Class, weights and ... golf? How Shane Beamer decides on a spring practice schedule
Shane Beamer knows how to keep people happy: Don’t make ‘em choose.
Don’t make ‘em choose between a scrimmage and a tradition unlike any other. Between Amen Corner or Willy-B. Between palmettos or azaleas. Between a Saturday spent dedicated to South Carolina’s spring game or an afternoon watching the Masters.
The Gamecocks will conduct their annual Garnet & Black Game on Saturday, April 20 — strategically placed a week after the Masters.
But Beamer won’t be able to skirt scot-free from fans mad about scheduling. Those were were planning on spending the weekend of April 20 on Hilton Head Island to watch RBC Heritage tournament will surely be disappointed.
“I’m in a unique state where no matter when we make the spring game, half the fan base is gonna be ticked off at me,” Beamer said.
“If it’s the Masters weekend, everybody’s, ‘How could you play the spring game the weekend of the Masters?’ And if you do it the weekend of the Heritage in Hilton Head, they’re mad at me: ‘How could you play the spring game the weekend of the Heritage in Hilton Head?’ ”
Perhaps more pressing than having the spring game the same week as the Heritage golf tournament, the scrimmage comes five days after the transfer portal opens on April 15.
The Gamecocks are just one of six SEC schools — USC, Texas, Oklahoma, Vanderbilt, Mississippi State and Texas A&M — that will still be practicing after the portal opens.
Beamer, though, wasn’t too concerned about that scheduling overlap, especially considering the portal will stay open through April 30.
“Certainly I thought about the portal and when it’s opening,” Beamer said. “But it is what it is.”
Outside of considering any golfing uproar, Beamer structured a later spring practice schedule (March 19 to April 20) this year for two bigger reasons.
The first: It almost perfectly aligns with South Carolina’s academic schedule. Classes at USC end on Monday, April 22 and final exams start two days later.
“I like us being able to finish spring practice, then end the semester and go right into exams,” Beamer said. “We’re having our exit meetings as well.”
The biggest reason Beamer pushed it back revolves around spring break, which ran at USC from March 3-13.
The Gamecocks head coach is not naive. He’s aware some of his players spent spring break in Mexico or Florida or some tropical location where getting in the gym wasn’t their top priority. So why, Beamer thought, have them jump right onto the practice field?
Instead, he used the week after spring break to gear up for football, to settle back into lifting and conditioning before they began spring practice.
“Instead of throwing them right back into it,” Beamer said, “let’s give them a week to reacclimate to the weight room, running then ramp up and be ready to roll right into spring ball.”
This story was originally published April 3, 2024 at 7:30 AM.
