Shane Beamer has South Carolina where it needs to be: teeming with hope

When talking about the South Carolina football program entering a new era — really any new era — consider the serotinous pine cone.

Yep, that’s how we’re starting this. That particular sort of pine cone can only open up and release its seeds when a forest fire sweeps through, a moment of hope and rebirth coming through destruction.

This is the pattern of college football.

Coaching eras either go bad or go stale. If there isn’t constant winning and a steady rise, eventually there usually has to be a jolt of something new, a restart. It’s an injection of hope that someone a fan base hasn’t seen can do something new.

This is what Shane Beamer stepped into in South Carolina.

In many ways, he’s done the things a coach needs to before his team can actually win any games. He retained enough of the former recruiting class to save face, and then went on the kind of early summer recruiting run that gets attention and buzz.

It also doesn’t hurt that Beamer is more outward-facing that his predecessor. He seems to like being at events, cutting up. Re-enacting the Steve Spurrier Arby’s shot doesn’t win a game in September, but it builds good will and a sense of fun before a team can get on the field.

This matters because a coach building up the mood and building up the good feelings has payoff down the line. Had Will Muschamp’s last team been more competitive, and not put fans in a horrendous mood at halftime three weeks in a row, perhaps there’s more rope for him instead of a mid-season firing.

Gamecock fans have seemed to take to the idea of the Beamer era by and large. He’s still a first-time head coach with an atypical background for someone getting that role in the SEC, but the confidence level seems to be in a good spot as the season begins Saturday night.

Still, it’s worth remembering that Muschamp was extended the same courtesy at points. His first and second recruiting classes had some pieces fans could get excited about. He even delivered two overachieving seasons to start his run in Columbia.

But still, things were not built in a way to maintain. By the end, South Carolina had a batch of NFL players but also struggled fielding any defensive unit that couldn’t get picked on. That’s not to mention a receivers group that turned paper thin and an offensive line that struggled to keep the quarterback upright.

One big thing that helped Muschamp was a roster with a few inherited NFL pieces, despite the sense of an empty cupboard when he arrived.

It’s unclear if the current roster has a set of players like Hayden Hurst, Rashad Fenton and Deebo Samuel, or someone in the pipeline like a Bryan Edwards. That group helped allow the last hot start for a new coach.

We’re closing in on the moment where Beamer will get to prove what this team can be. He has a few pieces, a schedule that’s tricky and a lot of work to do.

But for now, he’s done much of the work a new coach needs to.

Tenures good an bad can start with the same buzz, the same generated feeling of momentum, the same building of confidence. But fewer good runs start without those things.

So in the moment, after the fire tore through the program, he’s taken a few of the steps to build the hope for that rebirth in a new era.