Kentucky Football’s next opponent is a wounded animal. South Carolina returned LaNorris Sellers, who some scouts had as the QB3 heading into the season. Dylan Stewart had a first-round grade, and fans were hoping WR Nyck Harbor would show why he was a top-15 recruit out of high school.
Instead, South Carolina has now lost 9 of its last 10 SEC games.
That one win? A 35-13 blowout of Mark Stoops’ Kentucky last season.
In fact, South Carolina has won four straight in the matchup heading into Saturday,
and another one may end up saving Beamer’s job this year.
They’ll have to do it without Dylan Stewart, who Shane Beamer suspended in front of the whole team Sunday, after the star defensive lineman threw a punch and seemingly ignored his head coach as he came off the field.
Sellers, for his part, is actually performing better than last year. He already has 244 rushing yards, only 26 less than he had all of last year. His completion percentage is higher, and he has nearly half as many touchdowns as he did all of last season.
Harbor is a freak athlete who could explode at any time, but hasn’t been as consistent as you would think when you look at his frame. He is 6’5 and over 220 pounds, but can still run a 4.24 40. That is a dangerous weapon on the outside.
But even with all that talent, South Carolina is struggling, and Beamer is feeling it.
Shane Beamer calls for unity
As Shane Beamer feels his seat heating up and fans call for his job, he is talking about how good his team has looked this week.
“But we have awesome young men that, you know, people get here, get tired of hearing about the wrong thing. Well, guess what? We had a hell of a practice today. We had a hell of a practice,” Beamer told reporters Wednesday. “So if you get tired of hearing that, I’m sorry. You’re going to keep hearing it. We have some freaking awesome young men that went out there today, practiced their butts off with a ton of energy, and they hurt too. They’re not proud of their performance last Saturday night, and I know they’ll respond the right way Saturday afternoon.”
That performance he is talking about is a 49-18 beatdown in Tuscaloosa. And he is asking fans to show up and show out
“There’s going to be people in that stadium that are pissed at me and don’t like me, and I don’t like a lot of things about the job that I’ve done right now either. But what we need on Saturday is for 80,000 strong to come together for three hours and help our football team play their butts off, because we need that energy in that stadium.”
As bad as I hate Sandstorm, South Carolina is always an electric environment. And make no mistake, South Carolina is wounded. And a wounded animal is a dangerous one.
A fast start from Kentucky, and the crowd could turn on Beamer and make things a lot easier on Kentucky.
But a slow start? That confidence that is missing from South Carolina will show up, and it could turn into a long night for the Cats.
