South Carolina kept the pressure on Brock Vandagriff Saturday. (Vicky Graff Photo)
South Carolina coach Shane Beamer said all the right things about Mark Stoops and the Kentucky football program after the Gamecocks decimated UK 31-6 in Lexington Saturday.
However, he also did not downplay the significance of the win for his team.
“The offense, defense, special teams, you talk about gritty. You talk about tough; you talk about competitive – we showed it all today. We said coming on the road you got to have great toughness, check. You have to have great physicality, check. When adversity hits you go to have great composure, check. And then great togetherness – and we showed that as well,” Beamer said after his defense dominated South Carolina.
“We talked about getting the game into the fourth quarter and finding a way to win it and we absolutely did.”
Not many expected that after South Carolina struggled to beat Old Dominion 23-19 a week ago in its season-opening game. Beamer knew there were plenty of doubters about the Gamecocks and let the media know about it after the game.
“You know I love you guys (in the media), think you’re fantastic at the jobs you do but frankly, there were some really false and lazy narratives out there. This week there was perception coming out of the Old Dominion game and I get it – it wasn’t great. Nobody thought we were going to win four games,” Beamer said.
“But not just you guys, everybody out there – I get it. And that’s why the line (point spread), that’s why I don’t pay attention to gambling lines but that’s why the line continued to get bigger this week I think for Kentucky as the week went. I apologize if I just completely violated all protocols.”
Wait. There’s a lot more from Beamer.
“There wasn’t a lot of belief in this program or in this team coming in here to be able to do what we just did against a really good team that has a veteran defense. I think 10 returning starters, great players, high draft picks, talented receivers but I told our team on Tuesday there’s perception and then there’s reality –and the reality was we got a good football team,” Beamer said.
“The reality is that we played really good defense against Old Dominion last week, the reality is we started three true freshmen on offense last week and a redshirt freshman quarterback, and then we continued to get better. The reality is that we are really good on special teams, and we got a big-time punter as we showed today and ultimately the reality is we have a great belief.”
Beamer now has three straight wins over Kentucky in a game UK had to win to have a chance at a special season. He wasn’t shy about saying South Carolina expected to win and played that way.
“Nobody is sitting here anointing us right now, it’s a lot to clean up and we can play so much better,” Beamer said.
But the Gamecocks understood what beating a 10-point favorite on the road to open the SEC season meant.
“I’m sure you guys can hear them through the walls. We’re having a heck of a celebration as we should. It’s a great win against a really good team and our guys worked really really hard,” Beamer said.
UK-SC Football
Photos by Vicky Graff
24 Responses
UK Football is in trouble.
This team’s offense is inept.
This team’s defense is ineffective
The punting game was a persistent net loss with each punt exchange
This team will be searching for a 4th win in late November.
You are so right! A 4th win is a stretch! And I was looking for a 9 or 10 win season.
Vandy is no longer in the probable win column, not even a “possible” win. Vandy & UL will be upsets if UK wins, and without one of them, it will leave UK at 3 wins!
Hey!! Look out for those Racers.
Agree. Didn’t coach Stoops try to get the Texas A&M job last year? I don’t think he wants to be here anymore. It seems like some of these coaches get rich and lazy.
Most if not all of the players have more money than they have ever had in their life and there is no incentive to play hard. I don’t know how to do it but they should be paid by performance and wins.
Meanwhile, I had a season ticket holder tell me due to record setting, backbreaking inflation over the past 4 years that he was done with UK sports.
My enthusiasm for college sports is dying, and it is happening very quickly.
Nationally, there has been NO LEADERSHIP by the NCAA or the Member Institutions (Presidents and ADs), and locally, the NIL and open transfer portal have changed things to the point that I no longer care to even watch.
My only source of excitement now is a hope that Mark Pope is the real deal and can bring UK basketball back onto the national platform again. However, given NIL and the portal in an era devoid of leadership, my hope is very fragile, and likely fleeting.
Ditto on all counts
This coaching staff is grossly overpaid and some of the coaching hires the last couple of years have to be strongly evaluated because the return on investment is not and will not be there. The Big Dog earns his money. Stoops is not a $8M guy. He does not show coaching or leadership and just wants to look at the tape and get back to work.
