Mike Furrey hired as USC’s third WRs coach in two months. Here are contract details
South Carolina has its new wide receivers coach — again.
The South Carolina board of trustees’ governance committee approved the contract Thursday for new South Carolina wide receivers coach Mike Furrey, who signed a two-year deal that runs through Dec. 31, 2025 and will pay him $425,000 a year.
The hire should wrap up what’s been a bizarre two months for Shane Beamer’s coaching staff. He fired one assistant — running backs coach Montario Hardesty — and saw two leave to take head coaching gigs.
He demoted Justin Stepp from wide receivers to tight ends coach — a move that ended with Stepp leaving for Illinois. Then the guy Beamer hired to replace Stepp — James Coley — only lasted at USC for 43 days before bolting to Georgia.
Furrey is the Gamecocks’ third wide receivers coach in less than two months and USC’s fifth assistant coaching hire of the offseason. Earlier this offseason, Beamer hired Marquel Blackwell (RBs), Joe DeCamillis (ST coordinator), Shawn Elliott (tight ends/run-game coordinator) and Coley, who owes the Gamecocks a $450,000 buyout for his blink-and-you-missed-it stint.
And it seems like the South Carolina board wanted to deter the next guy from leaving as quickly. If Furrey leaves before July, he’ll owe South Carolina $850,000, with the buyout dropping to $350,000 on July 1.
Who is Mike Furrey?
Furrey comes to Columbia after his second stint as the head coach of Limestone University, a Division II program in Gaffney, South Carolina. He inherited an 0-9 program in 2022 and guided the Saints to back-to-back 8-4 campaigns.
He is the second sitting head coach that has left this offseason to become an assistant on Beamer’s staff. A few weeks ago, Elliott resigned as Georgia State’s head coach to move closer to his family and become the Gamecocks run-game coordinator and tight ends coach.
Furrey’s journey to South Carolina could be the sequel to “Invincible.” A 5-foot-10, 165-pound wide receiver from just outside of Columbus, Ohio, he earned no Division I scholarships, walked on at Ohio State and left the program after they wouldn’t give him a scholarship. He went to Northern Iowa, quit the team, then was forced by his farther to return and became a three-time All-American.
He spent three years playing in the Arena Football League before he made the St. Louis Rams roster in 2003. Three seasons later, playing for the Detroit Lions, Furrey led the NFC with 98 catches (to go with over 1,000 receiving yards) and earned himself a $9 million contract.
Furrey, now 46 years old, began his coaching career as the head coach of NAIA Kentucky Christian before getting the job as Marshall’s wide receivers coach. In 2016, he began his first stint as Limestone’s head coach, going 9-12 in two seasons before his old roommate from the Arena Football League gave him a call.
Chicago Bears coach Matt Nagy, who played with Furrey on the New York Dragons, hired Furrey as his wide receivers coach and kept him on staff until the Bears parted ways with Nagy in 2021.
Furrey will not be the first Beamer hire to come to Columbia without a lot of major college coaching experience. DeCamillis — a special teams coordinator for over a decade — was an NFL lifer until just last year, when he became Texas Longhorns’ special assistant to the head coach.
Before him, Beamer hired DEs/OLBs coach Sterling Lucas from the NFL. And, without anything more than being a collegiate grad assistant years prior, Lucas jumped right into the fray and became one of the Gamecocks’ top recruiters and coaches.
Perhaps the same will be true of Furrey. After all, third time’s the charm.
SOUTH CAROLINA ASSISTANT COACHES
Clayton White (DC) — $1.2 million
Dowell Loggains (OC) — $1 million
Joe DeCamillis (ST) — $800,000
Shawn Elliott (TEs) — $758,000 (average)
Torrian Gray (DBs) — $675,000
Sterling Lucas (DEs/OLBs) — $575,000
Marquel Blackwell (RB) — $487,500 (average)
Mike Furrey (WRs) — $425,000
Travian Robertson (DL) — $400,000
This story was originally published February 29, 2024 at 8:52 AM.
