This week marks the four months since Shane Beamer was hired as a South Carolina football coach in early December. In the transition of five years of Will Muschamp until Beamer’s term, players had 16 weeks to observe and experience the shift from one regime to another. At the beginning of the spring camp, during the availability of media to local reporters, players were asked what is different about the program compared to what they experienced in 2020 and what they are experiencing now in 2021.
Senior Security RJ Roderick – “It is much more acceptance with Coach Beamer. Everyone knows that we have had a change in the team and it is an entirely new team. Everything has changed. The ability to get guys to buy tickets early, I feel like definitely good things are happening now. “
Second-year defender Jordan Burch – “Some things are very similar. Coach Beamer is arriving, he is more energetic and trying to push the program forward. Coach Muschamp was also trying to do the same, but a change had to be made. It is almost the same, small differences. The only thing I would say is different is the weight room and competitiveness is more fun. Other than that, everything looks the same. “
Second year linebacker, Mohamed Kaba – “I’m not talking badly about Muschamp because he was a great guy, I loved him and he is one of the great coaches I have ever been with. Coach Beamer is everywhere. Before you start working out, he’s already working out. Before you are in the practice room, in the meeting room, it is already there. It will do what you do twice more. “
Second-year defensive striker Tonka Hemingway – “Both have good qualities, but I would say it is the energy (under the command of Coach Beamer), there is a lot of energy and good vibes in the locker room and in the team.”
We’re going on November 15th, Muschamp posted an overall record of 28-30 with Gamecocks and a 17-22 mark at the Southeast Conference. As head coach, the Gamecocks were 2-5 last season and he ended his career with three consecutive defeats, all by three or more points.
Muschamp’s term started well in South Carolina, winning six games in his first season and nine in his second season, which included an Outback Bowl win over Michigan. The Gamecocks finished second at SEC East that year, which would end up being Muschamp’s best result in South Carolina. The Gamecocks was 7-5 in the regular season in 2018, but a 28-0 loss at the Belk Bowl was the third defeat in the last five games of the season. South Carolina was 4 to 8 in 2019.
Under Muschamp, the Gamecocks went 0-4 against Clemson losing by a combined score of 184-55. He was 1-4 against Florida, 1-3 against Georgia and 3-2 against Tennessee. He has since been hired by Georgia coach Kirby Smart as a senior defense analyst.
Beamer, 44, returns to South Carolina, where he spent four years from 2007-10. He was a defensive assistant, special team coordinator and recruitment coordinator for the 2010 team that won SEC East, the first and only SEC division title that Gamecocks own.
In 2009, in South Carolina, Beamer was nominated for the Frank Broyles Award, which goes annually to the country’s best assistant coach. Their special teams’ units recorded five blocked kicks that season, drawing at the SEC’s lead and drawing at the eighth highest total in the country. He also helped train a defensive unit that was third in the SEC and 15 in the country in full defense, and second in the league and eighth in the country in defense of passes. As the Gamecocks recruiting coordinator, his class of 2009 was rated the 12th best by Rivals and Scout, and the classes of 2010 and 2011 were ranked among the top 25.
During Beamer’s tenure as a recruiting coordinator in Carolina, nine of his signatories were selected for the NFL draft. This includes first round selection Stephen Gilmore (Buffalo Bills) and second round selection Alshon Jeffery (Chicago Bears) and DJ Swearinger (Houston Texans). Gamecocks’ most winning quarterback of all time, Connor Shaw, and the touchdown leader, Marcus Lattimore, were also in the class of 2010.
He came from Oklahoma to Carolina, where he served as a technical assistant for the attack for the past three seasons. The Sooners led the country in full attack, scoring attack and yards per move in 2018. Between the stops in Columbia and Norman, Beamer spent two seasons on the Georgia team as a tight end coach and special team coordinator and worked with his father in the Hall of Fame, Frank Beamer, as a running back trainer at Virginia Tech from 2011-15.