South Carolina Gamecocks College Football Pregame Quote, 10/21/2025

“Yeah, there’s plenty of instances before coach Elliott got here as the offensive line coach where we were playing mean up front. Can show you examples on tape of where we did that. There’s multiple plays of that. But that’s a mindset. I think comes from just eliminating clutter in their heads. Not saying that there was, but the more we can do to just eliminate clutter in their heads and make it simple for guys to just go play and come off the ball and not have to think so much. We’ve got tough guys in that offensive line room and they want to play that way. We just need to continue to help them. Certainly, Shawn’s personality allows that to come out and to say the least.”

“It’s a challenge. And before coach Elliott took over, there had been some really positive signs of the offensive line playing better. The fourth quarter of the Kentucky game, and the way we ran the ball against them. The LSU game, where it wasn’t good enough, but from a run game standpoint, we ran the ball against LSU. Now, we had some too many sacks and too many penalties, but we ran the ball. So there’s signs of that identity that we saw before coach Elliot took over. Last week wasn’t the ideal situation when coach Elliot takes over, he’s got three starters out. Three guys, I mean, that have started games. During the game, we have three other guys that had started the game that have to leave because of injuries, and we’re out there with a true freshman left tackle, and some other guys that were beat up by the end going up against the number one defense in the nation and just really, really good with really good players. It’s going to be hard to just say, okay, coaching change, flip the identity. What I saw was just small steps at a time.

“Y’all don’t want to talk about we didn’t have any penalties on offense last week. None that I’m aware of. So, knock on wood. That’s a start because don’t think that that team we’re just playing wasn’t making move calls and being disruptive. They were and heck of a job by our guys just being disciplined. It doesn’t mean we’re never going to have a pre-snap penalty again, because we will. But those guys did a great job up front of taking a step and showing their identity that way. That’s a prideful group in there. We got good players on the offensive line. I told our team that this morning. We’ve got offensive linemen in that room that were recruited by everybody in the country and are big time players and we need to continue to help them. But that starts with getting healthy, which we’re healthier now than we’ve been, I guess, probably since the Missouri game. It’s week two now with Shawn, where they have a better understanding of what Shawn’s going to be like during the week. What he’s going to be like in practice. What he’s going to be like on game day. They know all that now. So, I would hope that they would take another step this week in regards to what they want to be about because there were a lot of positive signs trending in that direction before I made the change, and there were positive signs that I saw last week during the game.”

“I felt good coming into it. When you looked at our offensive line last season, at this time, I knew we were losing our center and both guards, and we knew that we needed to replace those guys. As I looked at it last year, at this time, I knew we had Shed coming. I knew we had Markee coming back. We had Tro. We had guys in the interior of the offensive line that we felt good about. When you bring back both your tackles, really feel good about it, and Jatavius and Tree. So there’s four offensive tackles. Jatavius played the whole second half of the Alabama game last year, basically. So that’s four tackles, and then you got some talented guys that you’ve recruited that I said, okay, it’s time for them to now take the next step as players. But, we need to go out in the portal and increase the depth on the interior of the offensive line. And we did that.

“We brought in guys like Boaz and Rodney and Nick and liked their tape, still do. I watched Nick Sharpe’s tape last year when he was at Wake Forest playing Clemson and Ole Miss, which y’all know they’ve got defensive linemen and really doing a nice job in those games. There were other offensive linemen that we tried to get in the portal that chose not to come. I can’t make guys come here. There were guys that we brought that are, two of them, three of them we brought in on visits that are starting at other SEC schools right now. They came here on a visit, and for whatever reason, they chose not to come here. But felt good about that group coming into it because of who we returned and the guys we brought in. I’d be lying to you if I said, I wish we had made more progress with them. There’s no doubt about it. We haven’t progressed fast enough. Not to make excuses, it’s been tough, and we’ve started three different centers. We’ve had different offensive tackle because of injuries and different guys have been banged up in there. But optimistic those guys can, going back to a successful season, can maximize their potential here over these last five regular season games and take the steps and be the players that we want them to be.”

“That’s what is frustrating. I know not all of you have played sports, and that’s okay. There are great coaches that haven’t played football that are great coaches. But if you’ve been on a team and you’ve played sports, you know that walkthroughs matter. You know that practices matter. And if you don’t have good practices and you don’t have good walkthroughs, then you have no chance on Saturday. We’ve had really good practices. We’ve had really good walkthroughs, and that’s what’s frustrating for me as a coach, not seeing it carry over on Saturday. Something that I’m spending a lot of time analyzing and trying to figure out. There’s the old adage, ‘practice execution equals game day reality’ and that’s real and continuing to look at why some of the great things we’re doing in practice aren’t translating over to Saturdays.”

