South Carolina defeated Vanderbilt to become bowl eligible.
South Carolina football coach Shane Beamer expressed his frustrations to the media after his team’s victory over Vanderbilt on Saturday. He specifically called out a Clemson beat writer for negative coverage of the Gamecocks’ football program.
Beamer’s remarks were directed at a Clemson football reporter about a past article from The State news outlet that he found particularly problematic. Although the reporter he addressed worked for the same publication, he was not the one Beamer was upset with.
“Yeah, we just keep improving, and that’s what we’ve done since last season,” Beamer said, according to On3. “I think back to last year, and this isn’t a jab at you, Jordan, because I really like you, but your paper can be a bit of a struggle. Last year, when we played Vanderbilt, you all published one of the most absurd articles I’ve ever seen in journalism, written by the Clemson beat writer, criticizing how low South Carolina’s program had sunk in 2023 because we weren’t favored by a larger margin against Vanderbilt.”
South Carolina won the game against Vanderbilt 28-7 and improved to 6-3 on the season.
South Carolina’s Shane Beamer didn’t hold back his feelings
Beamer was frustrated that South Carolina was portrayed in a 2023 article as having declined to such an extent that they were only slightly favored to beat Vanderbilt. It’s clear that the coach had been thinking about that article for the past year.
“That might be one of the most embarrassing pieces of journalism I’ve ever read, suggesting this team has regressed in 2023 simply because they aren’t favored by a larger margin against Vanderbilt,” he said. “In 2022, they were favored by a certain amount, but now they’re not, so suddenly, they’ve fallen as a program. That’s just amateurish reporting on that writer’s part. No offense to you.”
South Carolina football has clearly demonstrated this season that they are not a bad team. The Gamecocks recorded an impressive victory over the Commodores, amassing 452 yards of offense while achieving 25 first downs and averaging 7.2 yards per play. Anyone watching this season would not consider them a poor football team.
“But I’m proud of how far we’ve come from a program that supposedly fell so hard last year when we faced Vanderbilt. We still have a lot of work ahead, but we’ve made significant progress since then,” Beamer stated in his postgame press conference, taking aim once again at the negative media coverage.
With the victory over Vanderbilt, South Carolina has become bowl eligible. The Gamecocks will next face Missouri on Saturday.
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