Shane Beamer’s postgame comments on Georgia’s defense have gone viral.
When asked about matching up against the nationally regarded Bulldogs defense in a 40-13 loss Saturday, South Carolina’s first-year head coach went on an impassioned rant during his postgame interview with reporters.
“They’ve got like 100 five-star football players on their defense,” Beamer said. “They have a defensive lineman (Jordan Davis) that weighs 340 pounds and runs better than everybody on this call. They’ve got five-star defensive backs. They’re big and physical and fast.
“I mean, other than that, they’re really freaking good. That’s why they have the top defense in the country. They’re hard to run the football on, so there wasn’t some magical scheme they came out with tonight. They’ve got five-star recruits everywhere and they play really physical … damn.”
The clip really gained steam Monday online and through social media, and national college football writers and Twitter aggregators were having a field day.
“Best interview of the year so far,” wrote Nicole Auerbach, senior college football writer at The Athletic.
“Shane Beamer on Georgia’s defense is the clip of the week,” Pro Football Focus College tweeted.
“Shane Beamer’s response to facing Georgia’s defense is the antithesis of coachspeak,” a FanSided.com headline by John Buhler read.
One version of the video posted to Twitter had 165,000 views and counting.
Beamer has a point on the Bulldogs’ five-star talent. Georgia is ranked second in the nation in 247Sports’ College Football Team talent composite, behind only Alabama. The Bulldogs have 19 five-star recruits on their roster, the highest number in the country. Nine of those five-stars are on Georgia’s defense, and two play on its defensive line.
Jordan Davis, the Bulldogs’ highly-touted, 6-foot-6, 340-pound defensive tackle who Beamer specifically mentioned in the video response, was actually a three-star prospect out of Mallard Creek High School in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Georgia entered the South Carolina game ranked No. 1 in the FBS in total defense, but the Gamecocks came into Saturday at No. 4 themselves. Georgia took a slight dip after allowing South Carolina 296 yards and is now ranked third in total defense. The Gamecocks dropped to 27th, with the Bulldogs’ offense putting up 491 yards last weekend.
Beamer followed up at the end of his 15-minute press conference to clarify his words from his initial rant.
“I didn’t mean to be short,” Beamer said. “Just no, they’re not doing anything special on defense. They’re really freaking good. That is a fantastic front seven and a fast and physical defensive line.
“But scheme-wise? No. They line up and say, ‘We’re better than you, and we’re physical, and come beat us.’ And that’s what they did tonight, like they do every week. So, I didn’t mean to snap.”