Beamer praises Baker, LSU’s transfer-heavy defense

By Hunt Palmer

It’s safe to assume Shane Beamer has studied the LSU defense.

The South Carolina head coach took more than a minute on the SEC Coaches Teleconference on Wednesday to essentially dissect the entire depth chart.

That exercise started with a hat tip to Tiger defensive coordinator Blake Baker who Beamer’s Gamecocks have battled for three consecutive seasons dating back to Baker’s two-year stint at Missouri.

“They looked pretty dang good last year, and they look really good this year, too,” Beamer said of LSU’s defense. “I think Blake Baker does phenomenal job, their defensive coordinator. He was a problem for us going back to Missouri when we played them every year. He makes life really difficult on opposing offense. He’s at LSU, and he’s got even better personnel than what he had last year.”

That’s true. LSU spent significant money in the transfer portal defensively. Of the defense LSU started in Columbia last season, only Harold Perkins and Whit Weeks are likely to start Saturday night in Tiger Stadium.

That didn’t stop Beamer from marching through all three levels of the Tiger defense heaping praise.

“Obviously you bring back Perkins and the Weeks brothers at linebacker,” Beamer started. “Then, the transfers they’ve added up front No. 6 from Florida State (Patrick Payton), No. 44 from Florida (Jack Pyburn). 88 came from South Florida (Bernard Gooden), and where I’ve really see the difference is the secondary. All those guys are big time players on the back end, the safeties that from Houston (AJ Haulcy) and NC State (Tamarcus Cooley), the corner that came from Virginia Tech (Mansoor Delane), the five-star (DJ Pickett) they’ve got out there. Plus, all the DBs they had last season. It’s a defense with a lot of depth. They play a lot of players, and they present you a lot of problems schematically.”

Baker’s Missouri defenses held South Carolina to 10 points in 2022 and 12 points in 2023. Last year, explosive plays allowed the Gamecocks to score 33 in a loss.

The fourth matchup in four years kicks off Saturday night at 6:45.