Gamecocks humbled by Georgia 48-7 quotes, videos and more
Sept. 17, 2022, ALL VIDEOS COURTESY OF USC SPORTS MEDIA OUTLET
“I want to apologize to our fans,” Beamer said postgame. “We challenged them in the press conference during the week to show up and they did. ... They were fantastic. Sorry, we didn’t coach better and play better for them.”
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2H2mwTg98-A
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gog1nVQM0Yk
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QOnZcvKPkw
Down five starters on defense, the Gamecocks were sliced and diced by the defending national champions en route to the worst loss in the history of the South Carolina-Georgia series outdoing a previous low-point that dated back to a 40-0 Georgia win in the teams’ first ever meeting in 1894. Sixth-year senior Georgia quarterback Stetson Bennett operated with the surgical efficiency befitting of a player who’s spent enough time in college to earn a Ph.D. He finished the first half 13 of 20 for 166 yards and a score, guiding the Bulldogs to a 24-0 halftime lead.
Georgia do-it-all tight end/cyborg Brock Bowers backed up the Bulldogs’ signal-caller with a trio of touchdowns over the first 35 minutes of the contest. Bowers’ first score of the afternoon came on a 6-yard pop pass from Bennett that he curled around the right side of the South Carolina defense to pay dirt. With toe-tapping grab in the back left corner of the end zone for a 6-yard score that most any 6-foot-4, 230-pounder ought not to be able to complete.
Those brave few South Carolina fans who soldiered on into Saturday’s second half were rewarded with Bowers’ third touchdown of the day. Bowers put the finishing touches on Georgia’s throttling with a 78-yard reception over the middle from Bennett, dipping and dodging his way past the beat-up Gamecock secondary on the Bulldogs’ third play of the third quarter.
Where the Gamecock's defense struggled to coalesce without the bulk of its starters, the offense looked the part of its anemic 2021 self against a Bulldogs defense that has now allowed just 10 points in three games this year. Quarterback Spencer Rattler tossed a pair of interceptions to sink what little momentum the Gamecocks had in the first and third quarters. Rattler finished the second home loss of his college career with just 125 yards on 13-of-25 passing.
Receiver Antwane “Juice” Wells who exploded for 189 yards and one touchdown a week ago at Arkansas saw just two targets and zero catches through the first three quarters. South Carolina was out-gained in those frames 472-197. Backup quarterback Luke Doty gave the smattering of fans who remained by the game’s end a reason to cheer when he connected with tight end Traevon Kenion with under a minute to go for South Carolina’s only score of the game. “That’s probably the best defense in the country,” Rattler said. “They put us in some bad situations.”
BEAMERS' OPENING STATEMENT: “Obviously not a lot that went well today. We’ve just told the team in there we’re not playing well. We’re not playing our best football right now. And that starts with me as a football coach. I obviously did a horse-crap job of getting our team ready to play today, regardless of how many guys we had out. We had a good enough team to go out there and compete better than we did today. And we didn’t do it. We’re going to get right. We’re a fourth of the way through the season. We’ve played three games. We’ve got to get better. We’ve got to get right back to work and continue to find a way to play winning football.”
BEAMER ON INJURIES: “Devonni Reed hurt his hip. He’s getting an X-ray right now. We’ll see what the results are of that. We lost Darius Rush during the game to a hamstring injury. We’ll see what the MRI looks like on that. And then Stone Blanton went out with a shoulder. So clearly, we’ve got to get better and we’ve got to get healthy.”
ON ATMOSPHERE: “I want to apologize to our fans that were out there today. That was a poor performance, to say the least. We challenged them in the press conference during the week to show up, and they did. It was an unbelievable atmosphere throughout the game for a noon kickoff. That was awesome. The walk was great. The atmosphere pregame was great, and they were fantastic. Sorry, we didn’t coach better and play better for them. Obviously, not a lot went well today.”
ON THIRD-DOWN PLAY/CALLING FOR RUN PLAYS: “A lot of those, I told (Marcus Satterfield) on the headphones, ‘We’re gonna go for it on fourth down.’ So you got two downs here. And then a couple of them we lost yardage, so we ended up punting. But obviously, we’ve got to look at that, ‘OK, it is two downs and we’re gonna go forward on fourth down. Let’s be smart about what we’re calling as well.” “... Certainly, we gotta be better on third down than we were ... 4 of 13, not good enough. But that, to me, was what that was, if we ran the ball in a medium situation.”
ON TURNOVER BATTLE: “Last year we were not very good offensively. We were last in the SEC in turning the ball over. We’re certainly on pace to do that again this year. So whatever we’re doing, clearly we got to do a better job of emphasizing it. And then defensively last year, we led the SEC and takeaways. And right now, we got one in three games. ... So we’ve got to go back to work on the practice field. And not that we don’t emphasize that already. We’re doing a lot of the same things we were last year defensively to emphasize turnovers. We’ve just got to continue to fly to the ball.”
WORTH A LOOK: South Carolina punter Kai Kroger recorded the third completion of his career when he connected for a 20-yard pass to Traevon Kenion on a fake punt in Saturday’s first quarter. Kroeger previously threw a touchdown pass to Payton Mangrum in last year’s loss at Tennessee on a fake punt.
ANY GIVE-UP ON THE TEAM: “Hell no. ... We’re 1-2. We’ve got a bunch of fighters in that room. ‘Give up?’ That’s not a part of this football program.
