π Published on: 2024-12-04 22:29:05
β± Duration: 00:48:09 (2889 seconds)
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South Carolina Head Coach Shane Beamer met with members of the media on Wednesday to discuss a variety of topics pertaining to the Gamecock football program
π Channel: South Carolina Gamecocks
π Channel Country: United States
π Tags:
Gamecocks,South Carolina,Sports,Gamecock,College
π΅οΈββοΈ Transcript:
all right absolutely welcome back David you missed some action while you were gone last week but worked on your tan a little bit it appears so welcome back hope um everyone is having a great week excited about today certainly it’s different having Signing Day so early uh this year but love the the early date and and love this group of prospects that we’ve signed today as well a really great group of of young men and and they come from great families a lot of hard work went into today so you know so many people to that that they contribute to this and y’all you know heard me talk about it whe whether it be the all the people in our building Darren Usher and Jessica Jackson who do a great job hting up on campus and off-campus recruiting and all the people that work with them uh the people in our building when we do have recruits in it’s not just the coaches and them it’s the equipment staff and it’s the training staff and it’s the and conditioning staff and it’s nutrition and it’s uh everyone in our building that when there’s a when there’s a prospect on campus we’re involved and and then the academic uh people that just enlightened his team over in the Dodie academic center that they meet with every prospect that that comes through and everyone that does the meals and caterings hotel I mean it’s just on and on and on uh the people that we have a lot to thank or I have a lot to than so grateful for all of them it’s truly a a team effort without a doubt and today’s a a great day without a without question want to thank our fans because so many of these young men that signed today are signing because of uh part of the reason part of the reason they’re signing is because of the awesome environment they get to see every Saturday in Williams Bry stadium so thanks to our fans for that environment that they create without a doubt and um I say it all the time I just got doing that got just got done doing a national podcast with a group and told them that uh I’ve always said that the best of South Carolina football right in front of us and that’s not just recruiting speak and Coach speak I believe that and this group will help us get there uh as well for us it always we always want to start in the state of South Carolina so to be able to sign double digit players from the state is huge for us uh we knew after last season that we wanted to be more active in the state of North Carolina I didn’t feel like we had done a good enough job in the state of North Carolina recruiting since I had been here and that we needed to do better there and we signed three today out of there obviously Georgia is always going to be a critical state for us and we’ve had a lot of success in that Virginia DC Maryland area and had a lot of success up there today with uh the two young men that we sign from Virginia as well and to be able to go up into Pennsylvania also so we’re a place that’s popular and attractive to a lot of people right now there’s obviously a lot of excitement about South Carolina football right now it’s a different feeling than what there was was maybe outside this building last year on this day or in this month coming off the season that we had in 23 but here in 24 there’s a lot of people that want to be a part of this program and there’s a lot of young men that signed with uh some other SEC schools today that reached out to us in the last week about coming here and uh we frankly just didn’t have room at some of those positions uh to be able to take them and great morning so far got a lot of the our great morning this morning got a lot of these guys signed early had a great surprise here this afternoon as y’all saw me post on social media a little bit ago and uh not sure if we’re done yet either there’s still some guys out there that are making decisions in the next day or so that that haven’t um finalized their decision yet so you never stop recruiting we’ll continue to recruit hard on this this class that we got in this class of 25 group and uh we’re Full Speed Ahead texting all day and talking with the class of 26 as well so never really slows down but excited about this group and and uh the group overall positions every coach talks about filling needs we knew there were some concerns that we had from a depth standpoint come after the 24 season that we were going to face in 25 and and attacked that hard in the portal and and our new coaches particularly you know Mike furry coming in and just doing a a grand slam job of recruiting receivers I mean it’s phenomenal when you look at this receiving group that that he uh attacked and and brought in here so excited about what we’ve done there and and jod D Camis new coach bringing in a snapper and a and a another specialist as well so like the group and and excited to get them here a lot of these guys will be midyear guys as well so we’ll be able to get them here in January and they’ll be able to go through spring practice which will be huge for their development so know you guys have a lot of questions whatever youall want to talk about Clemson playoffs recruiting class there’s a lot of stuff going on since I’ve seen you guys last so fire away do we still give David the first question or is he on probation no appreciate it uh Shane you know with Signing Day this new age that we’re in did the kids actually sign letters today and if not what did they sign I think they just uh no um it’s all basically technological right now Jessica Jack Jackson’s a whole lot smarter than me as far as what they signed and sent in and I just try and stay in my lane and and they sent that stuff to her but it was it was all essentially done over their phone and and um Jessica told us when we had it in and that was that you’ve probably