Beamer the favorite to be USC’s next coach? Why those who know him say it’s his time
The question had hardly been asked before Ruffin McNeill gave his answer.
Does Shane Beamer have head-coach ability for a college football team?
“No doubt,” McNeill said with an authoritative tone.
Then he listed off the attributes: relatable, detailed, relates to players, communicates well with young people, smart, hardworking, leader, strong recruiter.
The next question is one McNeill, a former head coach at East Carolina with 35 years in the college ranks, can’t answer. Will that list of skills be enough to get Beamer his first head-coaching job this year at South Carolina?
It’s a big ask in a lot of ways, to go from never having been a coordinator to running an SEC program. But it might happen, as the Gamecocks search for the replacement for Will Muschamp after firing him more than a week ago.
Multiple reports have said he’ll interview, and The State has learned the feeling inside the program is that Beamer just might be the favorite to get the job. He brings a different sort of resume, having been a position coach at a range of schools.
A rundown of Beamer’s career as an assistant:
▪ After stints as a graduate assistant, he has coached corners, linebackers, running backs, tight ends and special teams.
▪ His journey has taken him from Mississippi State under Sylvester Croom to South Carolina with Steve Spurrier, to Virginia Tech under his father, Frank, to Georgia with Kirby Smart and finally Oklahoma with Lincoln Riley (that’s where he worked alongside McNeill).
▪ He long has been known as an ace recruiter and motivator who played a key role with pulling in some of the best players in Spurrier glory years.
Those recruiting chops helped him land the job at Georgia, where he helped Smart hit the ground running in building a recruiting juggernaut. When coaching staffs expanded to 10 assistants, McNeill said Beamer was Riley’s first choice.
The older coach described him as genuine, honest and straightforward in that process. He can give recruits a look that shows he’ll care about them unconditionally.
Although they only worked together for a couple years, McNeill has known the 43-year-old coach longer than that. McNeill has a history with Beamer’s father, and both have mentor relationships with veteran coach Woody McCorvey, who is now in an administrative role at Clemson.
USC alumni back Beamer for job
Beamer is a coach who has a certain touch with players, and Gamecocks great Marcus Lattimore remembered a small moment that spoke to what he can bring.
“The funny thing about him is he had so much (enthusiasm), he convinced you that you know you should be on his special teams,” Lattimore said. “He made special teams drills and practice fun. That’s very, very hard to do, especially this generation now.
“He just had so much energy, and he made it personable (with) his coaching style.”
Lattimore wasn’t really a primary special-teamer (he was holding down the running back spot), but he enjoyed those practice moments in drills in large part because of the coach. That’s also a part of the game that works with most players, most coaches and is a sign of a team with a solid base and fundamentals.
Lattimore only played one year in Columbia before Beamer moved on to work with his father in Blacksburg, Virginia, but he said Beamer is the kind of candidate the school can welcome in, one who was on the ball in recruiting and ready for the challenge of a head-coaching role. (He might also bring his father in an off-field position.) The former All-SEC player echoed a sentiment from McNeill that Beamer was a strong family man as well.
Lattimore’s words reflect a deep well of support from alumni for Beamer. Players such as Melvin Ingram, Stephen Garcia, DeVonte Holloman, DJ Swearinger and many more have taken to social media to back his candidacy.
A large group of alums got to speak to Gamecocks athletic director Ray Tanner about the opening on a Zoom video call, and multiple people said the message there was pro-Beamer. Reached by phone, Spurrier declined to comment on various candidates for the job.
Riley himself gave a blessing of sorts to his assistant, even if the team is in the middle of the season.
“I think Shane’s going to be a really good head coach,” Riley said in a recent news conference. “I do. He’s had great experience being able to work for several different guys and several different programs, different parts of the country and, obviously, he’s got very inside knowledge from one of the best to ever do it in his dad, Frank Beamer. Shane’s got a good way about him, does a great job with the kids and has been fantastic.
“I’ll be excited for him. He’s one of those guys that, I think, certainly will get his opportunity at some point. Obviously, we love having him here and will certainly be excited for him and any of our other coaches when they get that chance to be a head coach, because those just don’t come around very often.”
How much risk with Beamer?
The questions with his candidacy will revolve primarily around staff hires and experience. It’s a job he has never done, and he has never even led an offense or defense, almost always a prerequisite for a head-coaching job. He’ll have to hire coaches to put both his offensive and defensive visions into practice, and his background doesn’t give a concrete sense for what those might be (though being close to Riley’s high-flying attack might provide a hint).
Coaches in that mold, CEO types who focus on recruiting and have assistants take the lead on scheme, are not uncommon. Dabo Swinney is notable highly successful example, as are Mack Brown and P.J. Fleck. In the heyday of his tenure, Bobby Bowden was perhaps also in that mold, with Mickey Andrews running the defense and Brad Scott and Mark Richt running successful offenses.
There’s a risk element. Most any coaching hire is risky, but there’s a little more risk with someone who hasn’t had that seat before. It means the hiring process will have to identify those soft skills and project them forward.
But some of the folks around him see that range of soft skills and think they will pay off.
“There are a certain ingredients that have to come together, some type of alchemy that comes together with success,” Lattimore said. “He gets that culture side of it. He gets that everybody just has to be on the same page.”
This story was originally published November 26, 2020 at 12:00 AM.
