COLUMBIA -- South Carolina football coach Shane Beamer woke up Saturday morning prepared to talk about his team on ESPN's College GameDay, ahead of hosting No. 17 LSU.
Late in the afternoon, Beamer spoke with a somber tone to media after the Gamecocks fell 36-33 to the Tigers, erasing the glory of an early 17-0 lead.
On third-and-2 while trailing by four with less than two minutes to play, the Tigers (2-1, 1-0 SEC) did what they needed to, and did what South Carolina (2-1, 1-1) couldn't. LSU scored without a penalty in a big moment.
"I want to apologize to our fans," Beamer said. "Thirteen penalties. You're not going to win football games in the SEC with 13 penalties."
The Gamecocks lost 123 yards due to penalties on Saturday.
The Gamecocks had two interception returns for touchdowns taken away from them, the first after a horse collar penalty was called on Kyle Kennard, nullifying O'Donnell Fortune's score. With just less than six minutes to play Nick Emmanwori's pick six was called back for unnecessary roughness by Kennard, and the lead-stretching touchdown vanished.
Beamer was asked about both of those plays after the game.
"Coaches up top told me that they thought he was grabbing the shoulder pad to pull him down, but the referee Jason -- he's fantastic -- he told me he was absolutely certain that it was a horse collar. If he said it, I'm sure it happened," Beamer said. "The one at the end with Nick ... it wasn't vicious by any stretch of the imagination but ... can't put ourselves in that position."
It ultimately didn't matter that Garrett Nussmeier was sacked for the first time this season, or that LaNorris Sellers recorded the longest running touchdown by a quarterback in South Carolina history. The play where Maurice Brown leaped over LSU's defense to block a punt that turned into a touchdown slowly lost its essence.
"In the end, they made one more play than we did," Beamer said of LSU.
Lulu Kesin covers South Carolina athletics for The Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. Email her at [email protected] and follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, @Lulukesin