After a win against Florida as 20-point underdogs Saturday night, South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer said he wants the Gamecocks to focus only on their next game at Missouri.
Beamer praised for the Missouri defense and “explosive” senior running back Tyler Badie, at his weekly press conference, saying that his team needs to keep improving heading into the matchup.
“Obviously great night the other night against Florida but that’s over, it's behind us,” Beamer said. “So, challenge this week to make sure that we’re not comfortable by any stretch of the imagination, we’ve got to continue climbing and continue getting better.”
Redshirt senior quarterback Jason Brown made his first career start at South Carolina and played a large role in the team’s fifth win of the year. Beamer said he loves Brown’s work ethic and how well he was able to understand and efficiently operate the offense.
The plan is to have Brown start this week according to Beamer. However, graduate quarterback Zeb Noland will also be available to play following a meniscus injury.
“He’s prepared to be the starting quarterback ever since the Eastern Illinois game,” Beamer said. “Because of that, he kept getting better and better and better mentally and physically each week and it showed on Saturday night.”
Now sitting at 5-4, South Carolina is one win away from becoming bowl-eligible. Beamer said he wants team interest to remain on the next game up.
“We addressed it this morning in the team meeting just because it’d be naïve for me to think that they’re not talking about it,” Beamer said. “Every time you think about getting bowl eligible, stop, and just think about at that moment what you got to do to play your very best against Missouri.”
Several players spoke about how they share their head coach’s focus and are putting a potential bowl game on the back burner.
“We know if we win this next game it’s a bowl game, but we’re focused on winning these next three games and then focus on the bowl game later,” redshirt freshman running back Marshawn Lloyd said. “Last week we had a board and it said ... 'Compete every day.' And this week on the board, they changed it, it says 'Compete harder.'”
Fifth-year tight end Nick Muse echoed his teammate’s thoughts.
“I’m not really looking forward to bowl eligibility, I’m looking forward to being 8-4 when we go to a bowl game,” Muse said. “We’re not trying to get to 6-6 and make a bowl game, we’re trying to get to 8-4, make a bowl game, win it, and be ranked next year.”