From panic to celebration, inside Beamer’s 12 hours leading up to Harbor’s signing
South Carolina head football coach Shane Beamer was grinning from the moment he walked into Wednesday’s 2 p.m. National Signing Day news conference. Before he stepped to the podium, he found USC track coach Curtis Frye in the front row, pointed to him and gave him a warm embrace.
The two Gamecock coaches had a mutual recruiting victory to celebrate. Together, they reeled in elite five-star prospect Nyckoles Harbor — the No. 1 ranked athlete in the 2023 football recruiting class and a sprinter whom Frye calls a “generational” track-and-field talent. When Harbor made the announcement at his Archbishop Carroll High School in Washington, D.C., just after 1 p.m. Wednesday, Beamer was watching alone from his office, wiping away tears.
Not even 12 hours earlier, Beamer thought he and the Gamecocks had lost the Harbor sweepstakes.
Laying in his bed at 2:57 a.m., Beamer woke up to an audio message from Harbor — a message he said didn’t bode well for South Carolina. It sent Beamer spiraling into a panic.
“Obviously, I didn’t sleep after that,” Beamer said, laughing in relief. “I was laying in bed trying to figure out what’s going on.”
In this new recruiting world of name, image and likeness promises, and social media influence, these types of high-stake recruiting battles tend to go down to the wire. Multiple reports had Oregon and South Carolina neck and neck for the 6-foot-5, 230-pound Harbor’s services, with the Ducks’ Nike connections and rich track-and-field history proving as alluring attractions.
Compared with the blue-chip Gamecock recruits of the past like Jadeveon Clowney and Alshon Jeffery — players Beamer helped land during his time as an assistant under Steve Spurrier — Harbor’s recruitment involved a host of outside factors and a lot of people in his ear.
“There’s just a lot of people that are a part of things now,” Beamer said. “When I was recruiting Alshon, for the home visit, it was just me, Alshon, his brother and his dad. For Nyck Harbor’s home visit last week, there was more. Family, and then some others that they are close with.
“I think there’s a lot more added right now, and then certainly with what other schools are able to offer, there’s a lot more that you have to battle with. And we’re as well-suited as anybody to get in there and win those battles without a doubt.”
Beamer and the Gamecocks proved their mettle in that regard with Harbor’s recruitment, especially with whispers of Nike founder Phil Knight’s involvement in the process. We may never know the financial implications of what Harbor might have been offered in terms of NIL compensation, but Beamer said multiple times Wednesday that he believes Harbor ultimately chose USC because of the relationships he had with the coaching staff.
While making his announcement, Harbor said Beamer is “doing something different” and expressed excitement for being part of “Beamer Ball.”
From an on-field perspective, Harbor gives the Gamecocks an explosive weapon with size and elite speed. Initially recruited as an edge defender, then as a tight end, Harbor figures to see most of his work at wide receiver, with some tight end elements mixed in, Beamer said. But Harbor’s signing also has repercussions off the field — yet another symbol of momentum for Beamer and the Gamecocks heading into Year 3.
“It resonates not just here in South Carolina but across the country,” Beamer said. “It’s great publicity, so much positivity and energy out there about South Carolina football right now. I’ve got a ton of text messages from recruits, family friends. I don’t think you can put it into words.”
That energy would’ve felt different around the program had the Gamecocks lost out on Harbor, as Beamer feared at 2:57 a.m. Wednesday. He estimated he got maybe one more hour of sleep after he received Harbor’s ominous voice message. Unaware that iPhone audio messages sent via text disappear, Beamer woke up Wednesday morning and thought he had dreamed about it.
But he hadn’t. He and his staff had more work to do.
Around 6:30 a.m, Beamer reached out to assistants Sterling Lucas and Jody Wright to see what they were hearing and asked them to reach back out to Harbor’s camp.
A couple hours later, Harbor made a FaceTime video call to Beamer, and the USC coach tried to answer whatever last-minute questions and concerns Harbor had. Beamer had the sense that Harbor was still leaning toward the Gamecocks — but he still wasn’t quite sure. When Harbor called again with his mom just before making his 1 p.m. announcement, Beamer asked him how we was doing.
“I’m good,” Harbor said.
“Well, I’m not good at all,” Beamer replied. “You’re stressing me out. What’s going on?”
The entire USC football coaching staff gathered at 1 p.m. to watch Harbor’s nationally televised announcement — except for Beamer himself. Wrapped in the emotions, the anxieties and anticipation of the moment, Beamer pulled himself away to the privacy of his office, tears brimming his eyes when he saw Harbor put the Gamecocks hat over his head. He described the morning as “an emotional whirlwind.”
Beamer didn’t have the chance to talk with Harbor himself before stepping into the 2 p.m. press conference — not even 12 hours after Harbor’s panic-inducing 2:57 a.m. text message.
“Now that he’s signed, I’ll call him and probably get on him pretty good about the stress he’s brought me over the last 12 hours,” Beamer said, laughing.
“But then we’ll celebrate.”
This story was originally published February 1, 2023 at 5:35 PM.
