1/23/2024 0 Comments Beamer ball vine![]() The New LED Light Show Features at the Stadium – I’m not sure what it felt like to be inside Williams-Brice while the stadium lights flickered and popped in sync to “Sandstorm” or when the spotlights swirled to commemorate Gamecock touchdowns, but I can tell you that it looked genuinely impressive on television. The distance has allowed me to observe the home crowd as a neutral bystander rather than a passionate participant, and in the last few seasons, I’ve seen the Gamecock faithful enter each new season with emotions ranging from hopeful-but-terrified to a kind of “I’m just here for the tailgating” morbid curiosity. Speaking of excitement, let’s be sure to hand a Lembo to…Ĭlick here to subscribe to the Gamecock Central YouTube page for FREE!Ī Fired-Up Williams-Brice Crowd That Showed Up Ready to Deliver a Homefield Atmosphere Worthy of the Spurrier Years – For the last several years, I’ve spent the Labor Day weekend with my family celebrating my parents’ anniversary (54 years and going strong!), which has necessitated that I watch the season opener from afar. Especially cliches that describe my football team’s special teams unit blocking punts with wild abandon, dropping cheap and easy scores on the heads of their flustered opponents, kicking unimaginably long field goals and in general adding a healthy dose of excitement to a football game that desperately needed some. Mission accomplished! What can I tell you – I love cliches. It took the SEC Network’s announcers about 0.00003 seconds after that blocked punt to begin floating “Beamer Ball” during the broadcast, and I immediately made plans to include the cliché in the headline for this week’s column. Let’s hand out a few Lembos to the following:īeamer Ball!!!!! – As soon as I saw a Georgia State punt flutter off the fingers of South Carolina’s Rashad Amos, and the Gamecocks’ DQ Smith pick up the ball and rumble into the end zone, I knew we were all about to start bandying around the phrase “Beamer Ball” for several days following this football game. Past Ball namesakes have included Pharoh Cooper, Bryan Edwards, pepperoni pizza, and my wife, Christie Davis – this is an esteemed list that only includes legends.Īfter one week in the 2022 season, the Balls belong to South Carolina Special Teams Coordinator Pete Lembo, and he’ll hold on to them as long as his unit continues blocking punts for touchdowns, drilling long field goals and swaggering around the field with confidence and authority. If you’ve read this column in years past, you’re certainly well aware that we name the weekly Game Balls after something or someone that brings a smile to our face and puts a hop in our step. And we’re ready to see what happens next. If you found yourself playing the Hokies, you kept nervously expecting those dreadful kickoff returns for touchdowns, or a gut-flaying blocked kick, or an onside kick recovery, or some kind of special teams bomb blast that always seemed to drop out of the heavens and detonate your chances at the worst possible time.Įventually, it almost became a self-fulfilling prophecy: Opponents worried so much about Virginia Tech’s special teams unit making a big play that they almost willed it into happening.Īnd without Beamer Ball on Saturday night against Georgia State, we might all be ready to hop back into bed, pull the covers up to our eyeballs, fasten our eyelids as tight as we can and try to think of something pleasant, like puppies or cheeseburgers. This kind of “winning by any means necessary” style eventually was christened Beamer Ball, and Virginia Tech’s opponents lived in fear of it. Spectacular special teams play, of course, was the hallmark of the Virginia Tech teams coached for decades by Shane Beamer’s father, Frank. Without all of the above, this is a different football game, and perhaps, you and I aren’t feeling particularly cheerful on this Labor Day. ![]() A punt by Kai Kroeger that nearly traveled 80 yards and caused me to actually stand up from the couch and start walking in circles for no apparent reason.A fake field goal that resulted in a first down, followed by a touchdown, for the men in garnet and black.Not one, but two 50-yard-plus field goals from new placekicker Mitch Jeter, who didn’t seem remotely phased by having to replace longtime kicking stalwart Parker White.Not one, but two blocked punts, both returned for touchdowns, to put points on the board for the Gamecocks on a night the South Carolina offense had trouble putting the car in drive and moving forward.You want to talk about special? Consider the following: ![]() That call came in the form of lethally efficient special teams play that shook us out of snooze mode and splashed cold water in our faces. We all needed a wake-up call – team, fans, coaches, everybody.
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