felt every emotion possible over the last 5 days so could you sum up that range uh that you’ve kind of been dealing with from Saturday through I guess right now yeah um let’s see Joy uh to the highest degree on Saturday and happiness throughout Saturday Sunday was uh joy happiness appreciation gratitude for the season that we had uh exhaustion from the season that we had as as well uh Monday was a lot of excitement in the morning we got the players in here uh Monday morning we gave everybody off on Sunday got the players in here on on Monday and and reviewed the uh the tape from the Clemson game and and look back at that so there that was a fun day just because as you can imagine you you uh you win that game and what it means a lot of excitement and happiness on on Monday morning the rest of Monday throughout Tuesday was just busy and uh because of everything going on Portal recruiting individual meetings of players wrapping up the season there’s a lot happening planning for what the December looks like uh last night about 700 p.m. was absolute uh shock and disappointment at 700 p.m. and I won’t lie hail it’s been pretty um that feeling really hasn’t changed since yesterday at 700 p.m. except for the excitement of this group that we just brought in and then the excitement of being able to we practice this morning so being able to get out on the practice field with our guys uh this morning was was pretty cool as well so yeah it’s been a range of emotions and and uh still is but POS the the there’s one great positive and that’s this group of signes that we’ve just put together today Shane I know you talked about shock but I mean you guys move up only one spot for beating CL I know all week you’ve talked on fine bomb SEC this morning about how important strength of schedule is and stuff I mean what is surprising that the committee doesn’t really seem to take strength of schedule as an important criteria or what would you say about that I would say it’s very surprising [Music] um Ward manual if I hear the word data point one more time in my life I may throw up but there’s a lot of data points that they apparent take in to uh uh take in to make their decisions but I’m not sure strength of schedule is one of them because I don’t know how you can go play Clemson last week in the biggest game in the history of the Carolina Clemson rivalry win a game over a team that’s ranked higher than you uh and move up one spot and another team can beat a team that’s not even going to a bowl game and move up two spots or how you can sit there with a straight face and say that the results of this weekend don’t matter I would say a Clemson team that has a potential to be an ACC Champion having a loss on their home field to a team like us that’s a pretty freaking strong data point if you ask me so it’s just frustrating Jack in that I don’t really know what they look at uh we’ve had previous you know committees that said we start with a blank slate every single week and if you start with a blank slate every week and you say okay let’s rank the 12 best teams regardless of record um it’s hard to say like I told you guys on Saturday that we’re not one of them in my mind uh so that part of it is uh is is disappointing that it doesn’t appear they started with a blank slate and I get it they’re going to say well head tohe you know you can’t be ahead of Alabama and Old Miss because you lost to them head to well they had Alabama hit a Tennessee at one point when they both had the same number of losses and Tennessee beat Alabama so I don’t know if that holds up and then it’s just the frustrating and I feel like a basketball coach now because I feel like I see this every year on Mark on selection Sunday before March Madness is like what’s the criteria because last year injuries were clearly a factor because they left Florida State out because of an injury and this year I guess injuries aren’t a factor uh as well or uh on and on and on I mean there’s other things I can get into but don’t need to but that’s just a disappointing thing is there’s a lot of data points that are out there um and if their jobs to truly pick the 12 best teams to sit there and say that we’re uh not even in the top 12 but what are we ranked 15th or whatever we came 14th I don’t know it’s um there’s some really competent people in that room that I know personally but their decision on this one’s a head scratcher and I saw Greg mroy on ESPN last night and he said it like all those teams you’re talking about Alabama ol miss us Miami we all have flaws nobody’s saying that we’re perfect and that we just deserve to be in necessarily I think we do we all have flaws but if you’re looking at who’s the least flawed if you will well if you look at you know who we’ve lost to when we lost to him how we lost to him and who we’ve beaten it’s a pretty strong resume so that’s disappointing and and really really makes me sick for or the players on our team that that don’t have another year here at Carolina I might take a couple days but when when you kind of look at at all the the vagueness of what the committee decides and how they can have one priority one year not one the next does that influence you in any way going forward do you talk with whoever the next ad is about changes if you’re asking is there anything to gain by playing in some of these games that you play out of conference I think it’s something that every not just us but every team needs to look at because clearly you can go through an entire season not beat a ranked team and be in the playoff if you just win so um I think it’s something I’m a competitor I love playing in those games I’m looking forward to playing Virginia Tech and Atlanta next season but the committee made it very clear that they really don’t give a hoot um who you beat just you know don’t lose three times and you’re in even if it means you never beat a ranked opponent not one don’t beat a ranked opponent but just win win the games on your schedule and you’re in they made a pretty strong statement about that absolutely kind of going to some of the players you added you mentioned the wide receiver class a little bit