Shane Beamer sounds off on negative noise surrounding South Carolina’s team
In the age of social media and instant reactions, fans and pundits alike are able to fire off opinions faster, more frequently and more directly than ever.
South Carolina football has gotten a taste of that throughout a 2025 season that’s fallen short of expectations. The Gamecocks are 3-4 (1-4 SEC) following a 26-7 loss to Oklahoma, and the negative buzz has taken social media and message boards by storm.
USC coach Shane Beamer said he’s aware of the outside noise and encourages his locker room to handle the buzz accordingly — by ignoring it.
“Block it out. If you’re spending time listening to that noise, then you’re not doing the things that you need to be doing to get better,” Beamer said. “You’re not doing the things that you need to be doing to win.”
The approach goes beyond the current rough stretch. Beamer has tried to engrain the mentality into his program all season, including a sign on the locker room door that says, “Starve your distractions, feed your focus.”
“I love that. Starve your distractions, all the things that are cluttering your mind, starve it as much as you can, and feed your focus,” Beamer said.
A lot of the outside noise has to do with USC’s coaching staff. Many fans have called for the firing of offensive coordinator Mike Shula, who currently sits at the helm of the SEC’s least-productive offense in yards and points per game. Two weeks ago, Beamer made the choice to fire offensive line coach Lonnie Teasley and replace him with tight ends coach and run game coordinator Shawn Elliott.
Beamer said his message to the players about starving the distractions extends to his staff as well.
“I’d love to say they’re grown men and don’t look on social media, and hopefully they don’t. I’ve picked up my phone a couple times this week out of habit, and I’m like, ‘Nope, not even gonna try,’” he said. “These guys are pros. This isn’t their first rodeo. There’s gonna be criticism. ... If any of our coaches are worried about the outside noise, they’re not doing everything in their power to fix it.”
While Beamer is intent on ignoring the noise, he never ventured to say the criticism or distress were misguided. In fact, he said he understands much of the discord coming from fans.
“I understand there’s noise out there, and there should be. I’m not happy with where we are right now, and I’m going to get it fixed,” he said. “I realize that I’m letting a lot of people down right now with the way that we’re playing. Our players, that I feel like I’m letting down, our coaches, our players’ families, our coaches’ families, the student body, the 80,000 people that pack Williams-Brice Stadium. ... They’re not happy, and neither am I.”
USC has five more games, including three straight ranked SEC matchups and a rivalry spat with Clemson. That’s five more chances to turn down the negative noise as much as possible.
This story was originally published October 21, 2025 at 2:53 PM.