KEY STATS 2: Spencer Rattler tossed a pair of interceptions in Saturday’s loss, his second multi-pick game at South Carolina
Sept. 17, 2022, ALL VIDEOS COURTESY OF USC SPORTS MEDIA OUTLET
BOX SCORE / BOX SCORE (PDF) / 2022 SEASON STATS / GAME NOTES / COACH BEAMER QUOTES / GEORGIA QUOTES / SC PLAYER QUOTES
Georgia AT South Carolina (3 - 0 - 0, 1 - 0 - 0)(1 - 2 - 0, 0 - 2 - 0)
| 1ST QUARTER | 2ND QUARTER | 3RD QUARTER | 4TH QUARTER | TOTAL | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Georgia | 14 | 10 | 21 | 3 | 48 |
| South Carolina | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 7 |
| GEORGIA | SOUTH CAROLINA | |
|---|---|---|
| Total Offense | ||
| Yards | 547 | 306 |
| Plays | 65 | 64 |
| Avg. Per Play | 8.41 | 4.78 |
| TDs | 6 | 1 |
“I want to apologize to our fans,” Beamer said postgame. “We challenged them in the press conference during the week to show up and they did. ... They were fantastic. Sorry, we didn’t coach better and play better for them.”
Georgia do-it-all tight end/cyborg Brock Bowers backed up the Bulldogs’ signal-caller with a trio of touchdowns over the first 35 minutes of the contest. Bowers’ first score of the afternoon came on a 6-yard pop pass from Bennett that he curled around the right side of the South Carolina defense to pay dirt. With toe-tapping grab in the back left corner of the end zone for a 6-yard score that most any 6-foot-4, 230-pounder ought not to be able to complete.
Those brave few South Carolina fans who soldiered on into Saturday’s second half were rewarded with Bowers’ third touchdown of the day. Bowers put the finishing touches on Georgia’s throttling with a 78-yard reception over the middle from Bennett, dipping and dodging his way past the beat-up Gamecock secondary on the Bulldogs’ third play of the third quarter.
Where the Gamecock's defense struggled to coalesce without the bulk of its starters, the offense looked the part of its anemic 2021 self against a Bulldogs defense that has now allowed just 10 points in three games this year. Quarterback Spencer Rattler tossed a pair of interceptions to sink what little momentum the Gamecocks had in the first and third quarters. Rattler finished the second home loss of his college career with just 125 yards on 13-of-25 passing.
Receiver Antwane “Juice” Wells who exploded for 189 yards and one touchdown a week ago at Arkansas saw just two targets and zero catches through the first three quarters. South Carolina was out-gained in those frames 472-197. Backup quarterback Luke Doty gave the smattering of fans who remained by the game’s end a reason to cheer when he connected with tight end Traevon Kenion with under a minute to go for South Carolina’s only score of the game. “That’s probably the best defense in the country,” Rattler said. “They put us in some bad situations.”
BEAMERS' OPENING STATEMENT: “Obviously not a lot that went well today. We’ve just told the team in there we’re not playing well. We’re not playing our best football right now. And that starts with me as a football coach. I obviously did a horse-crap job of getting our team ready to play today, regardless of how many guys we had out. We had a good enough team to go out there and compete better than we did today. And we didn’t do it. We’re going to get right. We’re a fourth of the way through the season. We’ve played three games. We’ve got to get better. We’ve got to get right back to work and continue to find a way to play winning football.”
BEAMER ON INJURIES: “Devonni Reed hurt his hip. He’s getting an X-ray right now. We’ll see what the results are of that. We lost Darius Rush during the game to a hamstring injury. We’ll see what the MRI looks like on that. And then Stone Blanton went out with a shoulder. So clearly, we’ve got to get better and we’ve got to get healthy.”
ON ATMOSPHERE: “I want to apologize to our fans that were out there today. That was a poor performance, to say the least. We challenged them in the press conference during the week to show up, and they did. It was an unbelievable atmosphere throughout the game for a noon kickoff. That was awesome. The walk was great. The atmosphere pregame was great, and they were fantastic. Sorry, we didn’t coach better and play better for them. Obviously, not a lot went well today.”
ON THIRD-DOWN PLAY/CALLING FOR RUN PLAYS: “A lot of those, I told (Marcus Satterfield) on the headphones, ‘We’re gonna go for it on fourth down.’ So you got two downs here. And then a couple of them we lost yardage, so we ended up punting. But obviously, we’ve got to look at that, ‘OK, it is two downs and we’re gonna go forward on fourth down. Let’s be smart about what we’re calling as well.” “... Certainly, we gotta be better on third down than we were ... 4 of 13, not good enough. But that, to me, was what that was, if we ran the ball in a medium situation.”
ON TURNOVER BATTLE: “Last year we were not very good offensively. We were last in the SEC in turning the ball over. We’re certainly on pace to do that again this year. So whatever we’re doing, clearly we got to do a better job of emphasizing it. And then defensively last year, we led the SEC and takeaways. And right now, we got one in three games. ... So we’ve got to go back to work on the practice field. And not that we don’t emphasize that already. We’re doing a lot of the same things we were last year defensively to emphasize turnovers. We’ve just got to continue to fly to the ball.”
WORTH A LOOK: South Carolina punter Kai Kroger recorded the third completion of his career when he connected for a 20-yard pass to Traevon Kenion on a fake punt in Saturday’s first quarter. Kroeger previously threw a touchdown pass to Payton Mangrum in last year’s loss at Tennessee on a fake punt.
ANY GIVE-UP ON THE TEAM: “Hell no. ... We’re 1-2. We’ve got a bunch of fighters in that room. ‘Give up?’ That’s not a part of this football program.
KEY STATS 2: Spencer Rattler tossed a pair of interceptions in Saturday’s loss, his second multi-pick game at South Carolina
