Beamer talks USC injuries, halftime adjustments vs. Charlotte, good day for offense

Highlights from Shane Beamer’s postgame press conference after the 56-20 win over Charlotte.

On plan to run the ball: “I told Marcus (Satterfield) this week that I want to run the ball 40 times. And it looks like we ran 40 exactly. ... Really proud of that offensive line. We gave the offensive line a game ball and gave MarShawn Lloyd a game ball. The key of the game was going to be to dominate the line of scrimmage. The way they play their safeties, our running backs were going to have to make some one-on-one plays to make people miss.”

“Literally, all we did tonight was run the counter play over and over again. Some inside zone in there, that was really about it.”

On defense adjustments at halftime: “The thing I was going to say to them was exactly what Clayton (White) said to the staff. We ain’t changing any calls, we just gotta compete better. We didn’t feel like our guys were competing like we wanted them to. I didn’t have to say anything, really. Clayton (White) was already handling it with his staff.”

“I had a bunch of things I was going to talk about with the defense when I went in there, but Clayton handled it. And they responded.”

On Dylan Wonnum, Terrell Dawkins injuries: “Late in the week of practice, (Wonnum) hurt his foot. Not severe. It’s a similar injury, I think, to what Christian Beal-Smith had. But not nearly as severe as what Christian’s was. I would hope that Dylan Wonnum would be back this week. If not this week, definitely in two weeks.”

“(Terrell) Dawkins is going to be out for a while. He had a knee injury. He actually had surgery on Thursday or Friday. It’s not his ACL. Hopefully, we’ll be able to get him back. It’ll probably be a month, six weeks at the most. So as we go into November, would hope that he’d be able to get back.”

On Marshawn Lloyd’s performance: “We’re all for two-sport athletes around here. We’re recruiting one right now that would be an unbelievable track athlete and football player here as well. That was good. I was proud of MarShawn and he’s gotten better as well. He ran the ball with bad intentions tonight. And I like all those backs. MarShawn, CBS got in there and did some good things. Juju did some good things. Good to see him score late as well. ”

“I’m sure he has (hurdled a teammate in practice). I think everybody on that sideline was excited when he did it, though. ... MarShawn’s a super talented player.”

On improved offensive performance: “I don’t know if our guys were pressing a lot and wanting it too bad the last couple of weeks, but that’s all we talked about all week. It’s all we talked about at the hotel. It’s what we talked about before the game. Just relax and go play, man. You work your butt off during the week. Saturday should be the fun part. Let’s play with great energy out there tonight. And so I was proud to see our offensive line do that, but just really proud of all of our guys to be able to enjoy. Winning is not easy, and we’re gonna savor every win around here and learn from it, good and bad.”

“We’re still a work in progress offensively. Yes, we return the offensive line, but it’s a new quarterback and MarShawn wasn’t the starter at running back all year long. Austin Stogner is new and Juice Wells is new. You saw Corey Rucker out there tonight. So it’s a lot of new faces for sure. And I think Satt and Spencer and everybody is trying to continue to figure out who we are and what gives us the best chance to be successful each week.”