What Shane Beamer said about Juice Wells’ status, South Carolina facing Clemson
For the first time all season — maybe ever in Shane Beamer’s time at South Carolina, the Gamecocks’ head coach had no injury news to report following USC’s 17-14 Saturday win over Kentucky.
“We are in great shape,” Beamer said during his Sunday teleconference.
Heck, even star wide receiver Antwane “Juice” Wells — who hasn’t played in over two months — practiced last week and has a shot to play against this Saturday, Beamer said.
“I know people think I’m lying about this and just making up stuff,” Beamer added. “But there’s a chance. We’ll see how the week goes. And if Juice was 100% done for the year, I would’ve announced that.”
There would be no better week to have Wells suit up. Yes, it’s that time. It’s Clemson week.
Coach Dabo Swinney and the Tigers (7-4) will travel to Williams-Brice Stadium on Saturday night (7:30 p.m., SEC Network) to face a South Carolina team (5-6) that needs a victory to become bowl-eligible.
It’s been a miraculous turnaround for the Gamecocks, who started 2-6 and have rattled off three straight wins.
The fear for Beamer is that his team could get too psyched up this week, that they put too much energy into Clemson on Monday through Friday and fall flat on Saturday.
“It’s been an emotional year. It’s been a tough year in a lot of ways,” Beamer said. “We’ve had three good Saturdays in a row and then it’s rivalry week. We know what this week means to the fans. There’s the bowl game part of it.
“No matter what the ramifications are and all that stuff,” he added, “it comes down to playing well on Saturday night. That’s what we need to focus on and what we will focus on.”
Since taking over as the Gamecocks’ head coach, Beamer has been through the highs and lows of the rivalry. South Carolina was shut out in 2021 before pulling a massive upset at Clemson last season, ending the Tigers’ 40-game home winning streak.
He knows all about the Palmetto Bowl. As an assistant under Steve Spurrier, he was on the losing end during his first two seasons (‘07 and ‘08) before the Gamecocks rattled off five straight victories (the first two of which Beamer was around for) over their rivals in the Upstate. He knows what a win over Clemson would mean.
“It would mean a lot. For me, just how happy I’d be for our players,” Beamer said. “I know how hard they work. That’s the most important thing to me. I wanna see them finish out the right way and be able to celebrate and finish this thing.”
Though the Tigers are having a down year, it seems they’ve hit their stride. Just like USC, Clemson is 3-0 in November with wins over No. 15 Notre Dame, Georgia Tech and No. 22 North Carolina.
In that UNC victory on Saturday, the Tigers ran the ball 55(!) times for 219 yards. Running backs Will Shipley (18-126-1) and Phil Mafah (23-84-1) along with quarterback Cade Klubnik (12-44-1) have become quite the three-headed monster.
“I’ve seen them on TV a couple times this year. Watched a little bit of their game yesterday in the hotel,” Beamer said. “We know we have to be ready for the quarterback run a little bit more than we did yesterday with Kentucky.”
This is a very different Clemson team than the one South Carolina upset last season. Beamer has yet to face Klubnik, who replaced D.J. Uiagalelei, and Mafah wasn’t a major factor in either of the past two seasons.
But Beamer is quite familiar with Shipley — and a big key for South Carolina on Saturday will be making sure the 5-foot-11, 210-pound junior doesn’t run all over the place.
“He’s got a burst is what I see on tape,” Beamer said of Shipley. “He’s just a football player. … I’ve just got a lot of respect for the way he plays the game. He’s a football guy. Tough. Runs hard.”
