A fight with Clayton White? Shane Beamer debunks social media rumor
South Carolina coach Shane Beamer begins all his Tuesday press conferences with an opening statement. In this week’s statement, he jokingly excused himself for being late on account of a rumored fight with another coach.
“I’m sorry I’m a few minutes late. I was continuing the fight that Clayton White and I had yesterday,” Beamer said. “I didn’t whip his butt enough yesterday, so I wanted to finish it before I walked in here.”
Beamer was referring to a post on X (formerly Twitter) Sunday night suggesting that he and White, USC’s defensive coordinator, had to be “pulled apart during practice today after an intense argument.” The post currently has 140,100 views and 52 reposts.
“I told you all Saturday after the game, social media is going to be the end of us all. There’s another example,” he said.
According to Beamer, he didn’t know about the rumor until he walked into the USC staff room on Monday.
“I’ll be honest with you, the rumor that started yesterday about Clayton and I, I had no idea. I walked into the staff room yesterday at 4 o’clock and said something like, ‘Everybody’s kind of looking at me funny,’” Beamer said. “They informed me what was out there on social media about that.”
Beamer went on to poke fun at members of the media who tried to verify the rumored fight.
“You guys believed it, because y’all were texting coaches and staff members yesterday to ask if this was true,” he said. “I sent it to my own wife, a screenshot that I had Jessica Jackson send me of this rumor. And her response was, ‘Did y’all?’ And just like I told our players, put the phone down, Emily, and everyone else.”
Late on in the press conference, Beamer gave a more serious answer about trying to block out the noise on social media during a tumultuous season, and particularly after the team’s 31-30 loss to Texas A&M.
“I feel like I can (block out the noise), because my responsibility is to the coaches and the players and the staff in this building and being the best version of myself for them, to allow us to go be the best version of ourselves on Saturday. Me typing in my name on social media is not going to do a lot of good.”
