be consistent and stay positive and show great leadership to our people in our program right now."

On the offensive line letting up fewer sacks against Alabama than previous games:

"Our offensive line with sacks? I thought they were better. There was a play right before the half that we turned a guy free, that was not on the offensive line. So, don't write your articles about the offensive line turning a guy free because that wasn't the offensive line. That was just one of our guys on offense not doing their job. We've gotta be, continue to help our offensive line. There were some plays, certainly, that they'd like to have back, but I thought they did a pretty good job today against a good front four. One of the ways that you needed to win the game against Alabama was control the clock. I talked about that with you guys this week. Their time of possession going into these last four games was like, whatever it is, 32 minutes every game. And we controlled it for 33. At halftime, we had the ball for 20 minutes, compared to 10, or whatever it was. So, I mean, we controlled the drive. We've just gotta finish. We've gotta finish, but yes, I thought the offensive line did a nice job for the most part today, and good tough running too. You talk about individual efforts, there was some good, tough running by some of those running backs coming in there on some of those third-down situations and fighting for tough yardage to get the first down."

On benefits of 24-hour rules and not wanting to feel this feeling again:

"I would think so. We've been heart-broke after every game because no matter how we played in these losses that we've had, we've truly expected to win every game. Expected to win, and we're really hurt when we didn't. This one really, really, really hurts. You've got the No. 4 team in the country on the ropes at home, and you let it get away from you. There's a lot of hurt. So, yeah, they don't want to feel this feeling again, but to me, if we don't want to feel this feeling again, let's figure out how to make more plays in the fourth quarter and not let it come down to where they make more plays than we do."

On the team's health situation and injury updates from the game:

"Yes, it helped having those guys back, because we were healthier than we have been on offense and defense. So that was huge just from a depth standpoint, to be able to rotate some people in there, and I know we had the five offensive linemen, but I looked in there and we had rotated, I saw Nick Sharpe in there in the second half, and we rotated some guys in there. So, it helped from a health standpoint, no question about it, to only have Cason Henry out today that had started a game. I think we came out of it okay. We lost [tight end] Mo Brown, which, you guys know what a weapon he is on special teams. We lost him to an upper-body injury, I think on the first punt, when they punted, and so he didn't play the whole game, which is a big loss because he's such a weapon. I mean, he's a starter on every special team that we have, and then we wanted to be able to get him going a little bit more today on offense too, just being able to get us 10, 15 plays in there. So, we lost some of that from a tight-end standpoint and then certainly, we lost our best special-teams player, so that was tough. But other than that, I think we came out of it pretty healthy."