Bowl win gives Shane Beamer final chapter in storybook first season at South Carolina
Shane Beamer grimaced as the watered-down mayonnaise coated his hat.
The goopy substance turned his garnet ball cap white, trickled down his shoulders and covered South Carolina’s first-year head coach in a heavy helping of deli condiment as he celebrated USC’s 38-21 win over North Carolina in Thursday’s Duke’s Mayo Bowl.
“I’ve got mayo in my pockets,” Beamer said through a laugh. “I’ll be getting mayo off of me for months.”
That Beamer was doused in mayonnaise might’ve made for an uncomfortable setup for a postgame press conference, but South Carolina’s drubbing of a UNC team that was favored by 12.5 points by kickoff was another notch in this coaching staff’s belt.
The Gamecocks, for all intents and purposes, should’ve been bad this year. Why would anyone think otherwise? Will Muschamp’s firing in the middle of the 2020 season left the program in a state of disarray. Players entered the transfer portal with every passing day. The Gamecocks even watched their quarterback room dip to two scholarship signal-callers in January.
Yet for the mess that Beamer inherited, South Carolina capped off a 7-6 season with a win over a team pegged as a top-10 squad in the preseason and made Beamer just the second coach in school history to win a bowl game in his first season in Columbia.
“We had a plan of how we were going to win the football game,” Beamer said. “But I don’t think I anticipated it going that well.”
Thursday was also a win for the “keep Marcus Satterfield crowd.” The embattled offensive coordinator has taken his lumps in 2021 — and for good reason.
The Gamecocks offense ranked last in just about every major offensive category in the Southeastern Conference. Improvement week to week felt negligible, at best.
Watching a trick-play pass by defensive end Jordan Burch turn into a Tennessee interception that led to a blowout on Rocky Top was a comedic aside to the dismal offensive displays. Gaining 14 yards through three quarters at Texas A&M two weeks later was a downright travesty.
This week, though, the Gamecocks executed to borderline perfection.
Dakereon Joyner took snaps at quarterback all month. Beamer and his staff kept it under wraps — even moving Joyner to receiver during the 20 minutes reporters were allowed to watch bowl practice on Monday.
On Thursday, the former Mr. Football in South Carolina danced around the UNC defense as he did on the fields at Fort Dorchester High School in North Charleston. Joyner finished the day a perfect 9 for 9 with 160 yards and a touchdown. He notched another 64 yards on the ground.
“Everything was just kind of not going my way, but I’ve got a family that prays,” Joyner said. “I’m very grateful. I’m very thankful. ... It feels like a dream.”
South Carolina running back Kevin Harris, too, rebounded from a down campaign. Harris — who declared for the NFL Draft shortly after the game concluded — raced to a season-high 182 yards and a touchdown on 31 carries.
Touch after touch, the Georgia native bludgeoned the Carolina blue defenders who tried to impede his path. That was the Kevin Harris onlookers remembered from his time leading the SEC in rushing a season ago.
All told, the flawless combination of Joyner and Harris — at least in Beamer’s eyes — put a kibosh on the message board rumblings of recent weeks that Satterfield might be on his way out.
“All I’ve heard for a month is how awful (the offensive staff) are, and what am I doing not firing people and things like that,” Beamer said. “Well, I hope that’s a great answer for you right there. That’s why.”
So what’s next for South Carolina? Well, a few days off will do. Heading back down Interstate 77 with a trophy in hand ought to make that down time a bit more enjoyable, as well.
Then, of course, there’s the impending transfer of Oklahoma quarterback Spencer Rattler — who tweeted in support of his future teammates throughout Thursday’s slugfest.
Just in name, Rattler brings national credibility to a South Carolina program that has rarely, if ever, had a Heisman Trophy hopeful under center. With a chance to rekindle the magic that was lost at OU, the former five-star recruit will assuredly make South Carolina a trendy SEC East dark horse in 2022.
There are still holes to be plugged, too. The Gamecocks need help at receiver. A transfer offensive lineman could do wonders. As would a defensive back or linebacker import.
All that, though, is for offseason fodder.
Beamer has done what most — this writer included — thought unthinkable six months ago. He got the Gamecocks to bowl eligibility, then beat down a regional rival in a game that was never really as close as the score might indicate.
“You smell like mayo,” a female voice — presumably Beamer’s wife, Emily — said through the virtual background as he wrapped up his postgame press conference.
On Thursday, the smell of mayonnaise equated to the smell of victory.
This story was originally published December 30, 2021 at 6:06 PM.
