Everything Shane Beamer said about Mike Shula, Gamecocks offense on Sunday
After evaluating anything, was there any change in staff or staff responsibility after last night?"No."What was your evaluation of how things went with coach Shula and how he called the game yesterday?"Obviously, we didn't score enough points. But I see, like any game, there are calls that you would lke to have back. Clayton White had some calls that he'd like to have back. Joe D had some calls that he'd like to have back. Myself as the head coach had some. I'm sure Mike had some also. But at the same time, what we called, we have to go execute. Give them credit. They made some nice plays against us, and won some battles, 1-on-1 battles, whether it be on the perimeter or up front. We've got to continue to win our battles. But it wasn't good enough. None of us were. But I also know what was being called. There are plays there to be made. We've got SEC football players too and we've got to make them."How does Shula handle the criticism? There were some pretty audible chants yesterday during the game and plenty of chatter outside the building. How have you seen him handle things?"I think he's been great. I think he's been the same way that he's been since Day 1. Look man, the guy was the head coach at Alabama, so he's dealt with scrutiny before. He grew up the son of the winningest coach in football history. He's dealt with scrutiny before. He called plays in the NFL for a long time. He called plays for an offense that went 15-1 and went to the Super Bowl and lost, so this isn't his first rodeo. He's a true pro and will be the first to tell you that it's not good enough right now. I see the guy who comes in here and is the same guy each and every day and is working his rear end off to try and make us better, along with the rest of the staff."Are there points in the game where Mike or anyone makes a call and you maybe disagree with and overrule it? How often does that happen during a game?"I try not to interrupt the flow of the game, in regard to what they're calling and why. I'm on the headphones with the offense, defense and special teams. And I don't know if there's ever a call that's made where I say, 'No," as it's being made. It's hard to get the next call in and you risk delay of games, personnel groupings that you've got to get into the game. But certainly, between series, communicating with all coaches and during the series, I'm communicating with coaches. Whether it's, you've got four downs to get this and I'd like to make sure we do x, y, z over these next four plays, or whatever may be."On how to make sure the ball is getting out quicker by the quarterback…"It's a challenge when you have six starting offensive linemen that are not playing yesterday. There's – other than just catching the ball and telling LaNorris to throw it in a half second. There's really not a whole lot you can do, so we try and get the ball out of their hands quickly. We tried to max protect some yesterday and we got beat inside on a max protection. Max protection meaning we were blocking with eight people. A guy didn't stay down in his gap, and we allowed penetration. The fourth-down on the first drive, we communicated an adjustment in protection that one person missed, and we turned a linebacker free, when it shouldn't have been free. We tried to mix up what we were doing, like I told you guys in the press conference yesterday, with some of the jet-sweeps and perimeter throws, quarterback throws. We tried to do a lot of things yesterday. But regardless of whether we've got guys hurt or not, we've got SEC offensive linemen, and we've got confidence in them. We went against a good defense yesterday and got our butts kicked way too many times. We've got to be better and continue to look at how we can help those guys – one, get healthy. Two, schematically, there are ways to help these guys, which we try and do each and every week. You go back and watch the Texas game against Oklahoma, they weren't exactly ripping and roaring up and down the field. … They had some negative yardage runs, meaning Texas, but they just kind of kept staying at it, so they popped a couple late in the game. we popped one on the fourth-down where I went for it at midfield and just didn't do enough of it. when you get yourself in long-yardage siatuations like we were yesterday, you're asking for trouble, because it's third-down and they can eat you up, do what they do best."How to deal with the OL injuries. Do you shrink the playbook or do anything else?"You start looking at bodies and figuring out how to practice the way that you want to practice, it's a challenge, but it's something that all of us as coaches have to figure out. Every school in America, they're cutting roster sizes, and you can't replace guys in the season, which makes zero sense to me, so it's one of those things – when you lose guys to injuries, it affects everyone, not just their side of the ball, but the team. That's something that we're struggling with right now. We're not having to shrink the playbook, as much as it is just trying to figure out how to be a team that continues to get better during practice, like we've always been here, since I've been here at Carolina, a team that gets better as the year goes. That's how we practice, but we've got to tweak how we do things in practice, which is the biggest challenge."How to deal with the OL injuries. Do you shrink the playbook or do anything else?"You start looking at bodies and figuring out how to practice the way that you want to practice, it's a challenge, but it's something that all of us as coaches have to figure out. Every school in America, they're cutting roster sizes, and you can't replace guys in the season, which makes zero sense to me, so it's one of those things – when you lose guys to injuries, it affects everyone, not just their side of the ball, but the team. That's something that we're struggling with right now. We're not having to shrink the playbook, as much as it is just trying to figure out how to be a team that continues to get better during practice, like we've always been here, since I've been here at Carolina, a team that gets better as the year goes. That's how we practice, but we've got to tweak how we do things in practice, which is the biggest challenge."How much do you guys practice or have in your playbook, a quarterback sneak or tush push type of thing?"We have it. We practice it every week."
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