“Block it out. If you’re spending time listening to that noise, then you’re not doing the things that you need to be doing to get better. You’re not doing the things that you need to be doing to win. When our players walk out of the locker room each and every day, they see a sign on the door of the locker room that’s there permanently that says, starve your distractions, feed your focus. And, I love that. Starve your distractions, all the things that are cluttering your mind. Starve is as much as you can and feed your focus. Again, I understand there’s noise out there, and there should be. I’m not happy with where we are right now. I’m going to get it fixed, because we got great young men in this program. As the leader and as the head coach of this program, I realize I’m letting a lot of people down right now with the way that we’re playing. Our players that I feel like I’m letting down. Our coaches, our players families, our coaches families, the student body, the 80,000 people that pack Williams-Brice Stadium every Saturday. The state of South Carolina, from Charleston to Myrtle Beach to the upstate to the Midlands, there’s a lot of people that live and die with Gamecock football on Saturdays. And I get it, they’re not happy, and neither am I. I take that personally, because I truly feel like I’m letting a lot of people down right now. I’m working hard each and every week to try and to get it fixed, making the decisions schematically, personnel wise, staff wise, each and every week to get it fixed. It’s a process, but we’re going to get it fixed. We’re not far off from where we want to be.”

“It’s week to week. It’s day to day. It’s season to season. It’s things that I’m looking at each and every day in the short term. It’s the decision I made from a staffing standpoint last week or two weeks ago. To follow up on your question from Saturday. If I felt like more changes on offense were warranted right now and that was best for us, I would certainly do it. I don’t right now. I see what we’re trying to do. I see how it’s being coached. I see the people and how they’re working and it’s not good enough. I look at it as okay, how can I as the head coach continue to do the things right now, in the short term, meaning in the middle of the season, to fix it? It might be something from a personnel standpoint, who we’re playing with on offense and defense and special teams. It may be something that, as the head coach, I step in and say, from a schematic standpoint, we don’t need to be doing this anymore or we need to be doing this less or more. We don’t need to be doing this as much, or we need to be doing this more. I’ve done that. You’re always evaluating, and that’s each day, that’s throughout the season, and then that’s after the season. It’s like I told our team this morning, we are 3-4 right now. Nobody’s happy, but nobody’s coming to save us. What we have on this team is what we are right now, and it’s not good enough. But we’ve got the people, the players and the coaches to get it right this season. And it’s cliche, but it’s true. You just go right back to work and just keep trying to get better each and every day.”

“I wouldn’t say more so than usual. My door is always open, and I meet with guys regularly. So this isn’t one of those like, oh my god, crisis. Some were just me bringing in some guys on offense and defense just check on them. Hey, man, how you doing? And how can I help you? And having those conversations. One was a player, a freshman actually, that wanted to meet with me, that came in my office and honestly got emotional to say, ‘I want to be doing more to help the team. I hate losing, and we got the right people on this team. I want to be doing more to help us.’ Which, I told him, that’s the best thing that happened to me yesterday, was seeing a guy like that come in that cares and wants to get it right. I’ll be honest with you, a freshman texts you on 10 o’clock on Sunday night that he wants to meet with you the next day. You’re like, oh crap. He wants to redshirt, thinking about transferring. He came into my office and I’m like is this about your four games? And he was like, heck no. Those are the meetings that I had, and it’s just another testament to how much it hurts me that we are where we are because I want these guys to have so much success. I want the 80-plus thousand people that are in Williams-Brice Stadium every single Saturday to see a win from the Gamecocks. I want all the people, like I said at the beginning, from the lowcountry to the Pee Dee to the Midlands to the Upstate, to have success and be able to walk into their line of work on Monday morning or school proud about what the Gamecocks did on Saturday. As the head coach, I’m not getting that done. I know I’m letting them down. But what gives me great hope to get it turned to where we want it, because we aren’t far off, we’re not, is players like that and then the everybody on our team. We got a bunch of really good young men on our team that I wish everybody could see how we practice because it matters. I wish they could see how we walk through because it matters. I wish they could see how we meet, because it matters. Now we got to take all that great stuff we’re doing and do that great stuff on Saturdays. That’s just what we haven’t been able to do consistently enough, and that’s what’s frustrating.”