South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer and former Pitt linebacker Bangally Kamara saw differently when it came to the linebacker’s future with the program.

It was announced earlier this week that Kamara decided to redshirt and enter the transfer portal for the second time after playing four games at South Carolina, but it was Beamer who ultimately made the decision for Kamara.

“He came in my office yesterday and told me that he was redshirting,” Beamer said Tuesday at his weekly press conference. “I told him that’s not quite how this works, that we could have a discussion about his role and is redshirting best, and we went back and forth a little bit. I think his situation is a little bit different than somebody else, there’s guys on this team right now that we’ve had conversations with that, look, we’re doing what we have to do in ’24 to win football games, but if we can save your redshirt year and not play you in five games, we will …

“But he was a guy that played a season-high in snaps on Saturday at linebacker that was going to continue to play more for us moving forward. My job is to do what’s best for the team and what was best for the team in my mind is Gally continuing to play and help us go try to beat Alabama this weekend. And he didn’t quite feel the same way, so in the end, I made the decision for him that it was probably best to move on.”

Kamara played in four games for South Carolina this season, including a season-high 30 defensive snaps against Ole Miss over the weekend. He recorded nine tackles (seven solo) in his 70 total snaps this season.

Kamara recorded 1,144 defensive snaps over his last two seasons at Pitt and recorded 104 tackles (48 solo), 9.5 tackles for loss, three sacks, an interception, eight pass breakups and a fumble recovery. Now he will look to find a home for the final season of collegiate eligibility in 2025.

It’s a tough situation for South Carolina and Kamara, but it’s also indicative of the times. In today’s college football, where movement in the transfer portal is unpredictable, the grass isn’t always greener on the other side.

Pitt, on the other hand, is having a strong season from its new-look linebacker corps, including Kyle Louis and Rasheem Biles on the outside — who took over for Bangally Kamara and Solomon DeShields over the offseason.

The new-look linebacking corps has worked out very well for the Pitt Panthers — and should only get better throughout the season.

Happy Thursday, everyone. The injury report was published ahead of South Carolina, and looks like this:

Yhonzae Pierre, LB — Out

Kendrick Law, WR — Questionable

Kobe Prentice, WR — Questionable

Not sure what happened with Pierre, but he posted a picture of himself in a hospital room yesterday calling it a “minor setback.”

Saturday will mark Mike Shula’s return to The Capstone.

Through USC’s media relations staff, Shula declined an interview request ahead of Saturday’s game. Speaking Wednesday on an SEC teleconference, Gamecock head coach Shane Beamer praised Shula’s contributions to his staff.

“Low ego, humble, hardworking,” Beamer said. “Everyone in the building thinks the world of him. He’s been awesome. Has helped us so much on and off the field.”

Shula largely works with the South Carolina quarterbacks. He’s most familiar with that position, having played it himself at Alabama, starting from 1984-1986.

Mike’s QB is concerning for Maurice Linguist, and he should be after what the last mobile QB did to the defense.

I think anytime you see a dynamic quarterback who can run and throw, it’s always on our minds because you have the play and then the extended play, which dual-threat quarterbacks can create,” Linguist said. “Plays that extend the 2.5 seconds of a normal play and the 2.5-3 seconds of the extended play. How we handle the contain of the dropback situations of the quarterback, then if and when he does get out, how we’re handling the disciple coverage on the backend. Plastering or man if we’re in zone, getting our eyes in the right place and making sure they don’t create explosives off extended plays.”

Vanderbilt and the elimination of NLI were the hot topics on “Hey, Coach!”

You know, a lot of times, the information comes out and then our compliance office comes in and meets with us. It doesn’t effect anything, literally, today or tomorrow,” DeBoer said on the “Hey Coach” show Wednesday. “But I think a lot of it will still be still as we’ve done in the past. There will be other ways to bind prospects who sign with Alabama and vice versa. So I don’t see it being something, at least with the tweaks they are going to make — there’s an SEC agreement, there’s other things that we have that guys can sign that will be binding.”

“Well, besides the execution? That’s what it always comes down to, right? Is execution,” he said. “That goes not just on the players, but it’s everyone. All the execution.

“I felt like we had a good plan. We had a plan within the plan when they attack you a different way when — that’s the case, offense, defense. You have Plan A. You have the tweaks, which would be Plan B. To me, that’s all part of the game plan. Something you might have called more or less than what you originally thought going in.

“I thought our staff did a nice job. There’s always things you look back on, like, oh, we could have done this a little bit more earlier. And the other thing is, I think you also got to make sure you don’t just overreact. Sometimes you need to see that look again against the defensive call or the offensive call that we’re running, and the guys get another rep at it. Because it is something new or different that we hadn’t seen on film. Or different guys working together.

“There’s a reason, a lot of times, for execution not being at the level. But that’s full ownership on all of us. When I say that, it’s not about the players. It’s about all of us, including myself.”

The P4P deals will be the binding force going forward, not the NLI. They need to come with negotiable buyouts just like coaching contracts. As far as DeBoer’s comments on execution, this aligns with what I’ve said about coaching for some time. Coaching happens 12 months a year, and determines whether the players can do the job you want them to do on Saturdays. Regardless of the film breakdowns you may have seen criticizing scheme, the fact is that on many of those third down conversions, a tackle or play on the ball was there to be made and wasn’t. In many cases it appeared to be a matter of giving up leverage or taking poor angles.

