The South Carolina Gamecocks scored another huge win Saturday, and head coach Shane Beamer wasted no time celebrating with some well-placed trolling.
The Gamecocks upset the No. 8 Clemson Tigers, 31-30, in Death Valley, a signature win for the program.
ESPN caught up with Beamer immediately after the game, and he had a message for ESPN analyst Jesse Palmer.
“I heard Jesse Palmer on TV last night, and I love Jesse,” Beamer said. “But he said, ‘Clemson needs a big win to impress the committee.’ Clemson needed to worry about winning the football game.”
Shane Beamer calls out ESPN's Jesse Palmer after South Carolina upsets No. 8 Clemson. 🏈😂
"I heard Jesse Palmer on TV last night, and I love Jesse. But he said, 'Clemson needs a big win to impress the committee.' Clemson needed to worry about winning the football game." pic.twitter.com/cN3L7IpYJb
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) November 26, 2022
You really can’t blame Beamer for being miffed at Palmer for making that seemingly dismissive statement about South Carolina. Yet it’s hard to fault Palmer for that analysis, either. Plenty of football analysts figured that a big Clemson win, combined with some of the teams in front of them losing Saturday, might vault them into the College Football Playoff.
That’s not going to happen now, as Clemson falls to 10-2.
With the Clemson upset coming on the heels of South Carolina’s astonishing 63-38 annihilation of the No. 5 Tennessee Volunteers last weekend, Beamer clearly has the 8-4 Gamecocks headed for big things.
“I feel like we’re in our own little College Football Playoff, the way we’ve played the last two weeks,” Beamer said.
It’s not the first expert troll job Beamer has had after a game this season. After the Gamecocks upset Kentucky, he threw shade at Wildcats head coach Mark Stoops, who’d poked fun at South Carolina’s “sunglasses and stupid dancing” victory celebrations.
Just to show Beamer also had kinder things on his mind after Saturday’s huge upset, check out this post-game scene where he greets his mother.
Shane Beamer taking it in before hunting down his mom in the postgame tunnel.
What a scene… pic.twitter.com/uBpdjQs1O9
— Ben Portnoy (@bportnoy15) November 26, 2022