New coach Matthew Smiley joins Gamecocks ... just in time for spring practice

Matthew Smiley won’t get to experience the usual ramp-up a new hire might go through.

There will be no training exercises or trial runs. He won’t get an onboarding phase. With South Carolina football’s spring practice period set to begin next week, the Gamecocks’ new special teams coordinator had to hit the ground running.

“He drove down here from Buffalo this weekend and got in here this weekend and hit the ground running yesterday, spent some time with our players yesterday and today,” USC head coach Shane Beamer said Tuesday. “The timing is not ideal, with us starting spring practice next week, but as he and I just talked about, we’ll look back at this experience and how crazy it was leading into spring practice, and laugh here as we go through — and he told me that he already has, just kind of looking back and thinking about where we are.”

Smiley was named USC’s new special teams coordinator on Feb. 21. The move came after the Gamecocks’ previous special teams coach, Joe DeCamillis, was added to the Las Vegas Raiders’ coaching staff on Feb. 16. Smiley will be the third special teams coordinator under Beamer since the 2021 season.

Beamer said he’ll, most likely, be the most involved boss Smiley’s ever had.

“It’s certainly my background and my baby,” Beamer said. “In a lot of ways, he’s going to realize that I’m, as a head coach, probably more involved with special teams than anybody he’s ever worked for.”

So what made Smiley the right choice to lead USC’s special teams unit in 2026?

Continuity counts

Smiley’s 20-plus years of experience as a special teams coach once had him cross paths with one of former USC coordinator Pete Lembo’s prior assistants while at Eastern Illinois from 2009-11. Smiley said little experiences and connections across his decades of coaching makes the quick transition a bit smoother.

“Coach (Beamer) and I talked about a drill an hour ago. He said, ‘Here’s a good drill, check this out.’ I said, ‘Coach, Coach Lembo’s assistant taught me that drill 15 years ago when I was at Eastern Illinois,” Smiley said. “So there’s a lot of connections that make that quicker transition a little easier.”

Smiley added that DeCamillis is a coach he looks up to, and that his system will share a handful of similarities to USC’s special team units in years prior.

“Joe D is one of my favorite special teams coaches in the business, and he and I have known each other a long time, so even the just these last couple days, I’ve had a chance to watch the drills and the stuff that he’s installed up to this point, and there’s a lot of carry over there,” Smiley said. “There certainly will be some changes, but it’s really a benefit to be able to watch his last two years and see the carry-over.”

Matthew Smiley’s lengthy résumé

Smiley’s experience, while relevant, is also vast. He walked on at the University of Illinois with the goal of becoming a coach. After working as a graduate assistant with the Fighting Illini, he left to become the assistants quarterbacks and specialists coach with Dartmouth.

“I kept my same locker in the locker room, but instead of helmet shoulder pads, I had a stopwatch, a clipboard,” Smiley said.

After seven years coaching in the college ranks, Smiley made the jump to the NFL with the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2013. He later moved to the Buffalo Bills in 2017 and was promoted to head special teams coordinator in 2022. It was the first time he had held the lead coordinator job.

“When you’re the assistant, you have all the answers. Then, when you’re the coordinator ... there’s more that goes into it than you think,” Smiley said. “There were times I wanted him to fight battles, ‘Hey, we got to do this. We got to do that.’ Once you switch chairs and switch offices, it definitely becomes more clear that there’s a lot more that comes into it.”

Smiley left the Bills in 2024 and spent the 2025 season with Penn State. Beamer said his recent college experience was another boost to his chances as a candidate.

Regardless of resume, prior connections or alignment with USC’s previous special teams scheme, Beamer said the choice to hire Smiley came down to who he is as a person.

“I believe in hiring good people and letting them coach. He’s an established special teams coordinator. He knows what he wants and knows how he wants to get it done, just like Pete Lembo and Joe DeCamillis were,” Beamer said. “It was very evident to me what a great person he is. ... He will make us better.”

This story was originally published February 24, 2026 at 2:17 PM.