you you know like you said players from all over the country a first year position coach there what was it like for you and Mike putting that class together and what kind of stands out about those wide receivers coming in yeah I think Mike furry has like I said has been amazing he came in on a mission Allen that okay who’s this dude you just hired from Limestone College how can he go recruit in the SEC and he he took that personal and was on a mission he to he sited I think he sited in here when he got hired that there’s no reason why the best receivers in the country shouldn’t come play for the University of South Carolina and he went on a mission to go do that and to be able to go into North Carolina uh South Carolina Pennsylvania to go into PA and beat Penn State for a GU head-to-head or to go into North Carolina and beat uh in state schools for a guy head-to-head and then beat the whole country for some of the players from here in South Carolina you know kudos to to him uh evaluating those guys and then going after them and being able to just develop a relationship with them and then you know you talk about a guy from here in Colombia and in in uh uh Jordan gidron who were recruiting like crazy for the class of 26 and then all of a sudden it comes to me Midway through the season that he may now be in the class of 25 and could be in our team like in two months uh and then to be able to to get that that’s a huge addition for us um I mean I got more tweets or posts on X than I care to remember from disgruntled fans at the birdies for Beamer event which is a great day um because Malik Clark committed to Florida state that day and there was all kinds of talk you should be spending less time playing golf at the golf event more time recruiting and uh and recruiting is going the wrong way and blah blah blah blah blah how do you lose an instate kid well um like Matthew mccon and Dazed and Confused just patience like got patience and we were fine I knew it was a long way until Signing Day and let’s be frank there was a lot of uh today is a tough day for the why do you want to go to South Carolina they’re all going to get fired after the 25 season 24 season crowd which there was a lot of that going on the last season as well and um I knew once we started winning football games all that stuff would take care of itself and you know we continued to recruit uh Malik I went up there the day the the weekend of the the hurricane I went up to Rock Hill and brave the elements to go to Rock Hill High School and see Malik and and I went to Brian’s school that day um Brian row to see him uh as well along with some other guys when I was was up there in in in the Rock Hill Charlotte area that that first off weekend and we just continued to gain momentum with what we were doing on the field and then we were able to bring in that receiving crew and and the rest of the signing class as well but excited about them and then obviously they all want to play for a a great quarterback and they see what we have in Lenoris as well a lot of them know Dante Reno fired up about you know cutter Woods he’s a winner watched him play in the state championship game last year down in Orangeburg and and win that game so I know what he’s about so excited about what we’ve done from an offensive standpoint with those skill positions for sure about the flag planning incident against Clemson kind of what was your initial reaction what are your overall thoughts on it and what was your message to the team afterwards um as far as the initial reaction I’ll be completely honest I did not see it I didn’t know it was happening uh as you guys know when you go to Clemson I think they let the whole stadium run run on the field after the game so I had a hard enough time trying to find my family much less figuring out what the players were doing because you can’t see I mean you’re it’s it’s chaotic down there because you got CL fans running up to you you got Gamecock fans running up to you uh so it’s a that part’s a tough situation we never once talked about it going into the game like hey fellas when we win this football game let’s go plant the flag at the middle of the field we never once said that I’ve never said that as a uh as a coach I know they did it last year I guess we did it the year before up there at Clemson we did it again on Saturday which I did not know and did not see uh until afterwards and then after the game I saw all the things that went on across college football last Saturday that kind of you know it was a black eye on the sport in a lot of ways with some of the stuff that happened postgame pregame uh whatnot I don’t you know like it uh dbo called me on Monday morning I guess Monday or Tuesday morning he called me and we talked about it that you know it’s not what either one of us want and not that anything that either one of us encourage it’s dangerous win the football game uh go celebrate and we had a great conversation about that as well going forward and and kind of how we want to handle things but it’s something that I’ve talked to the team about this week I mean we’ll I’ll talk about it next year when we get ready to play Clemson when they’re coming to Colombia but you know there have been a lot of other things on my mind this week with the team um a little bit more pertinent and pressing than that speaking of the receiver class coming in one of the receivers is len Norris’s brother Jaden sellers um how is there any initial excitement for you for a possible sellers to sellers Connection in the future absolutely probably more so for you guys and the headlines that that you can write as well but now Jaden’s a great player uh you know he’s great family and and really excited about his ability as a wide receiver as well so that’s really cool that uh both brothers are going to be on the team and that one brother is going to be throwing to the other brother and and I I really I really uh I love this aspect effect of it that’s three sets of brothers that we now have on our team and lenorris and jayen uh Ronnie and Rondo Porter and Jaylen and Gerald Kilgore and I think that is just a that makes a huge