Shane Beamer rounds out defensive staff with former Florida assistant, reports say
Shane Beamer is in the final stages of assembling his staff for South Carolina football — and the latest assistant coach to reportedly join the fold is someone with whom he shares a long history.
Torrian Gray will join the Gamecocks as the defensive backs coach, ESPN, The Athletic and AL.com reported Monday evening. Gray last worked at Florida, where he held the same title, but his ties to Beamer date back more than two decades.
Gray played at Virginia Tech under Beamer’s father, Frank, from 1993 to 1996, winning two Big East championships. He and Beamer were teammates for one season in 1996.
After a brief pro career with the Minnesota Vikings and coaching stops at Maine, Connecticut and the NFL’s Chicago Bears, Gray returned to the Hokies in 2006 and stayed there for a decade coaching defensive backs. Towards the end of his tenure, Beamer joined the staff as running backs coach, and they worked alongside each other for five years.
After Frank Beamer’s retirement in 2015, Gray spent a year at Florida as the DBs coach before getting hired by the Washington Football Team. He spent two more years in the NFL ranks before returning to the Gators in 2019, where he spent the past two seasons.
In the NFL, Gray worked with South Carolina alum D.J. Swearinger. At Florida, he oversaw the development of C.J. Henderson, an All-SEC selection and top-10 NFL draft pick, and Teez Tabor, a two-time All-SEC selection and second round draft pick.
With the Hokies, Gray led a unit that had 11 players drafted into the NFL and finished in the top 15 nationally in opponent passer rating eight times.
At South Carolina, Gray will take over a secondary group in need of a serious rebuild. The Gamecocks have lost five key players to the transfer portal or the NFL draft so far, including juniors Israel Mukuamu and Jaycee Horn, who both earned All-SEC honors in their careers.
Gray’s reported hiring completes the defensive side of Beamer’s first staff. He is set to join a trio of other assistants who all have NFL experience — defensive line coach Tracy Rocker, inside linebackers coach Mike Peterson and defensive coordinator Clayton White.
That leaves just one on-field assistant still to be hired to coach the offensive line — the Gamecocks had hired Will Friend to fill that role, but he left with former offensive coordinator Mike Bobo to go to Auburn.
SOUTH CAROLINA FOOTBALL COACHING STAFF
Shane Beamer — Head coach
Marcus Satterfield — Offensive coordinator/QBs coach
Des Kitchings — Running backs coach
Justin Stepp — Wide receivers coach
Erik Kimrey — Tight ends coach
Clayton White — Defensive coordinator
Tracy Rocker — Defensive line coach
Mike Peterson — Outside linebackers coach
Torrian Gray — Defensive backs coach
Pete Lembo — Special teams coordinator/Associate head coach
This story was originally published January 11, 2021 at 7:29 PM.
