Shane Beamer News Conference with selected players
Sept. 05, 2023 / VIDEOS COURTESY OF USC MEDIA OUTLET

Coach Shane Beamer had a lot on his plate at his weekly press conference Tuesday. At the top of his list, is the news about the season-ending knee injury to linebacker Mo Kaba. It’s the second season in a row in which Kaba has suffered a torn ACL. Beamer also had effusive praise for this week’s opponent, the Furman Paladins. And he detailed while he lashed out at the chain crew following Saturday night’s loss to North Carolina.

Some of Beamer’s key comments:

  • Heart breaks for Mo Kaba. Worked his butt off to come back from the ACL last year and was loving being on the field, really hurt for him.
  • Markee Anderson, Nick Emmanwori, David Spaulding, Jatius Geer are doubtful this week, Cason Henry is out this week.
  • Explains his comment about the chain crew coming out of halftime Saturday night: he was frustrated because they were ready to go with the onside kick and the delay was like an extra timeout for UNC, he said he was told the crew was in the locker room eating hot dogs so he didn’t make that up, but he said that did not lose the game for them, he was just highly frustrated over how the start of the second half was handled.
  • Won the turnover battle, had few battles, won the fourth quarter, had more explosive plays, didn’t run ball well enough, gave up too many sacks and didn’t get any, too many red zone trips with nothing, have to clean things up, Rattler was great.
  • Furman is a “hell of a football” coming in Saturday night, 18 returning starters, won 8 of last 9, older football team and players who have played a lot of football, led nation in takeaways last season and blocked kicks, went to Clemson last season and outgained them.
  • This is not a take a break week for them, have to play well against this team, had a real good practice this morning, much better than last Tuesday.
  • With the injuries been hard for them to get the continuity on the offensive line they want, Henry being out has hurt as has the absence of Anderson.
  • The coaches have got to do a better job of putting the players in a position to do better.
  • Has total confidence in the offensive line and the offensive line coaching, knows they are the target of criticism, said get your shots in now but be ready to praise when they play well.
  • Juice Wells told him he’s ready to go and don’t limit him in practice and he’ll play Saturday.
  • OL is a banged up group, they’ve got good players, watching the freshmen OL in practice, they are getting better, it’s a race to get better.