COLOMBIA – Two days after the base seemed to shake, South Carolina coach Shane Beamer rebuilt the base of his first coaching staff.
Beamer will hire Clayton White of Western Kentucky as his defensive coordinator, according to Yahoo Sports’ Pete Thamel, who completes the trio of most important signings Beamer needed to make. He hired Luke Day from Marshall to be the new strength and conditioning trainer for the Gamecocks on Friday night, and appointed Marcus Satterfield as an offensive coordinator less than 24 hours after former coordinator Mike Bobo escaped to Auburn.
Beamer still has two vacancies to fill in his team and four position groups. Still, Satterfield could deal with defenders or offensive line along with being OC (he was OL’s assistant coach with the Carolina Panthers last season); Beamer could keep Connor Shaw as coach of quarterbacks instead of returning him to a role off the field; White trained cornerbacks at WKU (and the USC needs a defense coach); and / or current external linebacker coach Mike Peterson could be responsible for all linebackers.
There are several possibilities that will be solved as soon as Beamer officially concludes his team with two more signings. But at least in terms of hiring coordinators and starting the systems installation process, he has the men he needed.
White ended his fourth season with the Hilltoppers with his third Broyles Award nomination, given to the country’s top technical assistant. Western led the Football Bowl division in defended and broken passes and was sixth in defending passes.
Born in North Carolina and a former NC State student, White played briefly in the NFL and then began training in NC. He moved to college employees in Western Carolina, Western Michigan, Stanford, Western Kentucky (for his first stint there), Connecticut and NC State before returning to WKU.
He ran a 4-2-5 scheme with the Hilltoppers in 2019, which ended in the country’s Top 25 in full defense. Using nickel (or “stimulus” as it is sometimes known) has been a staple at USC for the past 15 years.
Follow David Cloninger on Twitter @DCPandC.