Shane Beamer’s perspective on South Carolina’s bowl cancellation, what’s next
South Carolina football’s current head coach, Shane Beamer, cut to the chase. He’d been asked about what exactly caused the Gamecocks to have to cancel their Gasparilla Bowl trip, one where he would not have been coaching, during a Wednesday radio interview with Fox Sports 1400 in Spartanburg, and he laid it plain.
“COVID, period,” Beamer said. “There was certainly an issue, a little bit of an issue on the team and especially an issue within the coaching staff, particularly on one side of the ball. You’ve got to make sure you’re in position to play and coach and give these young men the best chance.”
There had been a report of some dissatisfaction on the team about interim coach Mike Bobo, but Beamer said he didn’t see any of that.
He saw something quite the opposite.
“There were a lot of hurt guys in the team meeting (Tuesday) when I went into it,” Beamer said. “I met with a bunch of them after the meeting individually and this wasn’t a case of a team not wanting to go play. There were a bunch of hurt guys that wanted to go compete one more time. I had some guys in my office afterwards that were almost in tears, just upset about the opportunity (lost).”
He told some of them to use the time to get home, get refreshed and recharge.
With the bowl game done, the program turns forward.
He mentioned in that interview and others that he wasn’t coaching the bowl because he was not the coach of the 2020 Gamecocks, so it wasn’t his place to be part of their final game. That was left to interim coach Mike Bobo and most of the remaining staff.
Some members of that staff are staying around, likely Bobo and running backs coach Des Kitchings among them, while at least five others are set to move on.
The team has at least one coach, former USC quarterback Erik Kimrey, locked in and could add more staffers soon.
New staff, new era for the Gamecocks
With no bowl, players were able to disperse and get home for the holidays. At least two, Jammie Robinson and John Dixon, put their names in the transfer portal.
But in the wake of the bowl cancellation, Beamer gave a message to his team. The 2020 season is done, and whatever comes next starts now. A new staff is coming together as the program embarks on a new era. Players will get a little break, and things will speed up when they’re back at the start of January.
“When the decision was made, I addressed the team yesterday,” Beamer said. “We had a team meeting immediately afterwards, and I talked to them and the one thing we talked about was, I’ve been talking to them about finishing out this bowl games and the 2020 season the right way. When they come back to Columbia, it’s full speed ahead on 2021. Everything else is in the past.
“The main thing I said was that 2021 season begins now. … Whether they agreed with the decision not to play or they didn’t agree with it, we all needed to come together and needed to be unified going forward, and that’s what we’re going to do.”
This story was originally published December 24, 2020 at 9:27 AM.
