Shane Beamer opens up about how South Carolina’s loss to LSU affected him personally

After Saturday’s win over Akron, Shane Beamer opened his press conference talking about ... last weekend’s loss to LSU.

“Really proud of our football team tonight,” Beamer said. “This was obviously a tough week coming off last Saturday. That was obviously, to say the least, a tough loss last Saturday to LSU. Really proud of our guys and how they responded.”

Those were the first words Beamer uttered after his squad absolutely dominated Akron 50-7, moving to 3-1 ahead of the bye week. This is a coach adamant that a win is a win, constantly reminding folks, “We celebrate wins here.” And then South Carolina won ... and Beamer was talking about a loss.

And it underscored how much of a toll that LSU game — a 36-33 USC loss — took on Beamer and his squad.

Even during Beamer’s radio show “Carolina Calls” on Thursday, the dialogue was dominated by the what-ifs, the nonexistent offensive pass interference flag, the questionable unnecessary roughness penalty, the two fourth-quarter offsides calls, the other infuriating per-snap penalties, the injury to quarterback LaNorris Sellers, the last-second missed field goal ... on and on and on.

On Saturday night in the moments after beating Akron, Beamer insisted he’s moved on, right before noting that “I was watching the TV copy of the LSU game on Thursday night at like 10 o’clock at my house, just still thinking about things and things I could have done better in that game to have helped us.”

At times, Beamer almost spoke about the LSU loss as a death, and perhaps that Thursday-night viewing is what it took for him to come around to acceptance. By Saturday, at least, he had shifted the narrative.

“It was just realizing that that loss last week, there were so many things that we brought on ourselves that if we had just been better, it doesn’t even come down to the end. Knowing that we have to clean ourselves up, if you will, in order for us to get where we want to go.”

Players echoed the same thoughts, with linebacker Demetrius Knight Jr. saying simply: “It’s always on us. It’s never them.”

And maybe in a couple weeks, the Gamecocks a will look back on that LSU game as the detour that enraged them in the moment, but led to a more-disciplined, more-sound football team that went on to have great success. Because South Carolina did not lose its season by losing to LSU.

The Gamecocks still have every goal in front of them. A bowl game is still likely. Ten wins is still possible. A playoff berth is still on the table.

Heck, if you told South Carolina fans that the Gamecocks would be 3-1 heading into their first bye week, most would have taken it. But because of how they got to 3-1, few are content — least of all the South Carolina head coach.

“Content?” Beamer asked. “No. I’m mad that we’re not 4-0. But that’s a whole other story we’ll talk about at the end of the season. Certainly, if anything, we learned from last week and, certainly, that was a really, really, really tough loss.”