How Pete Lembo, the ‘ultimate team player,’ adds stability to USC football staff
Shane Beamer said it was going to take time to put his staff together. He also said surprise job openings at places like Auburn could change the coaching landscape.
So far, the South Carolina football coach has been right on both fronts — more than he’d like to be.
Offensive coordinator Mike Bobo, offensive line coach Will Friend and now defensive line coach Tracy Rocker have all defected to Auburn, upending a South Carolina staff that had barely been together two weeks.
On Monday, Beamer talked about finding assistants “who want to be here.” He said he’d learn from his “mistakes,” adding, “I know there’s a sense of urgency (among fans) because the staff is not complete, but I only get one opportunity to get this staff right.”
Abrupt departures. Players in the transfer portal. Running on adrenaline. Such is life for a first-time head coach, particularly one in the Southeastern Conference.
But in all of the volatility swirling around Beamer’s staff in recent days, it can be easy to overlook some of the decisions he’s gotten right.
There’s a reason why special teams coordinator Pete Lembo was among the first hires Beamer announced. And there’s a reason why Beamer named the 50-year-old his associate head coach. At times like these, Lembo is exactly the kind of stabilizing force Beamer needs in his corner.
Even though Beamer is the son of hall of fame coach Frank Beamer and has prepared his whole life to be a head coach, he’s still a first-time head coach. And he’s acknowledged the need to surround himself with experience.
Lembo was 31 years old when he took his first head coaching job at Lehigh in 2001, and part of his job is helping Beamer, 43, make that same transition.
“I will do whatever Shane needs me to do, and I’ll be happy to do it,” Lembo said after he was hired. “And I would anticipate that once everything comes together, I’ll be playing off Shane a little bit if there’s some place he needs me to be, because he can’t be there.
“… I need to be adaptable, I need to be flexible. If my role evolves and changes over time, I will be glad to do that and excited about doing that.”
That adaptability becomes all the more important as the coaching staff has yet to be finalized.
It also makes all the sense in the world that Beamer’s associate head coach would be his special teams coordinator. After all, his father earned a reputation for being a special teams savant, and Shane is an accomplished special teams coach himself. He admitted if he couldn’t hire an “elite” special teams coordinator, he probably wouldn’t have hired one at all.
Lembo has, in some ways, taken the opposite career journey as Beamer. He was a head coach for 15 years from 2001 to 2015, coaching at Lehigh, Elon and Ball State. But he said his affinity for special teams grew throughout that stretch, and he’s since reinvented himself as a coordinator, working at Maryland, Rice and most recently Memphis. His 2019 Tigers group ranked in the top-10 nationally in six different special teams categories.
“I think the key to making that move was — let’s face it, there’s some big egos in our profession and in every profession, and you need to have some degree of ego to do your job with confidence,” Lembo said. “But … while I am confident in what I do and how I do it and how I go about things, I do think I haven’t forgotten where I’ve come from and that I’m a humble, respectful person. And that made it a lot easier for me to make that move when I did.
“There were some head coaches that I talked to that said they would never want to do that ... and that wasn’t my approach whatsoever.”
That lack of ego, that humility, undoubtedly factors into Beamer’s trust in Lembo. Beamer made clear just how much he doesn’t like that sort of thing when he said Monday that he’s not going to hire a coach “because he’s got a famous last name or because he’s coached in the SEC for 20 years.”
Lembo seemingly fits the archetype that Beamer is looking for in his coaches: loyal, authentic, passionate. More than just a love for special teams, Lembo and Beamer have connected over a bond for history. They share similar philosophies on the importance of connecting with their players and developing relationships off the field.
“I’m the head coach; I got to make final decisions,” Beamer said. “But I certainly think that when you have guys like (Lembo), guys that have sat in that chair and then understand the issues that you have to deal with, it certainly will help me and make my job easier.”
Lembo seems up to the task.
“Those 15 years of experience as a head coach, and I’m somewhat analytical in my thinking, always trying to see the big picture,” Lembo said. “Always trying to be a team player. And how can we solve this problem in the best interest of the football program and the best interest of these kids and putting our team in the best position to win?
“And that’s something I will always do. I’ve got to be the ultimate team player in my role.”
