As per the injury report that dropped on Wednesday, October 8, 11 players combined were there on the South Carolina Gamecocks vs the LSU Tigers’ combined list. Out of which, both programs had one player each sitting in the “out” list. Talking about Shane Beamer? He must still be hoping for a miracle to happen for the ones in the “doubtful’ list before they face off against Brian Kelly’s boys on Saturday, October 11. But looks like the universe had some other plans. Luck did not favor Beamer with the offensive lineman duo of Nolan Hay and Cason Henry, while the head coach already knew about Markee Anderson not playing.  

On October 9, sportswriter David Cloninger dropped the latest and final update, “Injury report on Shane Beamer’s call-in show: Markee Anderson, Cason Henry and Nolan Hay are all out for Saturday.” Now, how is this going to affect Beamer’s scheme against throttling the Tigers?

Starting with LSU, for Beamer and his boys awaits a stretch of five consecutive games against teams out of seven that are currently ranked in the top 15. This comes at a time when the Gamecocks are bogged down with two losses on the season. As Beamer’s program now runs one of the last laps, they got hit badly on the offensive line. 

After Week 3, their quarterback, LaNorris Sellers, left the gridiron in the first half with an injury. But even before injury, for starters, South Carolina’s back had hit the wall. Talking about the stats? They have allowed eight sacks on the season, which ranks 114th in the country. Not just this. It also came with allowing 20 tackles for loss, which ranks 109th in the country. Now that Anderson, Henry, and Hay are out, will the dark past make a return for Beamer and co.?

Back in 2023, the Gamecocks were blessed with the best talent. Spencer Rattler was back at quarterback. Xavier Legette became a 1,000-yard receiver. But even then, their offense seemed to be standing on quicksand. The Gamecocks finished 5-7 after giving up 41 sacks. Cut to 2024, things did not get any better. Beamer’s program gave up the exact number of sacks in 2024 (41) as it did in 2023.

Walking into this season, the Gamecocks were hoping the week off would allow several offensive linemen to get back to 100 percent. But the tables turned. Beamer kept hoping against hope for Henry and Hay about their return after both missed the Kentucky game. 

He went down early against Vanderbilt but looked good to go for Missouri. However, Henry then exited with an injury on the same shoulder after just one play. Hay, on the other hand, made his first career start with Beamer’s program against Missouri but was sidelined with a knee injury. Amidst this, the head coach came with a tough wake-up call for his boys.  

Shane Beamer does not want the fainthearted on board

Did Beamer push the offensive struggles plaguing the Gamecocks camp under the table? No way. “We’re not running the ball consistently enough right now… We have to be able to throw more consistently than we have,” accepted the South Carolina head coach. On the other hand, the LSU Tigers head coach seems to be in a better place when it comes to their quarterback, Garrett Nussmeier, making the most of the bye week.

“He’s feeling better, and we didn’t do a lot with him last week. We wanted to use that as a recovery week,” Kelly sounded all confident. Talking about the confidence of the Gamecocks squad? It was absent. And thus Beamer had to make a move and inject it. Brad Crawford posted a clip of Beamer’s latest presser on October 8. 

Given the current situation, Shane Beamer has one motto: no mercy for the boys. Sugarcoating? What’s that? Beamer kept it sharp and to the point, “One at a time. But if you don’t want to play that schedule, I told our players, y’all chose the wrong conference to come play in. Like, you should have gone to play in another conference. If you don’t want to play that schedule, you chose the wrong school to come to. I mean, that’s just life in this league.” With the key offensive weapons out, will the vocal tonic be enough to rev up the boys’ energy?