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Shane Beamer Addresses Questions Regarding Production From Nickel Corner Position

South Carolina's Football team hasn't had much success containing slot receivers in recent weeks, something Shane Beamer addressed on Sunday.

Andrew Lyon

Shane Beamer Addresses Questions Regarding Production From Nickel Corner Position
Shane Beamer Addresses Questions Regarding Production From Nickel Corner Position /

Over the past three games, South Carolina's defense has given up the following cumulative stat line to receivers who, according to Pro Football Focus, spent 94 percent of their time in the slot (except for Florida's Ricky Pearsall, who spent 57.9 percent of his time in the slot):

26 receptions, 526 receiving yards, and two touchdowns

This is what the stat line looks like if we take the average from the past three games alone:

8.67 receptions, 175.33 receiving yards, and 0.67 touchdowns

In recent weeks, these performances have made it more difficult for the Gamecocks' defense to get off the field. This was Shane Beamer's response was asked during his Sunday night teleconference call about the struggles this position group has dealt with this season.

"Well, it's easy for you guys to say that the nickel position gave us a lot of problems because Nick [Emmanwori] was matched up [on Saturday] in the slot, one-on-one, against a really good receiver from Florida, and he won some plays. Coming out of the Tennessee game, he played nickel in that game, and he made some pretty good plays in that game as well. So we certainly gotta continue to find ways to help those guys out," Beamer stated.

While admitting that certain adjustments should've been made in certain games, Shane then harped on the added responsibilities that nickel cornerbacks face and what their plan was for Nick against Florida.

"Certainly Mississippi State, that's a game you look back and say that we struggled a little bit in coverage, and that was a different nickel playing that night. Like I talked about after that game, some of those plays that we gave up against Mississippi State, we should have had some safety help over the top on a lot of those plays as well, but when you're playing nickel, that guy's basically a SAM linebacker. So he's playing coverage, [and] he's asked to do a lot against the run. With Nick being in there last night, we wanted to be active with him and get him involved in pressures and coverage and run defense, and we did that. So certainly, we've played different guys there, and I've got full confidence in DQ [Smith] and Nick both, or Keenan Nelson, or Kajuan Banks, or David Spaulding, or whoever else has been able to get in there. We just gotta coach it better and gotta make more plays, for sure.

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Andrew Lyon
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