statement about what this program is about and that you have three brothers that their families Mom Dad whoever felt good enough about the experience that their older son was having that they wanted their younger son to be a part of this program and even if Mom and Dad felt that way if it wasn’t real the older brother would have been like you don’t want to come here like this this isn’t the place for you but they all said no come on and uh that’s what I really uh really am proud of because it says that we are who we are and that that families enjoy the pre the proc or enjoy the experience that their son is having and they want another son to be able to have the same experience also so excited about Jaden and and U him coming and being a part of our program along with Lenor obviously added a bunch of guys along that defensive line today both on the interior and the edge what stands out about each of those guys yeah um that goes what I said at the beginning about you look at when TJ and Tonka and Boogie and we brought in jwes they all decided to come back for another year was okay awesome they’re coming back but then it also hits you in the face that these guys are definitely going to be gone after 24 and that’s a lot of really really good football players rolling out of here really the heart of the defense right there with those three tackles and then the two inside linebackers with d Knight bam and and Debo three all being gone as well so we knew that we needed to um uh really attack those areas without a doubt I don’t think we’re necessarily done there I mean we’re going to continue to um continue to add some pieces there without a doubt along the defensive line uh The Edge position pass rusher defensive tackle but like that group uh without a doubt you know zavon Hardy is a guy that we first started recruiting when I got here and I can remember watching him it was an off week and I spoke in mon Georgia at their touchdown Club on a Monday night and I went over there for the sole purpose of going to watch zavon Hardy at his high school practice and that’s why I spoke in mon that night so I could kind of do both as well then he wasn’t able to get here right out of high school and went to Junior College route and he hung in there with us had a great visit this summer size length you know athleticism Caleb Williams guy that you know everybody in Virginia wanted and awesome family but always enjoyed his experience here as well so both those guys are are bigger guys from a from a height standpoint along with Christian Ingram who’s got great athleticism they’re all bigger bodies compared to you know TJ or excuse me Tonka Boogie as well just from a height standpoint you know they’re built more like I know Zack Pickin more so than they are are Tonka and and boogie in a lot of ways which not that one’s better than the other they’re just different body types but we’re going to need those guys to be ready to go so we wanted to get some you know guys that physically are going to be able to help us pretty early next season because we feel like they’re going to have to just with our depth up on the defensive line right now but being then being able to bring some guys back that are on our team at defensive line right now that’ll be able to return next season it will be really beneficial as well as we we add to that group uh two questions one to go back to the playoff you’re obviously making your National media rounds yesterday talking to those guys or whoever you were talking to what was the sense you had as to where you’d Land versus what the committee ended up deciding on um it’s a good question I mean I’m not going to get up here and knock uh Miss and Alabama and that they should be below us and all that as well I just really felt like if the committee looked at it and said who are the 12 best teams right now it would be hard for them to say that South Carolina not one of them and that we’ve won six straight games four of those were against ranked opponents you know at the time uh that we had won four true Road games three of them by double digits we just beat the number whatever Clemson was last week ranking wise we just beat them in their Stadium I just felt like they would say let’s take a step back and let’s just look at the whole body of work and forget about the records let’s look at the strength of schedule let’s look at who this team has played look at how they’re playing right now let’s look at the fact that some of the injury situations they had and really take a deep breath and have a clean slate and I just thought that we’d be higher than we were and based on the uh text messages that I’ve gotten or phone calls that I’ve gotten today from National media members that are the who’s who of college football in the National media and some coaches I don’t think I was wrong and feeling that way gotcha and other other question kind of guess to go the Silver Lining route was talking to Mike Tyler after he announced his flip today to come to you guys he said he decided after the Missouri game I guess in the six game win streak while didn’t impress the committee enough like how big was that for this signing class and for the future of this program yeah no it was huge there’s no question the success that we had on the field this year um led to the day that we had today because one of the environments in that Stadium like I talked about but just the success that we were having and that we were having big games in November with amazing crowds and and high school guys that we’re recruiting are are seeing that that you know we’re on the college football ranking show on Tuesday nights and we’re college game days here and people are talking about us nationally and our players are winning individual Awards and all that stuff you know so there’s no question and Mike’s a guy that another one right here in Colombia we’ve had some pretty good success with Colombia guys uh that have come here and thrived and think he’ll do the same he’s got you know obviously coach Wheeler They just won a state championship I love winners and they’ve won a lot of state championships in a row over there at