Shane Beamer already has some Gamecocks assistants picked out. What he’s looking for
New South Carolina football coach Shane Beamer already has a few pieces in place.
Beamer was officially hired Dec. 6. Through his first few weeks in the job, he’s joked often about the fervent interest from fans about who will be on his coaching staff. He plans to take his time with that process, but when asked directly about it in a SportsTalkSC radio interview, he admitted that he does have a few of his hires in place, to some degree.
“Yes,” Beamer said. “And in respect to some of their situations they’re dealing with on their own current teams and things like that, certainly trying to be respectful of those guys and make sure the timing is right. But feel very good about where we are with things.”
His hiring as head coach without having coordinator experience meant the start of his tenure was always going to mean extra attention on those top assistant positions, as much to give a feel for what the offense and defense might look like as anything else.
There have been indications that current running backs coach Des Kitchings, offensive coordinator Mike Bobo and outside linebackers coach Mike Peterson could be among those retained. Names such as Garrett Riley and Jay Bateman have been reported as possibilities for coordinator spots.
Beamer, son of Virginia Tech legend Frank and an assistant to numerous successful coaches, said his first goal is finding “great people” with a balance of recruiting and teaching skills.
He inherits a South Carolina program that went 4-8 and 2-8 in Will Muschamp’s final two seasons, but the roster does have some four- and five-star talent.
He said he’s not fully worked out the structure of the staff, where coaches might be on game day, etc.
“There are a couple different scenarios, really more than a couple in terms of how things shake out,” Beamer said. “Is it six on one side of the ball, four on the other? Is it five and five? Is it a special teams coordinator who only does special teams, or is there a special teams coordinator who coaches a position also? Or is there not a special teams coordinator? And that all comes back to who the 10 guys are.”
The short-term mechanics are a little uneven. Beamer finished up at Oklahoma in Saturday’s Big 12 title game. He returned to Columbia on Sunday and be around through much of the week and after the team learns its bowl fate. The players are, for the most part, back on campus. They’ll be around through the bowl and then home until Jan 11.
So there’s time, time to get things in place, time to secure verbal deals and accelerate recruiting through virtual means. The voice of experience shared the point with Beamer: Rushing doesn’t produce the best result.
“Every head coach that I’ve talked to, current head coaches that have reached out, that have given me advice or to congratulate me, the one thing they always say is, take your time with the staff and make sure you’ve got 10 guys that are absolutely loyal to you and to your program,” Beamer said.
This story was originally published December 18, 2020 at 12:20 PM.
