Beamer has confidence in kicker Alex Herrera after latest miss. Is a competition needed?

Shane Beamer walked up to kicker Alex Herrera on the sidelines of Bryant-Denny Stadium.

The sixth-year senior had just pushed a field goal in front of 100,000 people, a 51-yard kick that would have given the Gamecocks a lead over No. 7 Alabama with just six minutes to play. If Herrera’s right foot booted the ball through the posts, he might have become the hero — the legend of an upset.

Instead, during a 27-25 loss to Alabama, he had to walk back to the sideline with the Crimson Tide still leading. There, his head coach approached him with two thoughts.

First, Beamer apologized. The offense, he said, didn’t put Herrera in the best spot to succeed — similar to the LSU game, when Herrera missed a 48-yarder as time expired that would have forced overtime. On Saturday, South Carolina was on the 28-yard line — well within Herrera’s range — but a holding penalty pushed it back and the Gamecocks only advanced three yards on third down.

Which meant Herrera had to step out for the longest field goal of his college career. The kick sailed wide right.

“We expect him to make that kick,” Beamer said Sunday night during his weekly teleconference. “And he expects to make that kick.”

The other thing Beamer told his kicker: Be ready to nail a game-winner.

There was still six minutes on the clock. Plenty of time for the Gamecocks to get the ball back, for Herrera to redeem himself, for South Carolina to shock the nation.

The Gamecocks were a pass away.

After Alabama and South Carolina traded touchdowns, the Gamecocks recovered an onside kick and were past midfield. Realistically, quarterback LaNorris Sellers needed to get the ball 19 yards — to the 30-yard line — to give Herrera a realistic opportunity.

Instead, with 12 seconds left, Sellers went for the win, airing out a deep ball for receiver Nyck Harbor — who caught a touchdown a minute earlier — that was intercepted. Looking back, receiver Gage Larvadain was wide open at the 40-yard line with space to run. If Sellers saw him, there’s a good chance he could have set up Herrera for about a 50-yard try.

“They were playing loose coverage,” Beamer said. “We would have caught it, run for five or 10 yards, gotten out of bounds and kicked the field goal.”

Instead, Herrera never got another shot.

Which means, at the halfway point in the season, the Gamecocks kicker has made 8 of his 12 field-goal attempts (67%), is 5 of 7 (57%) from beyond 40 yards and his career-long still sits at 46 yards.

Among the 60 college kickers at the FBS level with at least double-digit attempts, only nine have a lower field-goal percentage than Herrera.

So what does that mean for South Carolina?

Is this a case where Beamer would open up a competition for the starting job? Or is it best to shower Herrera with confidence and hope he comes through more consistently?

“We’re competing everywhere. We don’t just practice to practice. We compete,” Beamer said. “The people who give us the best chance to be successful will be the ones out there.”

“Certainly, he’s done some really good things for us and we expect him to continue to,” Beamer added. “We have a lot of confidence in Alex.”