Paul Finebaum rips South Carolina coach Shane Beamer for breaking foot after Florida loss

It’s not often that Paul Finebaum is left speechless, but on Tuesday, he was admittedly just that.

The ESPN analyst and longtime commentator on all things SEC football was presented with the news Tuesday that South Carolina football coach Shane Beamer had broken his foot in an act of frustration following the Gamecocks’ 41-39 loss in Week 7 against Florida.

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“I don’t really know what to say,” Finebaum said on his show Tuesday. “I mean, this guy was laughing about it, cajoling, thinking it was like a high school frat prank. This is a head football coach at a major SEC school and he breaks his foot in frustration. If he had shown half that effort in trying to stop Florida from blowing them to pieces at the end of that game, I think maybe the season wouldn’t be on the brink of going straight down the toilet. That was really incredible.”

Though it may not be worth breaking a bone over, South Carolina’s latest loss in a disappointing season was particularly maddening.

The Gamecocks led Florida 37-27 with five minutes remaining, but allowed a pair of touchdown drives in the final minutes of the game that went for a combined 150 yards in 23 plays. The Gators scored the go-ahead touchdown on a 21-yard pass from Graham Mertz to Ricky Pearsall with 47 seconds remaining.

The loss, which Beamer described as “gut-wrenching,” dropped South Carolina to 2-4 overall and 1-3 in SEC play this season.

Beamer revealed on Tuesday that he kicked something he “shouldn’t have kicked” after the game that broke his foot. He came into his weekly news conference Tuesday limping and was asked about it by a reporter.

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When Gamecocks’ third-year coach told athletic director Ray Tanner about his mishap, Tanner “died laughing.”

Beamer insisted that there was nothing more to it than a simple, heat-of-the-moment mistake.

“The adrenaline of the game wore off and before anybody starts the narrative like, ‘The head football coach is frustrated and lost his poise’ and all that…no, I care,” Beamer said. “I care about these kids and I was really upset on Saturday night because I didn’t do enough to help them get over the hump and win the football game. I don’t think I need to have surgery, but there is a broken bone in my foot. It hurts like you-know-what, but I’ve got to show toughness and fight through it. It’s been one of those years.”