It’s Beamer’s 1st season as head coach. He’s thought a lot about all things gameday
Don’t expect Shane Beamer to be quite as animated as some of his South Carolina predecessors have been on the sidelines.
That’s not to say he won’t be energized, but he’s aware of all the eyes on him — his assistants, a crowd at Williams-Brice Stadium, TV viewers ...
“If I’m going over there and it appears as if all heck’s breaking loose and the world is collapsing around me, that’s probably not a good image,” Beamer said.
This year is Beamer’s first as a head coach, and he’s put a lot of thought into how he’ll lead on Saturdays. When he wasn’t on the road for his “Welcome Home” tour stops or meeting with recruits, Beamer has been at home watching college football games that he recorded.
He builds time into the staff’s schedule to study NFL and other college games, and he’s planning on keeping it going throughout the regular season. Beamer will put himself in the head coach’s shoes. How would he manage the clock in this situation? Would he go for it on fourth down or kick a field goal here?
“I think I can make the fan base happy if I say we’re going for it on fourth down a lot, right?” Beamer joked.
Beamer’s also leaning on mentors to craft his in-game strategy. Sylvester Croom, who gave Beamer his first full-time job while he was Mississippi State’s head coach from 2004-08, recently had a long conversation with him about the mistakes he made in his first year as a head coach.
The two talked about the flow of the game, balancing how the offense is playing with how the defense is playing and factoring in special teams. There are plenty of factors that go into making the right call.
“I want to be aggressive,” Beamer said. “Always have been, always will be. I’m not one of those guys that’s going to sit back and try and wait for things to happen. We want to go make them happen.”
Beamer has had a taste of in-game responsibilities at his previous stops. Lincoln Riley gave him some game management duties with the assistant coach title at Oklahoma, and father Frank Beamer bounced ideas off of him when he was at Virginia Tech.
When his father underwent throat surgery in 2014, Shane Beamer acted as the Hokies’ interim head coach. He led Virginia Tech to an Independence Bowl win over Cincinnati — so even though he’s a first-time head coach, Beamer has technically won a game with similar responsibilities.
“That’s not the same thing as being the head coach in the SEC, but at least it’s not gonna be the first time,” Beamer said.
Beamer knows the new hire honeymoon phase is coming to a close. His first test under the eyes of the Gamecock fan base is now less than a month away, on Sept. 4 against Eastern Illinois. His 8-year-old son, Hunter, told him to try not to get fired this year.
The number of times Beamer will be in the “do we go for it on fourth down or kick the field goal” situation is obviously yet to be determined, but he’s doing all he can to be ready for that moment.
South Carolina football 2021 schedule
- Sept. 4 vs. Eastern Illinois, 7 p.m. (ESPN Plus and SEC Network Plus)
- Sept. 11 at East Carolina, noon (ESPN2)
- Sept. 18 at Georgia, 7 p.m. (ESPN)
- Sept. 25 vs. Kentucky
- Oct. 2 vs. Troy
- Oct. 9 at Tennessee
- Oct. 16 vs. Vanderbilt
- Oct. 23 at Texas A&M
- Nov. 6 vs. Florida
- Nov. 13 at Missouri
- Nov. 20 vs. Auburn
- Nov. 27 at Clemson
