Nine times! South Carolina’s defense dominates in record-breaking fashion

“Nine times.”

“Nine times?”

“Nine times.”

As Shane Beamer was locked into the fourth quarter of Saturday’s 35-9 win over Oklahoma, he got a message from somebody on his headset. And no, Ed Rooney from “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” wasn’t on the other line. Rather, Beamer was told that his defense had sacked Sooner quarterbacks nine times in the game.

“Somebody said, ‘Yeah, that’s the record,’” Beamer said. “And I guess we had nine sacks today, which has never happened to an Oklahoma offense in the history of their program. I was told that they’ve never given up nine sacks in a game.”

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And as Gamecock football’s twitter account went on to point out, Oklahoma had in fact given up nine sacks for the first time on Saturday. Count ’em. Nine sacks.

It was a complete effort from the defense. No one individual stood out above the rest. Sure, there were some fantastic performances by certain players. But nine different players recorded each of the nine sacks.

Outside of the third quarter, the Gamecocks racked up more than two sacks per quarter. They had three in the first, two in the second, one in the third, and three in the fourth.

“Just seeing nine different players go out there, we was actually having fun today,” said Tonka Hemingway, who had one of those sacks and a 36-yard touchdown on a fumble recovery. “Everybody coming on the sideline and we’re smiling. It’s just, it’s just been a lot to see everybody get to win.”

While South Carolina gave up a fair share of sacks in this game, six to be exact, it was a much-worse showing from the Sooners. With not much good going for the offense, Oklahoma only put up nine points on Saturday.

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Jackson Arnold, who didn’t even start at quarterback on Saturday, took the brunt of the hits with eight sacks. Meanwhile, starter Michael Hawkins Jr. was brought to the ground once before being benched after the third drive of the day.

“We certainly gave a game ball to the whole defense,” Beamer said. “When you get nine sacks, that’s really good. But we continue to get better, without a doubt.”

So far this season, the Gamecock defense is up to 28 total sacks and have finished with four or more sacks in four different games. Getting to the quarterback has been something they’ve “harped on a lot” this week, even throughout the season in general.

“On Tuesday, we made sure to emphasize the turnover circuit that we do, not just going through the motions of it,” Demetrius Knight Jr. said. “Imagine yourself in those positions. Imagine yourself getting to the quarterback, getting to the level of the quarterback, seeing the ball carrier with the ball in their arm and getting the punch, retracing to the quarterback, getting the sack. So, what you practice, what you preach, it shows up on Saturday and it did today.”

Knight had another massive performance on Saturday. He finished with a game-high 11 tackles and had a sack. The sixth-year linebacker also forced two fumbles and made a key stop on a fake punt attempt by Oklahoma to force a turnover on downs.

Seeing the defense play the way it has been, it’s not a surprise to Knight. This is how it’s been since he arrived on campus in the spring. A “willingness to hunt” as he put it.

“These guys, they’re hungry. You can feel it. You felt it in the spring, you felt it in the summer, and you feel it right now,” Knight said. “And today, we wanted to put a whole game together and show who we are. Take the dogs off the leash is the easier way to say it. And that’s exactly what we did. We didn’t give them a moment to breathe. Don’t give them a moment to think. Play fast. And that’s the result.”

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