Beamer Accomplishes Rare Feat
South Carolina secured their sixth win Saturday night as they knocked off the Vanderbilt Commodores in Nashville.
While on the surface level, the victory was vital for the Gamecocks to wipe the awful taste from the Missouri loss out of their collective mouths, it also had a little bit of extra meaning both at the team and individual levels.
The team is guaranteed a spot in a bowl game no matter what happens the rest of the regular season, something the players should take a certain level of pride in.
At the individual level, South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer secured an achievement that only two other Gamecock football coaches, Steve Spurrier and Will Muschamp, have accomplished, reaching bowl eligibility each of his first two seasons.
Despite the milestone, Beamer was humble in giving credit to the players when asked about becoming bowl eligible at his postgame presser.
"I think it's a huge accomplishment, I really do. For this team to be at two wins two years ago, and then now we just got bowl eligible with three games to go, for the second year in a row, is a testament to the leadership that we have in this room and their resiliency."
Beamer used the question to re-emphasize how much the team has done this season and how things are never as good or bad as they seem.
"It was ugly last week, but we got some great kids who are fighting their butts off, and they've accomplished a lot of firsts this year. Beating Kentucky up in Lexington for the first time in forever, beating Texas A&M literally for the first time ever, winning [back-to-back] SEC road games for the first time in a while, and then being able to get bowl eligible with three games to go. I really wanted to do it last week cause it would've been the earliest we would've been bowl eligible in a long time in the season. We continue to accomplish a lot of firsts. We're continuing to build and get this program better each and every day."
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