Gamecocks have ‘strong’ chance to go to a bowl, and the players want to, Tanner says
In any other year, a 2-8 college football team doesn’t end up in a bowl game.
But this is not any other year, and not only does South Carolina football have a good chance to go bowling, but Gamecocks athletic director Ray Tanner said the players want to.
“The likelihood that we will play the ball game is strong,” Tanner said in a radio interview this with SportsTalkSC’s Phil Kornblut. “It would be a great opportunity for us to get on the right track as the season ends.”
The SEC has nine bowl slots this season, plus however many get taken by the College Football Playoff and New Years 6 games. Barring a string of upsets, that second total is going to be three or four, meaning the conference will be tasked with filling 12 to 13 spots.
LSU has already announced it will ban itself from a possible bowl, which makes South Carolina’s postseason chances even better, especially considering winless Vanderbilt is behind the Gamecocks in the standings.
The AD said the Gamecocks aren’t a “lock” with two more weekends of games and some potential tiebreakers. He did say that when he spoke to the remaining players on Sunday, soon after the team hired Shane Beamer, they wanted to play in a bowl if they had the chance.
Projections most commonly have the Gamecocks playing in Tampa at the Gasparilla Bowl the day after Christmas or the Birmingham Bowl on New Year’s Day.
“Our intentions are to get our players back and be prepared and be ready to go,” Tanner said.
Beamer for the long haul?
South Carolina football has only had three head coaches last longer than seven seasons. Only five got past six seasons.
Tanner is hopeful he’s got someone who can carve out an extended tenure in Beamer.
The son of Virginia Tech legend Frank Beamer and a longtime assistant in the SEC and beyond was Tanner’s pick to replace the fired Will Muschamp. Shane Beamer inherits a bit of a rebuilding job. But at a place that’s seen some instability of late, the AD agreed with a question about his long-term potential.
“I think that he could be here for a long time,” Tanner said. “This school has been special to him. People say, well, you know he’s a head coach, he would say that. No. It’s extremely genuine. Two of his kids were born here.”
The athletic director did acknowledge his coach will have to win enough to keep in his position.
Tanner said he wasn’t sure if Beamer would return to Columbia after Oklahoma’s game this weekend was canceled. USC’s players are no longer on campus, he has to recruit remotely anyway and he’ll still have to coach the Sooners next weekend in the Big 12 title game.
Beamer made the choice to not leave OU players “high and dry” at the end of the season and finish out the year, noting the building will mostly be empty of players at this point.
Muschamp contract question
When asked by Kornblut about a report by The State detailing the size of Muschamp’s buyout, Tanner was mum on the subject, declining to go into detail after a set of questions.
An amendment the school’s board of trustees passes was never put into effect, which meant Muschamp’s buyout was just more than $15.5 million instead of $13.4 million.
“I’m not going to talk about that article that you’re referring to,” Tanner said. “I’ll tell you that there will be a time that I will address that article, but it’s not gonna be tonight. I assure you, maybe future days or weeks I’ll discuss it with you, but I’m not gonna elaborate on it tonight.”
Tanner said some conversations are ongoing with Muschamp’s camp about the buyout and those negotiations. He said he could not comment on the timing or who he was speaking to.
This story was originally published December 10, 2020 at 8:11 PM.
