‘He’s just a winner’: Why Shane Beamer raves about Cutter Woods, Gamecocks QB signee
When Shane Beamer looks at Cutter Woods, he sees a winner.
That’s the main thing that immediately stuck out to South Carolina’s football coach about Woods. Beamer’s first introduction to Woods came during the 2023 Class 4A state championship game. He delivered a clutch performance by leading Westside High School to a dramatic fourth-quarter comeback for the championship.
Beamer saw something then that caught his eye, and now he’s “fired up” about his only high school QB signee of the 2025 recruiting class.
“He’s just a winner. He’s a football junkie,” Beamer said.
USC’s coach was especially impressed with Woods’ Thanksgiving plans. The QB told Beamer he was going to spend the holiday with his family before going to his coach’s house to review tape from their game the previous week.
If “no days off” had a face, it would look like Woods. Most people are in front of the TV watching the Cowboys game on Thanksgiving, not in the film room.
“That’s just the who he is — he loves football, loves to compete,” Beamer said. “Like a lot of these guys, ‘low maintenance’ may not be the word, but they’re not caught up in the hoopla of recruiting.”
“I think he just wants to hunt fish and play football. I like those kind of guys,” he added.
In this recruiting class, Beamer got a number of guys that have shown the ability to lead their high school teams to success, like Woods did when he led Westside to a 14-1 record in 2023 and their first state title in over 50 years.
Woods and the Rams will compete again Friday for another state championship. He has 3,048 passing yards and 37 touchdowns and is a finalist for the state’s Mr. Football award.
South Carolina has found success in recent years, perhaps due to bringing in players with that winning pedigree.
“I like being able to bring in guys in our program that are that have high expectations and are used to winning,” Beamer said. “And when you’re able to do that, it makes your overall culture better, in my opinion, because they’re used to competing for championships.”
Players like Woods have a natural charisma that makes it easy for others to rally around him. That’s another thing that stood out about him to Beamer, especially in the Rams’ championship game last year. The team responded to him as a quarterback and as a leader, Beamer said.
“He’s just got that it factor,” he said.
South Carolina’s projected quarterback room at the moment includes returnees LaNorris Sellers and Dante Reno. Veteran Robby Ashford this week entered the transfer portal.
In comes Woods, but his decision for the Gamecocks wasn’t an immediate thing.
Beamer said he was honest with Woods, who originally committed to Wake Forest but flipped to USC in the summer of 2024, about where they stood in their search for a QB in the class. He wasn’t initially the main guy on their big board, but there was some potential.
The Gamecocks brought him down during the summer, and Woods showed them something they liked. Beamer called him a couple days later to offer him a scholarship while he was on the way back from a Virginia Tech 7-on-7 camp. He felt there were things Woods could add to the Gamecocks roster.
Woods committed to USC in late June and made it official Dec. 4 on signing day.
