More football, more recruiting: Connor Shaw’s role with Gamecocks to evolve
New South Carolina football coach Shane Beamer has assembled the majority of his first staff, announcing seven assistant coaches. But for many Gamecock fans, one of the most important names included in an official press release wasn’t one of the position coaches.
“Connor Shaw will return in a to-be-determined, off-the-field role within the football program,” the statement read.
Shaw, the winningest quarterback in USC history, graduated in 2014 but returned to the program in 2020 to serve as director of player development, an off-field role held previously by another program legend in Marcus Lattimore. But when coach Will Muschamp was fired in early December, Shaw was pressed into action as the team’s interim QBs coach, helping offensive coordinator and interim head coach Mike Bobo.
Once Beamer was hired, the question was whether Shaw would return to his original role or make the switch full-time to the field. One thing that wasn’t up for debate, Beamer said, was not retaining Shaw in any capacity.
“The day that I walked in the building and I met with Connor Shaw, he sat down in my office, and the first thing I said to him is, ‘Under no circumstances am I letting you walk out of this building and not be part of this program,’” Beamer said. “He is everything that’s right about South Carolina football, and I was not going to let him walk out that building and go anywhere else, even if that was off-campus or on-campus, across campus to work in the administration.”
Shaw represents an obvious connection to South Carolina’s most recent era of success, helping lead the team during its stretch of 11-win seasons from 2011-2013. And while Beamer’s tenure as an assistant at South Carolina only coincided briefly with Shaw’s time as a player in 2010, he clearly appreciated how beloved Shaw remains around the program.
As it turned out, though, Beamer and Shaw decided he wouldn’t be the quarterbacks coach. He also won’t just be the director of player development, though that may still factor into his new role.
As of last week, Beamer still didn’t have an exact title to describe Shaw’s place and responsibilities within the program. But he did say that while it would not be on the field, it would involve some new duties.
“I told him we had to make sure it was the right fit for both of us, with his role going forward. And I believe that it is. We’ve had some good conversations. He and I are still kind of working through the specifics of exactly what his role is going to be going forward, but I can tell you that he will have more involvement on the football side of things,” Beamer said. “He wants to continue in the role that he’s in, in a lot of ways, but he also wants to be more involved with things from a football aspect of it, a recruiting aspect of it.”
Beamer said he did give some thought to putting Shaw on the field during games. In the end, however, he said they both agreed this new, different role would be best.
“He’s excited about this position. We certainly talked about on-field positions, we talked about off-field positions, and I wanted to do what was right for Connor, and Connor wanted to do what was right for South Carolina. I’m confident and very certain that we’re both on the same page with that going forward and really, really enthused about the impact of he’s going to be able to make on this program,” Beamer said.
This story was originally published December 29, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
