Shane Beamer, Gamecocks use new additions to improve offense’s outlook for 2022
The focus for South Carolina football has changed drastically over the course of a year. And coach Shane Beamer knows it.
He recalled addressing his players’ involvement about a year ago in the viral milk crate challenge. Last season, he even kept notes by the date of where the team stood on the days before the opening game.
“He’ll go back and tell us, ‘Hey, guys, last year around this time, we didn’t do the things we need to do,’ ” redshirt sophomore defensive lineman Alex Huntley said. “ ‘This practice, let’s not do that.’ ”
This season, he’s addressing how he’ll get his offensive unit to click. And that starts in the passing game.
With the bevy of transfers the team accumulated since the end of last season, many new faces make up the offense — a unit that finished second to last in the SEC in points per game in 2021.
For the receiving corps, South Carolina added Antwane Wells and Corey Rucker from the transfer portal, as well as Austin Stogner and Nate Adkins for the tight end room.
Beamer said that returners and the new additions have a better understanding of the offense compared with last year. The heightened familiarity of the player personnel has helped the coaches game plan as well.
Though the freshmen are still learning, he said his veteran players are tightening up their errors from last year.
“With the returning guys, they know how to get lined up,” Beamer said. “And they don’t just know their position, they have a better understanding of the whole play, the whole concept.”
A week from the home opener, the team believes the new targets in the passing game are figuring out their roles and responsibilities. Redshirt senior Dakereon Joyner said the wide receiver group is deeper than it has been in a long time.
“It can be challenging to learn at times, but just know what your coaches want,” Joyner said. “Those guys have done a really good job of just grasping everything.”
With the addition of quarterback Spencer Rattler, the team should have a more stable and reliable play-caller if he remains healthy. Building a rapport with Rattler and the other quarterbacks, Joyner said, helps the unit build trust.
“Quarterbacks have confidence in us, and we have confidence in ourselves,” Joyner said. “We’re more coachable than ever right now. We’ve just got to go out and make plays.”
The players can get used more creatively as they grow in their knowledge of the offense.
Relying on offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield’s direction will allow the team’s assets to make contributions on the field, junior quarterback Luke Doty said.
“Coach Satt’s gonna do everything he can to put everybody in positions to succeed,” Doty said. “Our job is to just trust him, trust the plan that he has and then just go out there and do our job.”
This story was originally published August 26, 2022 at 7:30 AM with the headline "Shane Beamer, Gamecocks use new additions to improve offense’s outlook for 2022."