Well, I said this would be a close game and a of you folks scoffed
I was wrong – just not as badly.
Paul you had a better feel for what was coming than most, but we got our ass kicked by a mediocre team! Our defense even got punked. Where was Chicken Little when we needed him? The sky is falling!
He’s still around
Knoxville in full celebration mode while Lexington deeply mourns the death of UK FB. If you want to see a model of a growing athletic excellence you need to look no further than Knoxville. If you want to see a model in decline, you need to look no further than Lexington in football. The comparison would show a AD as hot as any in the country and a AD that has been in decline for a few yrs. Danny White seems to be currently in control of all 3 major sports in the SEC and Mitch Barnhart’s hires, especially in football, languish in mediocrity and that seems a little charitable.
Barnie has failed, failed, failed & failed, and got lucky with being forced to hire Pope.
Secret contracts for TLT & the fraud. The pathetic hiring of the women’s BB pseudo-coach who managed to unravel everything that Mitchell had built up over the years.
Perhaps the worst AD in the SEC as well as one of the worst in the USA. Money thrown away to the fraud and Stoops. A brainless hiring of the loser who ruined UK women’s BB.
All the years of letting historical Memorial Coliseum be a disgraceful place with no AC, while pouring money into the fraud! What kind of AD keeps his job who does this? Only one who has no accountability!!
Where are the UK administrators who should be accountable for letting Barnie waste UK money on incompetent and fraud coaches?
Why is the UK FB coach of the cornerbacks even paid a dollar? Why has Stoops been allowed to let Special teams be of no help year after year.
The AD got one lucky hit when he hires Pope.
The Pope hire was the right hire, but it was not done by choice. It was forced out of desperation! Even a blind hog finds an acorn every now and then.
👍
Worst loss in Stoops Era as UK coach. So disappointing the way both sides played.
The pseudo-coach that was hired for women’s basketball was all about checking boxes.
Yes, just as was TLT!
I thought Gerald Mincey was going to be a monster on o line he talked so much shid about Tennessee I see why he had problems at Tennessee because he sucks plain and simple he got beat on just about every pass rush. When 7 people can’t block 3 people the game is over. A true freshman was killing him and he’s a 5th year senior. It’s pathetic.
Is the UK President still active or is he pulling an o’biden by hiding in a basement? Where was he when Barnie gave TLT a secret contract extension? Where was he while the fraud got millions to destroy UK BB? Where is he while Stoops is not earning 10% of his salary?
Is the UK President really following the actions of o’biden and hiding from real responsibilities?
Is the President trying to end the Faculty “Congressional” group to silence their input and have total control? Is he a control freak?
Who is competent and makes sure there is accountability on the part of the President, Board Members, key Administrators, AD & more???
Curious minds of alumni want to know!
It all reminds me of a certain party’s primary.
No competition. No voting. And there better not be any complaining.
Great post!!!
ALERT! ALERT!
UK CAN SLOW DOWN UGA AT THE START OF THE GAME !!!
Just get Smart to let Stoops give the pre-game “pep” talk to the UGA players. It will put them into a trance at kickoff.
It has worked for over a decade, with Stoops lulling UK players into a passive “I don’t really want to be here” attitude at the start of every game!
Can anyone remember Joker Phillips. Tell be what the difference is between yesterday’s game and Joker’s last game against Vanderbilt. We may see a repeat this year.
The game the fans saw yesterday could have been a video of a chjoker game with different colored jerseys in the SC players.
No coaching.
No mental prep at all.
No secondary – did UK even have anyone icovwring the receivers?
No OL… maybe it’s invisible!
No reasonable play-calling. Stoops STILL has 100% control of the OC.
Stoops knows less about offense than the youngest child in the stadium. He has ZERO knowledge/understanding about offense and is NOT a good HC because he peaked as a DC.
My wanting to see Stoops turn it around & recover the program to where it was before that “complex OC” was hired is no longer a wish of mine.
UK is at the same crossroads as it was with the fraud. An overpaid HC that no one wants and it will cost too mega-millions to send him packing.
Barnie should be billed for all the wasted money in TLT, chjoker, Stoops & that incompetent women’s’ BB coach fired after last season.