Hammond and and Mike’s a great young man I went and watched him play basketball last January and I watched him basically take over a game individually on the basketball court and refuse to lose and and saw that competitive spirit in him and and I was able to go watch uh I think his first game this season I was able to go watch in person and he’s just he’s got size he’s got athletic Siem he can run he’s a great athlete like I said and great family so excited about him and and again that’s another one that we just can kind of continued to stay the course with and and and get on our campus as often as possible and the more you get guys on campus the better chance you have of of getting him and he’s the one that got over here a lot this fall and obviously if we were two and seven I’m not sure he would have been lining up to come see us play football thank you from your recruiting experience when dealing with players who are committed elsewhere and you’re trying to flip them um what are some of the major factors that you that work in changing a a young man’s mind especially one who’s been committed for like months to other programing yeah uh I think Phil that they need to leave the door open potentially like I don’t me personally if I’m recruiting a guy and he commits somewhere else I quit messing with them or shouldn’t say messing quit recruiting them my myself now if the other um assistant coaches they want to continue to stay in contact and the young man says I’m not really sure about this and they leave the door open then that’s a different story but I’m more along the lines feel of okay this guy commits somewhere else and he’s saying he doesn’t want to be here no hard feelings wish him well I’m going to turn my attention to the guys that aren’t committed somewhere that were still recruiting and and and try and get them here as well uh now I say that I mean Alshon Jeffrey committed to Southern Cal in the summertime before his senior year that was a situation that deep down inside I really truly didn’t feel like St Matthews Alshon Jeffrey was best served going to Los Angeles California to play his college football and Alshon alluded to that in so many ways so I continued to stay in contact with them but not to the point where I was you know knocking Southern Cal or telling him all that it was more just continue to just keep a relationship and the lines of communication open and I think when I said a minute ago feel about guys that reached back out to us in the last week or so it wasn’t because we’ve just been hammering them with things it was really just keeping an open and honest line of communication and and and um just being real with them but I think it’s for that to happen it would be you know U zavon hardy zavan hardy was committed to another school for the whole fall well he’s got three younger sisters that are awesome and they spent a lot of time with Boomer my dog this summer and just like I almost offered up Boomer to get Nick Harbor was kind of to that point with with Avon sisters and I know they had a great time here and I think in the end zavon really didn’t want to be that far from home he in Mississippi he was ready to get back closer where his family could see him see him play type thing um Malik Clark I didn’t I wasn’t mad at Malik when he committed to to Florida State but okay Malik’s committed to Florida State I better really pour into you know whoever Jordan gidron whether he’s in this year’s class or next year’s class but just keep the lines of communication open and then if they open the door and say they’re not really sure about it and they want to you know maybe come to a game and things like that then it’s just going back to um why I believe South Carolina would be the best place for him if that answers your question obviously you laid out kind of all the emotions that you felt in the last couple days I guess my question is how do you go about dealing with them I know that there’s a bll game left and I’m not suggesting that you guys should throw your hands up and say okay here’s what we did but to some degree this season was you know you accomplished a lot in terms of what you’ve called out the media didn’t think you were going to do in August things like that when does that sort sort of reflection process start and how do you kind of keep energy momentum positivity going with a bow game left yeah um it’s one thing on Monday Lulu we we we had a team meeting on Monday morning that was our first time getting together as a team after the Clemson game and I told them that look because you just won this game on Saturday that you’ve opened up the possibility of the playoff but there’s no guarantee either we have three losses and unfortunately we’ve it in someone else’s hands but I said one thing that I know that we’re going to do is we’re going to respond the right way and no matter what they say that here’s your next opponent whether it’s a bowl game or a playoff game a core value of our program is to compete and we’re going to go compete and we’re going to do we’re going to handle it the right way you know there was a there’s some examples last season of teams that dealt with disappointment and handled it the right way and handled it the wrong way and we talked about being the team that handles it the right way because it’s another opportunity to compete and then obviously this morning we met again we weren’t going to the schedule today was going to be the players come in and the first thing they had was a special teams meeting and then we went to offense defense meetings in practice but as soon as that news came out last night I immediately said we’re meeting as a team at 8: a.m tomorrow like we’re not going to they’re going to hear from me before they hear from anybody on Wednesday morning and and I’m not going to lie I mean there was a lot of hurt and just shock and confusion in that room next door when we met at 8:00 but we talked about the same thing that we talked about on Monday and then we talked about you know what um it’s still uh mindboggling to me that there that the com the chairman said last night that nothing is going to change this weekend