DALLAS — Checking in from SEC Media Days, where Shane Beamer will hit the podium in about half an hour. He just spoke to the South Carolina media off the podium and away from cameras, and here is the full rundown of what he said to us:
On the injury front:
“We’ll get back in as a staff next week and get an update injury wise, but at this point everybody is good and guys that were limited in spring practice are full speed ahead. Rocket Sanders and those guys have had a great summer from a health standpoint, and we expect everybody to be full go once we get going.”
On the theme for this pre-season:
“The theme going all the way back to January would be the hunger that this team has. We’ve got three fantastic leaders here today that have played a lot of football for us here at South Carolina, along with a lot of other leaders. When you think about it, two of the guys that we brought to media days last year are still on our team in Tonka [Hemingway] and Kai [Kroeger] as well. We’re an older team that’s very, very hungry. They’ve shown that since August. The theme for us is just to continue to build on that and embrace that.”
“We’ve got a lot of new faces obviously, coaches and players, and will continue to get acclimated and just get better. But I really like this group. I like the way they’ve worked since January. They’ve had a fantastic summer, and we’re eager to get going.”
Said Boogie Huntley and Debo Williams were voted as permanent captains by their teammates at the end of last season, part of why they are at Media Days this year.
On analysts now being allowed to coach on-field and if he’s in favor of that rule change:
“Absolutely I am. Every school is going to be different. You may have some coaches that just hire an army of analysts, and you’ve seen that. Some coaches in the last 2-3 months have left some coordinator jobs at the FCS level to go be an analyst somewhere else, and more power to them. But I think it’s great. It takes kind of the gray area out of who’s allowed to do what. We try to do things the right way at our place, but not everybody I don’t think has always followed that rule the way it’s supposed to be followed.”
On the injury front:
“We’ll get back in as a staff next week and get an update injury wise, but at this point everybody is good and guys that were limited in spring practice are full speed ahead. Rocket Sanders and those guys have had a great summer from a health standpoint, and we expect everybody to be full go once we get going.”
On the theme for this pre-season:
“The theme going all the way back to January would be the hunger that this team has. We’ve got three fantastic leaders here today that have played a lot of football for us here at South Carolina, along with a lot of other leaders. When you think about it, two of the guys that we brought to media days last year are still on our team in Tonka [Hemingway] and Kai [Kroeger] as well. We’re an older team that’s very, very hungry. They’ve shown that since August. The theme for us is just to continue to build on that and embrace that.”
“We’ve got a lot of new faces obviously, coaches and players, and will continue to get acclimated and just get better. But I really like this group. I like the way they’ve worked since January. They’ve had a fantastic summer, and we’re eager to get going.”
Said Boogie Huntley and Debo Williams were voted as permanent captains by their teammates at the end of last season, part of why they are at Media Days this year.
On analysts now being allowed to coach on-field and if he’s in favor of that rule change:
“Absolutely I am. Every school is going to be different. You may have some coaches that just hire an army of analysts, and you’ve seen that. Some coaches in the last 2-3 months have left some coordinator jobs at the FCS level to go be an analyst somewhere else, and more power to them. But I think it’s great. It takes kind of the gray area out of who’s allowed to do what. We try to do things the right way at our place, but not everybody I don’t think has always followed that rule the way it’s supposed to be followed.”
