Shane Beamer’s ‘honeymoon phase’ at South Carolina rolls on ahead of spring football
Southeastern Conference football coaches have their share of perks: private jets for recruiting purposes, a pair of cars paid for by the university and, of course, courtside seats at basketball games.
It’s the latter where fans saw South Carolina’s Shane Beamer last Tuesday, accompanied by the youngest of his three children, Olivia and Hunter. Beamer waved to the crowd as he walked onto the court pregame.
The Cockpit — South Carolina’s rebranded student section — erupted in hysterics as the man who’s quickly elevated the football program from the doom and gloom of seasons past to a cheery subject around town took his seat.
Beamer has preached for months that his “honeymoon phase” would end eventually. Tuesday, it sure felt like it’s rolling on into the spring of 2022.
“Coach Spurrier mentioned it earlier that the two things you can always control are attitude and effort — he’s exactly right,” Beamer said in January. “Our players certainly displayed that every single game this season. It wasn’t always pretty. We certainly had some ugly ones, but the one thing you could never question was the efforts that those guys played with.”
To be clear, Beamer has aspirations beyond 7-6 seasons in Columbia. Oklahoma quarterback Spencer Rattler’s arrival, among a handful of other impressive imports, will bring legitimate expectations next fall. But this 7-6 season was something out of a fairy tale.
Let’s recap, shall we? South Carolina fired Will Muschamp in the middle of the COVID-19 riddled 2020 season. It resulted in mass transfers and a 2-8 finish. Beamer — who had never been an offensive or defensive coordinator — was hired to mixed responses. His team was picked near the bottom of most every preseason SEC projection.
Combine four different quarterbacks, wins over Florida and Auburn and a throttling of North Carolina in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl and, suddenly, South Carolina football is cool again.
“I had a chance to be in South Carolina early in the season to see it firsthand,” longtime SEC pundit Paul Finebaum said in December. “I realize that was early, but what I saw was incredible. I saw a fan base, especially students, who are enamored with Shane Beamer, who love what he says. He has this infectious personality. I think he won some big games, and the recruiting is proof of that.”
I quipped with colleagues preseason Beamer ought to earn consideration for SEC Coach of the Year if he guided the 2021 roster to a bowl game. That, of course, went to his former boss in Georgia’s Kirby Smart, but Beamer didn’t end the season short on hardware.
Tuesday, The Head Ball Coach presented Beamer with the Steve Spurrier Award honoring the best first-year head coach in college football. Technically Beamer shared the honor with Tennessee’s Josh Huepel, but that’s neither here nor there.
Spurrier has remained a beloved figure at South Carolina, though he works as an ambassador for the Florida athletic department given his storied history in Gainesville. Nights like Tuesday make it feel as though Beamer is on his way to finding a spot alongside his former boss on USC’s mantle of decorated coaches if — and that’s a big “if” — the current program trajectory holds.
“A lot of coaches come in with all the excuses, ‘Man we’re in disarray. This is going to take two or three years,’” Spurrier said during his spiel at Colonial Life Arena. “But that’s not what Coach Beamer came in and said.”
Stepping toward the spot Spurrier gave his sermon at halftime of the USC-Kentucky men’s basketball game, Beamer clasped the microphone his former boss handed him. The Cockpit roared once more, chanting his name in a familiar tune: “Beamer! Beamer! Beamer!”
South Carolina’s 36th head football coach quickly noted any award presented his way was a reflection of the players and coaches he works with daily. He assured fans Year 1 was the start, not the pinnacle, of what he hopes to achieve during his time in Columbia.
“We’re just getting started,” Beamer said. “And I can’t wait for many, many, many, many more with you. Go Gamecocks!”
Beamer’s first fall as the head coach at South Carolina was a spectacle. Sure it wasn’t perfect — the offense was disastrous in spurts and blowout losses to Tennessee, Texas A&M, Georgia and Clemson are reminders of hills still to climb.
But on a night when USC’s most legendary football coach offered a passing off the torch, or, in this case, a microphone, to its current leading man, it’s a reminder the good times are still rolling in Columbia.
The honeymoon phase is bound to end eventually. For now? It hasn’t slowed down.
This story was originally published February 11, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