regardless of the the championship games I mean that’s just what a statement to make when you may have just be when you just beat the potential conference champion on their home field that nothing would change a data point I don’t understand that and I don’t think our players do either and it’s my job as the leader to try and give them some when there’s confusion give some clarity and that’s what I tried to do this morning is there’s a lot of things I don’t understand I’m hurt just like you guys are but we got another opportunity to compete and if that’s not in a playoff game it’s going to be in a great bowl game somewhere great bowl game and that we’re a very attractive team to a lot of bowl games and we’ve got the opportunity to go win 10 games which only has been done here four times since 1892 and to send these guys out the right way so that’s what we talked about is there was some uh there was some doubt today last night about how good this team is we get an opportunity to go compete again and leave no doubt about what kind of football team we are so we’ll see kind of going off of Noah’s question earlier what is when when you look at this year compared to other years just how much different has recruiting been this season based on the way you guys have performed and you know obviously what can this year do for the future of recruiting with the success you guys have had yeah um it’s been I mean let’s be real if you’re winning on the field it makes everything better it makes life better when you’re winning and y’all heard me talk about it on Monday nights during the season we take an hour as a coaching staff and we just stop everything that we’re doing and we just get in the staff room and just FaceTime recruits for an hour straight and there’s a lot more energy and excitement when you’re doing that at when when you’re nationally ranked as opposed to when you’re two and six and just got beat by A&M and you got Vandy or Jacksonville State or whoever we had coming to town there was just a lot of excitement inside this building and outside this building and energy about South Carolina football this season and it’s why we were able to keep this group of guys together that were committed before the season it’s why some of these guys that weren’t committed before the season decided they wanted to be Gamecocks it’s why some people that maybe didn’t think we were going to have the year that we had all of a sudden this week are calling us saying hey what’s coach like you know we love you um you really didn’t you didn’t think we were going to win this year and that’s why you committed somewhere else so don’t be calling on us now uh as well so there’s a lot of energy and excitement and that will only continue to to move us forward this is a popular place to be um you know last year at this time there was it was trying to keep your roster intact and we are still are to a certain degree I’m not an idiot I know we got a lot of players on our team that are very attractive to a lot of other colleges in across the country but last year it was more trying to keep your roster intact and this year it’s those guys want to stay here because of what’s coming and now they’ve got high school kids that want to come play with them and they’ve got guys at other colleges that are now hitting them up meaning our players about how much they want to come play football at South Carolina from other colleges and that’s different than a year ago and it goes back to the success that we had on the field no question about it and then just being who we say we are as well I think uh with a lot of these guys jack and then some other guys that were still out there recruiting I think nowadays in college football with nil and and portal there’s a lot of things that are maybe Sid to players during the recruiting process but as it gets closer to Signing Day players realize that maybe that’s not real and that’s not true and we’ve just been a group that we’re honest we we tell you something we’re going to do it and we’re not going to tell you one thing and do another and we are who we say we are we’re going to treat you the right way and that’s not going to change sorry that two things one to clarify Lulu’s thing the way you were talking you it sounds like you expect very few if any people to opt out of the Bull game um I would hope that would be the case no one has told me they’re going to have I had some conversations with some guys on our team just kind of where they are uh and what their thought process is sure and we’ve got some guys are going to be some high draft picks but I do I will say this the players on this team are extremely motivated to try and go get a 10th win and uh that’s really important to a lot of guys and I’ve had players on the team that have come and talk to me about hey what do you think and what’s your opinion in regards to my status for the bowl game but nobody’s told me they’re going to opt out I hope they don’t but everybody has you know some guys have a decision to make as well but like I told them there’s nothing that you have to decide right now let’s see what happens Sunday let’s see where we’re going who we’re playing and and we got plenty of time to make those decisions and secondly is is there any sort of correlation between the guys you did or didn’t get today and what your priorities will be in the portal I I think you kind of look at offensive lineman you didn’t get very many today does that mean you’ll attack the portal things like that yeah I would say um you can you guys can look at our roster and say okay where did they not sign someone that’s going to be an answer where are they thin from a depth standpoint that would be an answer so my job and I’ve told our players this like my job as the head coach is to always do what’s best for the South Carolina football program and to increase the competition at every single position and this year’s no difference I don’t know if there’s a position out there Jordan that I would say um we don’t want that guy from the portal if he can help us are there positions that are our higher priority yes uh no question about it but um but