Three Takeaways: Shane Beamer post-scrimmage press conference

South Carolina football coach Shane Beamer spoke to the media Saturday evening after the Gamecocks’ held their first scrimmage of the preseason. South Carolina is, as of this writing, now nine practices deep into camp which means it’s still early, but not that early, as storylines continue to develop.

Below are three big-picture thoughts from Beamer’s most recent press conference.

Freshman focus

It wasn’t so much what Beamer said, it was how he said it.

“This is a talented freshman class we’ve got, it really is.”

A college football coach being high on his recruiting class, isn’t exactly breaking news. But there was an inflection in his voice that seemed to indicate Beamer is genuinely excited about this group.

South Carolina’s third-year head coach has said all offseason that the Gamecocks would play freshmen at almost every position. That statement at the time seemed to be more about the Gamecocks’ need to build depth at every spot.

But his freshman class has rewarded that faith so far by seemingly showing up ready to contribute.

Beamer said that even the summer enrollees have looked the part and aren’t that far behind the early enrollees. And once again rattled off almost every position where a freshman has impressed him.

We continue to hear that the majority of this freshman class already project to be “hits” from an evaluation standpoint and Beamer’s comments reflect that.

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Latest on o-line progress

Offensive line coach Lonnie Teasley told GamecockCentral’s Chris Clark prior to preseason camp starting that he hoped they’d start to have a feel for the o-line depth chart after two scrimmages.

One scrimmage down, one to go.

“That was a goal of today was to have a better idea about who those guys are as well,” Beamer said Saturday. “I think we’re closer. We’re mixing in a lot of people. … Who is our starting five right now? I couldn’t sit here and tell you definitively who it is, but, you know, I really like our freshman offensive line group. Those guys are going to play for us, a handful of them. And now we need to just figure out who those top seven, eight guys are going into Game 1.”

Beamer added that Charlotte walk-on transfer Jaxon Hughes participated on Saturday and that while Cason Henry didn’t, they expect him to be in the mix soon. Noteworthy since both are returning from offseason procedures.

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Nyck vs. Nick

The Gamecocks’ Nyck vs. Nick fastest-man competition has apparently found its way onto the football field.

Nick Emmanwori — South Carolina’s self-proclaimed fastest man prior to Nyck Harbor’s arrival — has apparently taken a special interest in competing with Harbor in practice.

“Torrian (Gray) was kidding with me the other day that, you know, Nick Emmanwori’s upset because Nick felt like he was the fastest guy on the team,” Beamer said. “And now Nyck Harbor’s come in and kind of apparently taken that mantle. And so there’s great competition in practice. And every time I see any kind of like one-on-one rep going on with Nyck Harbor, there’s a pretty good chance that Nick Emmanwori’s out there competing against him, which is going to make both those guys better.”

As for the latest on Harbor, Beamer said that he’s been impressed with the physicality the viral track star has shown in practice. In other words, he’s not just a “track guy” trying to play football.

And Beamer added that Harbor has been impressive on the punt block team. We’ve always that Harbor would be an intriguing option for Pete Lembo’s special teams — having a big, fast, physical guy like Harbor rushing off the edge would certainly make a lot of sense.

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