As Kalen said, that doesn’t mean that the players aren’t good enough or just decided that winning wasn’t worth the effort. It means they have work to do with their coaches to get better in those areas. Whether the coaches are able to get through to them will tell us plenty about this staff.

Last, Coach Kap was asked about the critical sack/fumble.

“The play before, we had a good pocket, a good catch, and we were getting ready to go (up) tempo,” Kapilovic said Wednesday. “One of their kids came by and kind of gave an elbow to our quarterback, so one of our O-linemen runs over there, then another runs over there, and we’re trying to go tempo. So then we’re trying to get lined up to go fast, and (Pritchett) takes a bad set and gets beat.”

It was the Commodores’ biggest defensive play of the game, as it recaptured momentum as the Crimson Tide lost a chance to take its first lead. Vanderbilt drove for a what proved to be the game-winning touchdown off the turnover, to open a 40-28 lead.

“We’ve got to understand the situation,” Kapilovic added. “Yes we want to protect our quarterback. He’s a big boy. Nothing crazy happened. Let’s get lined up and play the next play.”

So we were too engaged in extracurricular nonsense to make the next play. Sounds like another coaching point that is being delivered. Hopefully it is received.

That’s about it for now. Have a great day.

Roll Tide.

A South Carolina death row inmate must choose how his life will ultimately end – and he only has a little over a week to do so. 

Richard Moore, 59, was issued the maximum sentence over the 1999 shooting of a store clerk in Spartanburg County.

Now he must decide whether he is executed by firing squad, electric chair or lethal injection.

If he fails to choose his fate by October 18, he will die by electrocution. 

The state’s electric chair, which was built in 1912, was found to be working properly after being tested just last month.

The firing squad can be used in South Carolina allowed by a 2021 law. 

Moore, a Black man, has now been on South Carolina’s death row for 23 years and remains the only death row inmate in the state to be convicted by a jury with no African Americans

Bryan Stirling, South Carolina’s Corrections Director, said that its firing squad has the appropriate ammunition, guns and training. Three volunteers have been instructed on how to shoot from 15 feet away, aiming at a target placed directly on the heart. 

Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976 in the United States, South Carolina has put a total of 44 inmates to death. 

But Moore will be the second execution in the state following a 13-year pause due to not being able to obtain the drug needed for lethal injection. When the privacy measure was originally put in place, companies refused to sell it.

But after a shield law passed last year, the state was allowed to reobtain the drug.

It has since been found to be pure, stable and potent enough to carry out the execution after being tested by technicians at the state crime lab.

But Moore is now attempting to stop the execution through appeals to the US Supreme Court. 

The death chamber in South Carolina Department of Corrections includes the electric chair (right) and the firing squad chair (left)

Pictured: firing squad chair in Utah State Prison – The firing squad can be used in South Carolina allowed by a 2021 law

In September of 1999, Moore went into a convenience store with the intentions to rob it. Despite arriving unarmed, he was able to take a gun from James Mahoney, the store clerk, which led to a shootout between the two. Mahoney was killed after taking a bullet to the chest. 

Although he Moore held a job and remained an active parent over the years before the crime that led him to becoming a death row inmate, he had a revolving series of crimes, including: habitual traffic offender, unlawful weapon possession, purse snatching, breaking and entering, robbery and assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature, according to Post and Courier. 

He eventually came to the realization that he was living a double life – one side consumed by crack cocaine. 

Moore, a Black man, has now been sitting on South Carolina’s death row for 23 years. 

He remains the only death row inmate in the state to be convicted by a jury with no African Americans. 

Since Moore was initially unarmed at the time of his crime, it can be argued that there was a lack of premeditation. 

In September of 1999, Moore went into a store, unarmed, with the intentions to rob it which led to a shootout where he was able to grab hold of a gun and shoot the store clerk in the chest, killing him

Moore is now attempting to stop the execution through appeals to the US Supreme Court and plans to ask the governor for mercy, hoping to change his sentence to life without parole

But if executed, he would be the first person put to death in modern times that was originally unarmed and defended themselves when threatened with a weapon.

Moore has no violations on his prison record since being in the facility. He has offered to help rehabilitate other prisoners while behind bars.

He plans to talk with republican, Gov. Henry McMaster for mercy, hoping to reduce his sentence to life without parole instead of death. 

But in the modern era of the death penalty, no South Carolina governor has ever granted clemency to any of its inmates. 

In the early 2000s, executions were common in the state. An average of three executions were carried out each year.

Since the unintentional execution pause, the death row population has reduced. In early 2011, the state had 63 inmates waiting for death. But now, only 31 remain.

Around 20 inmates have been taken off death row after successfully appealing to the courts for a different sentence. Others have died in prison from natural causes during the temporary pause.

After a 13-year pause, people protested the death penalty ahead of Freddie Owens scheduled execution date

South Carolina executed its first death row inmate in 13 years in September through means of lethal injection.

Freddie Owens, 46, was found guilty by a jury in the killing of a shop worker during a 1997 armed robbery in Greenville. He was on death row for more than 20 years before his execution on September 20.

Ahead of his scheduled execution, multiple groups came together to protest the death penalty.

South Carolina must argue that there is an ‘aggravating’ circumstance in order to pursue the death penalty, WBTW reported. The overall decision to impose death is decided by a jury.

More than 650 people have been executed in South Carolina, including the infamous serial killer, Donald Henry ‘Pee Wee’ Gaskins Jr in 1991.