Shane Beamer: 5 things to know about potential South Carolina football coach
South Carolina has a head football coach opening, and the Gamecocks led by Ray Tanner and Robert Caslen will have options.
A slightly non-traditional one is Shane Beamer, a former assistant in Columbia with ties to two of the more successful coaches in the sport’s history. Hiring him would be going out on a limb a bit, but he’s got some qualities that could make a successful coach.
Never coordinated
It’s not often a coach gets a head job without having called an offensive or defensive play, and the fanciest title Beamer held was assistant head coach at Georgia and now at Oklahoma. He’s coached on offense and defense, helping build strong defenses coaching corners under Tyrone Nix and then Ellis Johnson at South Carolina, managed a strong special teams group and has worked with linebackers, running backs and tight ends.
A few non-coordinator coaches have found success of late. Dabo Swinney in Clemson is the most successful, but Sam Pittman at Arkansas is doing well early. P.J. Fleck at Minnesota has had a couple good stops using a similar model. The key for Beamer would be securing a pair of top-flight coordinators.
He was born in South Carolina
In addition to having coached under Steve Spurrier from 2007 to 2010, Beamer was actually born in Charleston at the tail end of his father’s six-year stint at The Citadel. He also had a partial scholarship offer from Charleston Southern before choosing to walk on at Virginia Tech.
Blazing the recruiting trail
Beamer has long been credited as one of the better recruiters that South Carolina has had in the modern era. He was integral to assembling the classes from 2008 to 2011, which included some of the brightest stars the school has seen. Guys he helped land included Jadeveon Clowney, Stephon Gilmore, Alshon Jeffery and Marcus Lattimore.
He’s also close with Jay Graham, a top-flight former Gamecocks recruiter who could become a free agent if things continue going south at Tennessee. If those two could pair up again at USC, it would help clean up some of the roster issues the team has.
The family lineage
It’s hard to talk about Shane Beamer without mentioning his father, Frank, one of the best “do more with less” coaches in the sports history. Frank turned Virginia Tech from nothing into something — and close to a national power. His son coached his running backs there from 2011 to 2015.
The younger Beamer went on to coach with the likes of Kirby Smart and Lincoln Riley. That latter name would be important because it could allow him to tap into the large batch of Air Raid offensive coordinators who are showing promise across the country.
Left in stitches
Beamer can certainly bring a level of energy. His recruiting showed that, but so did a moment last September.
In celebrating a player’s touchdown against Houston, he delivered a head butt to one of his tight ends. Only the tight end was wearing a helmet and Beamer was not.
He had to get stitches during the game, which Oklahoma won 49-31.
This story was originally published November 18, 2020 at 10:15 AM.
