How Shane Beamer landed on Sterling Lucas as South Carolina’s newest assistant coach
Shane Beamer cracks a smile as he thinks back over 15 years.
He jokes that the old hats on a media call Friday will remember former South Carolina defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder — who worked at South Carolina for a month before jumping back into the NFL.
The only recruiting trip VanGorder made as an assistant coach at USC? That was a joint venture with Beamer to chat with class of 2007 three-star linebacker Sterling Lucas in Orangeburg.
“Coach VanGorder and I had lunch at Cracker Barrel and that might be the last time I saw him was right after that,” Beamer quipped.
Lucas never ended up at South Carolina as a player. Friday, though, he was officially hired as the Gamecocks’ new outside linebackers and edge rushers coach during a USC board of trustees meeting. He replaces Mike Peterson, who left South Carolina for Florida last week.
Ten days and three in-person interviews later, Beamer spoke with reporters about his first major hire of the offseason in his first media press conference since USC defeated North Carolina 38-21 in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl on Dec. 30.
“For whatever reason (Lucas) chose to go to N.C. State and had a great career there,” Beamer said. “But (he’s) somebody that I’ve kept in touch with.”
The familiarity between Lucas and Beamer dates back to the latter’s aforementioned time as an assistant coach on Steve Spurrier’s staff.
The former Wolfpack linebacker also has ties to South Carolina defensive coordinator Clayton White from his time on the N.C. State staff. Both played at the ACC school in Raleigh. Lucas also worked on Dave Doeren’s staff first as a strength and conditioning graduate assistant and later as a defensive graduate assistant. White overlapped with Lucas between 2013 and 2015 as the special teams coordinator and safeties coach.
“There is a connection with Coach White going back to the N.C. State days — that certainly helped,” Beamer said. “But that wasn’t the reason (Lucas) was hired. He was hired because he’s the best guy to give us a chance to continue to elevate the performance of the guys in that room. And the people on our defense, we’re excited about getting him here.”
Lucas has since spent the bulk of his time in the NFL. He worked for five years on the Baltimore Ravens’ staff in a handful of different capacities. When Joe Cullen was hired from Baltimore to become Jacksonville’s defensive coordinator this year, he brought Lucas along as an assistant defensive line coach.
NFL pedigree is a plus. The biggest question mark with Lucas — which Beamer addressed on Friday — is how he might fit as a recruiter at the college level.
“Any time you hire a guy from the NFL that hasn’t recruited, that’s always something that’s in the back of your mind,” Beamer said. “But after being around him and just seeing his work ethic, his hunger and desire to recruit, his personality and his ability to relate with people, I have no doubt he’ll be a fantastic recruiter.”
Lucas will make $350,000 annually in the two-year contract approved in Friday’s meeting. The deal runs through Dec. 31, 2023.
He takes over an edge group headlined by Jordan Strachan and former five-star recruit Jordan Burch, but loses stalwarts Aaron Sterling and Kingsley “JJ” Enagbare to the NFL.
Beamer noted defensive line coach Jimmy Lindsey was included in the interview process for the staff change due to the overlap between his group and what now falls under Lucas.
“Sterling’s got a lot of experience with different positions on that defense,” Beamer said. “And I feel he’s got flexibility that he could coach about anything and bring knowledge to that defensive room to continue to help our defense advance and continue to be multiple and get a little better each year.”
This story was originally published January 15, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
