The No. 13 South Carolina football team got the job done in the fourth quarter against Virginia Tech on Sunday night, but the Gamecocks did not look the part of a nationally ranked team for the first three quarters of the game.
Offensively, the Gamecocks played through eight drives in the first three quarters. Those drives resulted in a touchdown, a field goal, five punts and a safety. South Carolina was 3-9 (33%) on third down in that time span, redshirt sophomore quarterback LaNorris Sellers had been sacked four times already and the Gamecocks committed seven penalties as a team, giving up 46 yards.
Despite the offensive frustrations, South Carolina never once trailed on Sunday night against the Hokies. The South Carolina defense allowed 336 total yards of offense, but only 9 points not including the safety.
Head coach Shane Beamer commended his defense for its effort on Sunday night, especially with so many new faces coming together and battling adversity, including the loss of junior defensive back Judge Collier early in the game.
"I was proud of them. They battled," Beamer said. "Obviously losing Judge was a tough loss so early in the game, but we have depth. I've been saying it all along, that particularly at linebacker and defensive back, we have more depth than we had last year."
The Gamecocks defense was backed into the RedZone multiple times, but still didn't allow a score. The second drive of the game for the Hokies included a pair of big completions, and Virginia Tech drove 70 yards in just 2:18. It looked like the Hokies had momentum, but then the pressure came. Redshirt senior Kyron Drones threw a pair of incomplete passes, and while being chased by the pass rush on 3rd & 10, lofted a ball into the hands of sophomore linebacker Fred "JayR" Johnson.
Later in the first quarter, the Hokies drove 59 yards in 2:32. Graduate wide receiver Donovan Greene broke free into open field, and a late hit by redshirt junior Peyton Williams led to another Red Zone chance for the Hokies. On first down, the Gamecocks stopped the run for a short gain, and consecutive incompletions suddenly had the Hokies in fourth down, kicking a field goal.
The defense had another late stand in the fourth quarter while the Hokies were in the midst of a 4:31 long drive. Virginia Tech tried to continue chipping away, and got a break when Drones found junior wide receiver Isaiah Spencer deep one-on-one for the difficult catch. Well inside field goal territory, the Gamecocks was able to stop consecutive runs from Drones and hold the Hokies to another field goal.
With so many questions about the defense going into the season after losing so much talent to the NFL and graduation, the Gamecock defense made a statement that it could perform in the same stride as last year's unit.
"I feel like with them saying that we lost a lot of players and just questioning what we had on defense, I feel like they found out today for sure," Johnson said. "Yeah, it's not the old team."
Despite the defense picking up the offense's slack for much of the game, the offense was still looking for something to give the game some energy. Luckily, with the history of South Carolina, Virginia Tech and the Beamer family, there was always a chance for some "Beamer Ball" to pull the Gamecocks ahead.
"Beamer Ball" was a phrase originally used to describe Frank Beamer's teams at Virginia Tech and has since carried to his son Shane's teams at South Carolina. The phrase is used to describe elite special teams play, as the father-son duo both pride themselves on the importance of special teams.
In this game, "Beamer Ball" came in the form of redshirt sophomore defensive back Vicari Swain, who took a punt 80 yards to the end zone to give the Gamecocks, and the stadium, much needed life. The return wouldn't have happened if Beamer had decided to decline the penalty, because South Carolina was getting the ball anyway. Beamer decided to have Virginia Tech punt again, liking the matchup.
"We really felt like we had an advantage on when they punt the football with our people out there," Beamer said.
Swain said he was surprised Beamer opted to kick again, but he had trust in his coach and his teammates.
"I was kind of surprised when he wanted to re-kick, but when I (saw) they were back up, the ball was going to be kicked deep," Swain said. "I trusted my guys up front to make the blocks. So, (I) just made it happen."
This trust between Beamer and the team is what put the Gamecocks ahead, and it was fitting that it was a special teams score that helped South Carolina get momentum and get the job done. Beamer said it was a neat moment with his father and the rest of his family in the stadium.
"If you could have scripted it, you would have scripted it like that," Beamer said. "To score on special teams was pretty special without a doubt, especially playing Virginia Tech and with them being here."