we’re always we’re looking it everywhere to be able to try and make our team better as long as they fit what we’re about on and off the field do forfill today uh I survived the first one now I’m nervous I hate to ask you this question here we go but I have to um obviously you know you’ve worked your tail off to get to where you are and uh you you’ve caught up with Clemson you know you’re two and two you’ve caught up with them and you’ve had a great year this year you beat them up there but as fate would have it you are where you are theoretically they could be in the playoffs they could play for a national championship I’m wondering like I know you and Deo are are close friends but just like does that just eat away at you not not from a jealousy standpoint just from the standpoint of how hard you’ve worked to get to where you are you feel like you should be in they could go get a third ring yeah um we won the game that’s what matters to me you know happy for them they’re in the ACC they get an opportunity to go play for a championship and and that’s great so there’s probably I don’t know there may be guys on Clemson’s team that are wish they were in our shoes and they had just won the game against us and there’s probably guys on their team that wish they were in their shoes that they get to go play for a conference Championship this week you know and I think to each their own but wish them well they’re in a different conference we’re in the SEC we did what we needed to do in the SEC and and uh finished what tied for fourth I think tied for third something like that in the SEC so proud of what we accomplished on the field and and you know they may be ACC Champs were state champs and you know both teams can be happy with their what comes next in the postseason and and um you know it kind of is what it is got a lot of guys who are getting ready to try to play for state championships in high school we just signed today yeah um normally I’m be able to come in here and talk about the number of state championships that we have and I can’t do that because a lot of these guys are still playing you’re right sorry I didn’t mean to hijack your question no it’s okay uh what just with those guys individually you mentioned cutter but like Josh Smith uh Addison some of those guys who are like said getting ready to play for those games what do if you could just share a couple thoughts on on some of those inate guys that are yeah still playing no I think um they they’ve they they’ve all got really really good teams I like being able to um bring in guys in our program that are that have high expectations and are used to winning and when you’re able to do that it it it it makes your overall C culture better in my opinion because they’re used to competing for championships and all these guys that you’re talking about whether you’re talking about Josh over at Dutch Fork or or with Coach knots or ant uh over at at sumur with Coach Barnes or Cutter up at uh Westside with Coach Lane I mean those are great programs that they do it the right way and I was able to during the second off week I was able to um uh go spend some time at cutter school on Friday before they left to go play somebody and just watching how they coach and how they prepare you see why they’re successful and you see why cutter is successful as an individual you see why their team is also and to be able to get guys like that that just you know I’m always about hell getting guys in here that love football and love to compete and those guys do along with a lot of these guys that are still U that are still playing in the playoffs um I know that you directly said that you called Demetrius Knight’s coach and he said something that it’s kind of rare to hear which is he’s like my favorite player ever but I’m guess in a general sense how do you recruit players like Demetrius Knight how do you kind of find those people in these kind of limited conversations and with other people that in some ways kind of you have to buy in or believe what you’re hearing but you’re investing in a lot of who they are off the field and clearly it worked out for so many transfers this year yeah it’s it’s tough because all these guys that we just signed we’ve been recruiting for multiple years I mean I can remember Mike Tyler coming over here in December of 2022 for Gator Bowl practices to watch us practice over there in the indoor I mean I still got a picture on my phone of me and him together two years ago so a lot of these guys we’ve been recruiting for a while now whereas these and you get to know everything about them but you don’t still don’t know everything the portal guys you have about 24 hours maybe to figure out what kind of guy he is does he fit what you want so guy goes in the portal we’ve got a great you know recruiting department personnel Department back there that immediately see a guy that goes in the portal they start watching his tape show it to the position coach show it to the coordinators hey what do you think yes like him let’s see if we can get him here uh on a visit then you get on the phone with him find out more about him are you interested and and talk to the people around him maybe it’s calling the coach of the college that he’s coming from maybe it’s call that you have a relationship with or calling the High School coach or or whoever that may have been around them and then just you get them on a visit and really the visit it’s I think a lot of those portal visits Lulu are more like NFL like free agent type visits like both sides are trying to like figure out each other and we had guys in on Portal visits last season that we brought in because we liked them as a player but then once they got here we’re like I don’t know if he’s going to be what we’re about and you just have those conversations that I’m not sure this is going to be the right fit and you kind of move on going so that’s what it is you just dig into them as much as you can and call as many people that know the person as that that you can that that you can trust as well and you’re referring to Jeff uh Collins and I’ve worked for Jeff I worked with Jeff and Clayton’s