COLUMBIA — Shane Beamer, South Carolina’s fourth-year head football coach, walked his flip-flop-covered feet into a meeting room and immediately doled out apologies. His scheduled post-scrimmage session with the media on Aug. 10 not only had its time changed, but shifted from outside Williams-Brice Stadium to the team’s headquarters across the road.
“I apologize for moving things up an hour,” Beamer said, “and I apologize for the change of locations. I’m sorry if any of you guys had to lug equipment into the stadium and then had to walk over here, as well. You certainly got your steps in today.
” So did his football team. The Gamecocks worked out for a little more than two hours, going through 103 plays in muggy conditions. All of it’s typical for this time of the year, nothing really unusual with regards to routine or the weather.
The first scrimmage on a Saturday morning is as much of a benchmark on every team’s preseason schedule as the first day of practice (which was football-in-shorts on Aug. 3) or when it can actually strap on pads (two days before the scrimmage). Coaches have it highlighted in red ink weeks before players report for camp.
Beamer would hit the high notes of what happened during the scrimmage; the successes and failures of it wouldn’t be totally assessed until later. He’d break down the video in his office with a bank of screens loaded with enough angles to make Big Brother proud. They’re necessary, too, because the details matt.