No South Carolina football depth chart? Shane Beamer explains why
Game week is here for South Carolina and almost everything, from flight plans to Rahsul Faison’s eligibility, has been ironed out.
One thing that’s still missing is a depth chart.
The Gamecocks didn’t include a depth chart with the official game notes Tuesday, and head coach Shane Beamer confirmed Wednesday that USC will not be releasing anything the team’s starters and backups ahead of its game Sunday against Virginia Tech.
“On Sunday afternoon, you’ll piece it together,” Beamer said.
Beamer was asked 11 questions during his media conference. Four were related to the depth chart and starting jobs. He didn’t budge and said not releasing a depth chart has nothing to do with gamesmanship — it simply helps him and the team avoid “unnecessary overreactions.”
“That’s just what I was trying to avoid,” Beamer said. “What’s best for our team right now was not putting anything on paper.”
In fact, in a move that goes against gamesmanship, Beamer revealed he and Hokies coach Brent Pry spoke last week, and that Beamer told Pry the Gamecocks wouldn’t release a depth chart.
“I told Brent Pry that I was not going to release a depth chart this week because I didn’t want him to release one and then we don’t release one,” Beamer said. “It’s not any kind of trying to keep secrets from Virginia Tech.”
Virginia Tech ended up releasing an unofficial depth chart to the media yesterday.
Beamer also referenced back to last year’s Aflac Kickoff Game between Clemson and Georgia in Atlanta, where neither Dabo Swinney nor Kirby Smart released a depth chart for their teams midweek.
Clemson did provide a depth chart in the press box a few hours before kickoff.
“Dabo and Kirby didn’t put a depth chart out before this game last year and everyone survived,” Beamer said. “I’m sure this year will be no different with us as well.”
Clemson is not providing a Week 1 depth chart at any point before its season opener against LSU, Swinney said Tuesday. Swinney alluded to gamesmanship and the fact Clemson, like USC, still has some starting positions up for grabs.
Beamer said he hadn’t decided if the team will release more information publicly about starters before the game Sunday. He did explain that the team will conduct its normal pregame routine of running drills with all the starters on offense, defense and special teams roughly 28 minutes before kickoff.
Without a depth chart, there are unanswered questions about starters at multiple positions — except obvious spots such as LaNorris Sellers as the starting quarterback and Dylan Stewart on the edge.
Beamer told the media there are still position battles going on this week. Which positions, exactly? Beamer is keeping that ambiguous, too.
“Competition is a core value of our program, and we say we compete every day,” he said. “So, all of them.”
This story was originally published August 27, 2025 at 2:03 PM.
