How The Defense Rebounded After Sluggish First Half
While the South Carolina Gamecocks, from start to finish, were clearly on pace to have their best game all the season, the defense continued to have issues in some of the same areas that they've struggled with so far this season.
In his postgame presser, head coach Shane Beamer noted that he thought the defense didn't come out with the intensity required to play the game; however, this lack of energy and competitiveness changed throughout the game.
“Didn’t like the way we started the football game on defense, thought we were very lethargic, didn’t have a lot of energy. Disappointed a little bit in the competitive spirit, and then they responded."
According to Beamer, the main concern with the start of the game was the inability to stop the Charlotte 49ers on third down, as the Gamecocks had plenty of opportunities to end drives and couldn't finish the deal.
We challenged them and the biggest thing I saw from early in the first half, it wasn’t like [Charlotte] was racking up a ton of yards, we just couldn’t get off the field on 3rd down," Beamer stated. "We pride ourselves on getting off the field on 3rd down and [we] weren’t able to do it."
Another problem for the Gamecock defensive front, in particular, was their missed chances to get 49ers quarterback Chris Reynolds down to the ground for sacks, which exacerbated the miscues from the beginning of the game.
“Missed too many sacks," Beamer said bluntly. "I think that game coulda gotten under control a little bit better in the first half if we just don’t miss sacks, and we missed a couple of those.”
Beamer was then asked if he talked to the defense at halftime or if he let defensive coordinator Clayton White do his usual thing; Beamer emphasized he didn't have to step in because White took charge.
"No… I usually bounce around, but I was with the defense tonight, but I didn’t need to say anything. The thing that I was gonna say to them was exactly what Clayton [White] said to the staff, ‘We ain’t changing any calls, we just gotta compete better!’, cause we didn’t feel like our guys were competing like we wanted them to… Clayton was already handling it with his staff, I don’t want to say forcefully, but made it very clear what he expected in the second half from the defensive coaching staff and the players that they coach… and they responded.”
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