Last fall, South Carolina parted ways with the football coach Will Muschamp after four more seasons in charge. A few weeks later, Gamecocks hired a longtime assistant Shane Beamer as Muschamp’s replacement.
Beamer, 43, has no previous experience as a head coach. What he has is a strong pedigree as the son of the legendary Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer, along with the experience of serving as an assistant in Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia and, most recently, Oklahoma.
Recently, Late Kick host Josh Pate discussed his expectations for Beamer with the Gamecocks.
“This is not a fairy tale world,” said Pate. “So what I’m going to do here is to define the realistic basis. The odds are great for any South Carolina coach, Shane Beamer especially. It will be extremely difficult there. They will fight the current all the time. They will be outnumbered in the squad, compared to several teams in their annual schedule, including their rival in the state, which is a game outside the conference. Everything that is in place, all of this is a reality. This is not a fair tale, this is not something where you say ‘hey, 10 games in the first year. Observe and see. ‘It is not happening. What could happen, however?
“… but let’s take a second, if you want, give it to me here. Instead of talking about what not everything is, I want to talk about some things that exist. Because I’ve talked about it in the past. Carolina fans, for obvious reasons, agree with this. Some who went to Carolina to play, they embarked. Most of you didn’t go to a game at Williams-Brice Stadium and most of you didn’t spend a lot of time in Columbia, South Carolina. As much as everything I just said is the reality on the downside, you can change all those things. The difficulty, the disadvantage of the squad, the perception, everything that is under your control. So, in a way, all those odds are against you, but the right coaching staff can change those odds.
“But let me tell you what you have in Carolina. What you have in Carolina, I want you to think about it, is a coach who sees South Carolina football as a first-rate job. This is not a true Layer 1 destination job. We don’t compare South Carolina with Ohio, we don’t compare them with Alabama. Shane Beamer does, however. It is very unique. Now, if he ends up being the right guy for the job, obviously this is the chance that you run, these are the dice you throw. But there are two programs now that the rest of the country would not consider genuine Tier 1 destination jobs that current coaches consider so. And this is Geoff Collins at Georgia Tech and this is Shane Beamer in South Carolina.
“What does that mean? Well, think about what it would be like if they ended up being the right guy. If you got the proverbial lightning in a bottle, you have a guy who never leaves and you have a guy who is willing, not to go to the edge of the precipice, but to the precipice and the whole program is following him. “
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South Carolina, which finished 2-8 last season and are 6-16 in the previous two seasons, begins the 2021 season at home on September 4 against Eastern Illinois. The two opponents of SEC West’s Gamecocks are Texas A&M and Auburn, while their annual interstate clash with Clemson closes the regular season on November 27 in Columbia.