Shane Beamer adding another Penn State coach to Gamecocks staff
Shane Beamer has found his next defensive ends coach.
Beamer and the South Carolina football team hired Penn State’s Deion Barnes as their new defensive ends/outside linebackers coach, the Gamecocks announced Tuesday evening. Barnes will replace former defensive ends coach Sterling Lucas, who left South Carolina earlier this month to join Lane Kiffin’s staff at LSU.
Lucas was officially announced as an LSU coach Monday.
Barnes, 32, is the second Penn State staffer to join South Carolina this offseason. Beamer also hired PSU running backs coach Stan Drayton to the same position on the Gamecocks’ staff. Penn State underwent a coaching change this season, as James Franklin was fired in October and replaced by Iowa State’s Matt Campbell in December.
Barnes also got a big win shortly after Thamel broke the news of his pending USC hire on Tuesday afternoon, as star South Carolina defensive end Dylan Stewart (who was close with Lucas) announced he’d return to USC for his 2026 junior year.
The 2025 season was Barnes’ third season as Penn State’s defensive line coach and sixth overall with the program. He spent the previous three seasons as a graduate assistant working with the defensive line and has helped develop such players as Abdul Carter and Chop Robinson.
Since 2020, Barnes’ first year with the program, Penn State leads the nation for most defensive ends drafted into the NFL (seven).
As a player at Penn State, Barnes was the Big Ten Freshman of the Year in 2012. He spent time with the NFL’s New York Jets and Kansas City Chiefs as an undrafted free agent and also played in the now-defunct AAF before pivoting to coaching.
Barnes is the fourth new assistant coach for Beamer and South Carolina on the heels of a disappointing season where South Carolina started as the AP preseason No. 13 team but finished 4-8 overall and 1-7 in the SEC and lost six of its last seven games.
The Gamecocks are also welcoming a new offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach (Kendal Briles of TCU), offensive line coach (Randy Clements of TCU) and running backs coach (Drayton of Penn State) after Beamer made three other changes.
Former OC coach/QBs coach Mike Shula, offensive line coach Lonnie Teasley and running backs coach Marquel Blackwell were all let go during or after the season.
This story was originally published December 23, 2025 at 5:02 PM.
