South Carolina football: Shane Beamer to be named next Gamecocks head coach

Shane Beamer will be the next head coach of South Carolina football.

South Carolina football is planning to hire Oklahoma assistant Shane Beamer as its next head coach.

Shortly after South Carolina finished its dreadful 2020 college football season, the Gamecocks wasted no time in hiring Will Muschamp’s successor. With Louisville Cardinals head coach Scott Satterfield and Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns head coach Billy Napier no longer being candidates for the role, this ultimately paved the pathway for Beamer to become a first-time head coach.

The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman reported the news of Beamer getting the job to direct the South Carolina Gamecocks.

This is a significant departure from how South Carolina typically hires coaches

Beamer is 43-years-old and is the son of legendary Virginia Tech Hokies head coach Frank Beamer. The younger Beamer played his college ball for his father in the mid-to-late 1990s before embarking on his coaching career. Beamer has held four jobs in the SEC, including four years with South Carolina from 2007 to 2010 on Steve Spurrier’s staff.

Beamer returned to Blacksburg in 2011 to coach in his father’s final years leading the program. He spent 2016-17 on Kirby Smart’s staff with the Georgia Bulldogs before joining Lincoln Riley’s staff with the Oklahoma Sooners in 2018. While this may feel like South Carolina is settling because it could not get Napier or Satterfield or perhaps reach even further, this might work out for them.

South Carolina notoriously ends up being a head coach’s final job leading a college team. Historically, it has been a bit of a graveyard, as one retread fails after another. While Spurrier had unprecedented success in Columbia, South Carolina only had one other 10-win season without his involvement with the football team. The best thing Beamer has going for him is time on his side.

This may be his first head-coaching gig, but one he will be more than excited to take over. What was Virginia Tech football before his dad took over in Blacksburg in the 1980s? Playing in the SEC East with Georgia and the Florida Gators, as well as drawing the Texas A&M Aggies annually as their cross-divisional rival is tough, but nothing comes easy for whoever is at South Carolina.

Frankly, Beamer may have been ready to be a head coach by now. However, it is a bit of a shock to see him get a job like South Carolina without having to go the Group of 5 route first. This is a testament to the belief the university has in him to turn this thing around. Again, South Carolina went 2-8 this season and only Vanderbilt was worse than them in the SEC East.

It may feel like Plan C for the Gamecocks, but maybe this is the hire to get them back to relevance?

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