South Carolina is set to go on the road to take on a top 10 Alabama with both squads looking for a win following a tough loss. Gamecocks head coach Shane Beamer spoke with the media on Tuesday to discuss the upcoming matchup, Bengally Kamara’s departure, and more.

Starting with the game against Alabama, Coach Beamer spoke on his respect for the staff and what they’ve done so far.

“They’re well coached. They have good schemes. Big challenege for us on all three phases, but I know our guys are eager to go over there and compete.”

The biggest news of the day came Tuesday morning when news broke of backup LB Bengally Kamara deciding to redshirt and enter the transfer portal. Coach Beamer was asked about the situation and what went behind the final decision.

“He came in my office yesterday and told me he was redshirting,” Coach Beamer said. “I told him that’s not quite how this works. That we could have a discussion about his role and is redshirting best. My job is to do what’s best for the team and what was best for the team in my mind was Gally conitnuing to play and help us try to beat Alabama this weekend. He didn’t quite feel the same way. I made the decision for him that it was probably best to move on. I met with some of the leaders of our defense to make sure they were on the same page with my decision and they were 100 percent on board.”

With Kamara now away from the program, the topic of depth in the linebacker room came up. Coach Beamer was quick to acknowledge his guys in that room and how he trusts them going forward.

Mo Kaba (Mohamed Kaba), Fred Johnson. Debo (Williams), Bam (Martin-Scott) D-Knight (Demetrius Knight), and Gally, those four guys all rotated through. So we’re fortunate that we still have D-Knight, Debo, and Bam and then Mo Kaba has played a lot of football for us. Fred Johnson is a guy that is doing a great job on special teams and will continue to come along.”

South Carolina has seen an uptick in the number of penalties they’ve received. So far through five games, the Gamecocks rank 117th in the country averaging 8.20 penalties per game, which is up from 7.1 just a year ago. Coach Beamer spoke on the ways the team is working on getting those numbers down.

“It’s just constantly educating, holding guys accountable, which we do whether it be pre-snap, post-snap, during the snap. Really just trying to emphasize and teach better than we have throughout the week, meetings and practice.”

South Carolina will kickoff against the Tide on Saturday at noon on ABC.

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