‘A grand-slam hire’: What Shane Beamer said about USC’s special teams coordinator job
Shane Beamer talked about his new special teams coordinator every which way on Saturday afternoon. He just never said the man’s name.
Earlier Saturday morning, NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero reported that South Carolina will hire former NFL assistant Joe DeCamillis as its new special teams coordinator. He would fill the position left vacant by Pete Lembo, who took the head coaching job at Buffalo.
DeCamillis might have one of the best special teams resume of anyone on Earth. An NFL special teams coach for over 30 years, he was a special teams coordinator for a decade and a half, winning Super Bowls with the Denver Broncos (2016) and Los Angeles Rams (2022). After being let go by the Rams, DeCamillis spent the past year working as the Texas Longhorns special assistant to the head coach.
With no contract officially signed, Beamer could not talk directly about DeCamillis on Saturday. But he still spoke plenty around DeCamillis.
“I’d say we’re close to being able to announce something. Not quite finalized yet,” Beamer said. “But I feel like we’ve made a grand-slam hire, potentially, with what I was looking for.”
The last time Beamer had to make a special teams coordinator hire, soon after taking the head coaching job in Columbia, he had thought about just doing it himself. No one better to run Beamer Ball than a Beamer — right?
“For me, from a special teams standpoint,” he said, “(I wanted) somebody who could make us better than we’ve been already.”
If he couldn’t hire the best person in the country, he said Saturday, he would have just been the Gamecocks’ special teams coordinator. But, in Lembo, he felt like all the boxes were checked.
Nothing changed this cycle. Beamer sought out the top of the top, interviewing only two candidates, knowing if the interest didn’t match his expectations, he could always get back in the special teams room, divvy up the responsibilities and hire another on-field assistant coach.
“It wasn’t like I was gonna cast a wide net to hire a guy just to hire a guy,” Beamer said. “It would have to be somebody I felt was a grand-slam hire. And if I was able to make that, then I’d hire a special teams coach. And if not, I would look at Plan B. But I don’t think we’re gonna have to do Plan B.”
If/when South Carolina officially hires DeCamillis, he would join an impressive list of Gamecocks’ assistants with NFL experience.
Offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains was an OC for four different NFL teams. Defensive backs coach Torrain Gray was an NFL DBs coach for four seasons. Defensive ends coach Sterling Lucas spent years with the Baltimore Ravens under coach John Harbaugh. As did OL coach Lonnie Teasley.
Beamer is not making these hires by sheer happenstance. There is value in surrounding college players with former NFL coaches.
“Anytime you bring in a guy with NFL experience — to me, they’re a fantastic coach,” Beamer said Saturday. “If you’re a veteran from the NFL ranks, you know what you’re doing or else you wouldn’t have lasted that long.
“It helps from a recruiting standpoint that these (coaches) have been at the level you all aspire to get to,” Beamer continued. “To me, it’s finding that balance between guys who can recruit, relate to players and people, want to learn about the grind of recruiting and then can help on the field, as well.”
This story was originally published January 27, 2024 at 4:20 PM.
