South Carolina coach Shane Beamer met with the Columbia media Tuesday ahead of Saturday’s critical SEC matchup between the Vols and Gamecocks.
No. 21 Tennessee (3-1, 0-1 SEC) enters the matchup in need of its first conference win ahead of its open date while South Carolina (2-2, 1-1 SEC) is looking to end an incredibly challenging September schedule with a winning record.
Beamer talked plenty about the Vols Tuesday, discussing the Gamecock upset win last season, a position-by-position breakdown of the Vols’ roster and much more. Here’s everything Beamer said.
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On Joe Milton III
“Offensively, the quarterback is tremendous. Can make every single throw on the field. Tucked the first play of the game on Saturday and ran for about 80 yards as the quarterback on a run – so he can certainly run.”
On Tennessee’s offensive line
“Offensive line, lot of those guys return, they brought in two guys from the transfer portal that are starting for them and are really good players.”
On Tennessee’s receivers and tight ends
“Wide receiver group is deep. They’ve added to the tight end core – starter returns, brought a transfer in that’s a really talented young man as well.”
On Tennessee’s running backs
“Running backs, they’re deep. They’ve got three running backs that can all go. They’ve all got great vision, speed, burst, quickness. That’ll be a challenge for us without a doubt. They are the leading rushing offense in the SEC. So, last week against Mississippi State, we faced the No. 1 rushing offense in the country. This week we get to do it again. They ran for 303 yards against Texas-San Antonio Saturday and this isn’t like they popped some runs and run their yardage up. They’re handing the ball off 30-plus times a game. So we’ve got a big challenge on our hands to stop the run this week as well.”
On Tennessee’s front seven
“Defensively, their defensive line is very, very active. Same thing with the linebacker crew. They can rush the passer, they lead the conference in sacks. So it’ll be a big challenge for our offense, not allowing them to be as disruptive as they have been all season as well. Athletic linebackers.”
On Tennessee’s secondary
“And then a veteran group of defensive backs on the back end at corner and safety.”
On Tennessee’s special teams unit
“Special teams, they’re really, really good. Punt returner averages 21 yards per return. Not a long of 21, he averages 21 yards per return this season. He can make people look silly really, really quick. So we’ve got to do a great job covering punts this week when we punt. They lost their specialist but they brought in a transfer kicker that’s tremendous and then they’ve got a punter that actually punts with both legs. So that’ll be a challenge for our punt-pressure team when he punts. He can kick with his right leg or he can kick with his left leg. And he also does it rugby style, rolling, so that’ll be a big challenge for our guys. They play really, really hard on special teams. We pride ourselves on being disruptive and so do they. Their effort is tremendous on special teams. They block kicks, they return kicks, they block field goals, they are well coached, they know what they’re doing.”
On what he remembers about last season’s game
“Not that we weren’t a confident team before that game, but certainly I think the confidence that we took out of that game led right into the next week against Clemson. Didn’t win the bowl game, but gave ourselves an opportunity to. Then the expectations we had going into this season, that was a tremendous team that we played last year in Tennessee here at home. We obviously played really, really well that night. And then I think everybody got to see the Spencer we had been seeing in practice. He put it all together. He’s only taken off since that game, as well. Certainly, there are a lot of things that came out of that night. It wasn’t like all of a sudden, the switch flipped from that game, because we were confident going into it and had some big wins before it. we just put it all together on national television. People that were here, saw it, we were able to take another step that night. …
I said last year in the post-game press conference, you’re not going to beat Tennessee. They’re too explosive. They’re aggressive on defense. They’re aggressive on special teams. You’re not going to beat them ever just being tentative and passive with the way that you play and coach. You’ve got to go attack. I’m sure they felt the same way, with the way that they play and coach as well. That was our main message last year.”
On how he feels about his offensive line entering the Tennessee game
On the challenges of defending Tennessee’s spread offense
