Shane Beamer says Clemson defense has guys who will play in NFL a long time

South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer sees a bunch of future NFL vets on the Clemson defense.

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Sun Nov 26 07:00:05 GMT-04:00 2023

COLUMBIA – South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer said the story of Saturday’s rivalry loss to Clemson was simple: the Tigers’ defense was the best unit on the field.

Clemson defeated South Carolina 16-7 in Williams-Brice Stadium. The Tigers will now await where they are headed for a bowl game, while South Carolina’s season ends with a 5-7 record.

Against the Tigers, the Gamecocks’ offense could only muster 169 total yards, with 112 coming through the air and 57 on the ground. Quarterback Spencer Rattler completed 16-of-32 passes for 112 yards while wide receiver Xavier Legette caught six passes for 68 yards. Running back Mario Anderson tallied 35 yards on 13 rushes. The points, total yards, and passing yards were all season-lows for the Gamecocks.

"First of all, congratulations to Clemson," Beamer said. "Told Dabo after the game, and it is true, heck of a performance by those guys to be able to come into this environment at night and come out with a win. Gutty performance by those guys. Really disappointing performance by us tonight. Knew the turnover battle was going to be critical in this game. Dabo will tell you, that has kind of been the story of their season and the story of our season, as well. Two turnovers in the first three plays of the game. About the worst possible start you can have.

"Proud of our guys for the way they responded to the adversity early in the game, coming back and tying it up. Really disappointing. Offensively, they had three field goals. Last year, we gave them seven points and really gave them nine points with the pick-six and the safety last year. This year, we give them seven as well. Defensively, we played well enough to win. Held them to field goals. Weren't able to create as many takeaways that we would like."

Beamer said Clemson’s defense put pressure on Rattler.

"I think you give credit to Clemson and their defense. 54 (Jeremiah Trotter Jr.) is going to play in the NFL long time. 0 (Barrett Carter) is going to play in the NFL for a long time. 13 (Tyler Davis) is going to play in the NFL for a long time,” Beamer said. “The two true freshmen that just got to town are going to be here for a couple more years, and they are going to play in the NFL for a long time. It is a really good front. We didn't do a good job of protecting, to say the least. Give them credit, they do what they do defensively. They are going to get up in your face and pressure you and play man coverage. That is basically what they did tonight.

“They are going to mix in a little bit of quarters every now and then, as well. I don't know. He (Rattler) was certainly under duress, and we didn't do a good job of giving him time. He would be the first to tell you he would like to have some throws back. Also, we had been challenging our guys, our receivers, tight ends and running backs all week that because of the way that Clemson plays defense, there are going to be a lot of opportunities for competitive catches where the ball is there and it is bang-bang play, and we have to make them. It looked like they made a lot more of the competitive plays at defensive back against our pass catchers tonight than we made the catches. We have to help Spencer out, too, when we have opportunities to make plays."