worked with Jeff and we had a trust Factor you know with him as well and and that’s the main thing and we’re not perfect as I’ve alluded to before we’ve had some guys that we brought in in January that aren’t even here still they left during the season or before the season uh so we’re not perfect but that’s it but we’re in the same boat as as everyone and that’s the other thing too making sure when I talked to when I answered Phil’s question about when guys decided to go elsewhere when when zavon initially committed to another school or Malik initially committed to another school uh it wasn’t um get on the phone with them and rip them a new one about the mistake they’re making it’s handling things with class and and doing things the right way because you never know how things are going to turn out a guy may be in a portal a year later and and you want to make sure that um you you guys you handle things the right way if they don’t come to your school and it’s the same and you see that with portal guys that maybe a guy goes on the portal that you recruited out of high school and you already know a lot of those answers to the questions that you have couple of personnel things um do you know you may not know yet do you know if any of these guys are going to be on campus early en roles for uh Bowl practice go we we’re working to try and get as many of them here for it as we can that’s something that we started working on about two or three weeks ago that knowing that we were going to be in a bowl game and we wanted to get some guys here it’s they’re able to do it it’s just a matter of them being able to get everything done paperwork wise and academically at their high schools and then the guidance counselors being able to do what they need to do so it’s something that we started the process of uh two or three weeks ago John we may have 15 here for a week of practice we may have zero it just kind of depends on how quickly they’re able to to get things done but we’d like to be able to get as many guys here for it as we can and and out of curiosity with with Josh Simon going into the Clemson game you didn’t say much about about his injury and what was he able to do throughout the week he played most of the snaps was he uh about as effective as you thought he could be and also you mentioned Brady hunt might be able to come back for a balll game do you think that may happen yeah uh I we’ll see on Brady he’s still not doing anything right now and don’t expect him to do anything this week or next but we’ll see as we get in to closer to the to the Bowl game Josh and Mike Smith both they were able to do a decent amount in practice last week um you know credit to Clint Haggard and both those guys for being able to get ready to play for sure um I felt was he 100% no but he wasn’t about to miss the Clemson game meaning Josh and and Mike so they were uh they were somewhat Limited in practice last week they didn’t do they did they did pretty much everything on Tuesday and Wednesday that they could Mike even more so than than Josh Thursday of uh Clemson week Josh didn’t do much that was the best thing for him physically to be ready to go on Saturday and then Mike did about everything so both those guys are really tough guys and we were able to do the things that we needed to in that game you know Josh did some really good stuff I mean the throw to Nick Harbor on Clemson sideline that was a great Blitz pickup by Josh uh they brought some pressure and Josh did a great job sitting in the pocket and picking the Blitzer up and allowing lenorris to to make a throw so proud of the game that he played and eager to see him be even healthier for our next game as well back to Cutter Woods earlier you talked about him being a winner and you had a bunch of things that you liked about him what are some of those things what stood out to you and the coaching staff about him during the recruiting process uh he’s a great young man he um you know he’s one that we knew we needed to sign a quarterback and we were honest with him throughout the process kind of where we are from where we were from a recruiting standpoint at the quarterback position uh like I said I watched him play in the state championship game last year done South Carolina state and saw him win a state championship and how he how his team rallied around him and responded to him as a quarterback and a leader he’s just got that it Factor if you will and then we had him down here this summer some and and uh offered him a scholarship I remember talking to him on the phone he was at his team went up to Virginia Tech for a seven on seven camp and he had just recently I guess the day or two before had been in Colombia and we decided we wanted to offer him and I was actually um I remember calling him from Kwa and he was on the bus on the way back from uh Virginia Tech back home to Anderson and talked to him on the phone when I was down at the beach and offered him a scholarship and here’s why we haven’t yet but here’s why we are and it wasn’t knocking Wake Forest or anything it was just talking about you know what you can do here and why we’re offering you and he’s just a winner he’s a football junkie um he I talked to him last week I think on Thanksgiving and he was telling me how he was going to spend Thanksgiving with his family then he was going over to his coach’s house on Thursday night Thanksgiving to watch tape of their opponent last week I mean that’s just the who he is and loves football loves to compete I like a lot of these guys I don’t want to low maintenance may not be the word bless you may not be the word but they’re not caught up in the hoopla of recruiting in a lot of ways and they very easily could be and cutter I think he just wants to hunt fish and play football and I like I like those kind of guys for sure no Clemson questions like nobody wants to talk about the game no no we’re good we’ve been going for 49 minutes I feel like it’s my opening press conference when I got hired in here things trying to wear me out I will we got a staff meeting in 10 minutes so thank y’all
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