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HOOVER — No one took the podium with more enthusiasm at the first day of SEC Media Dayson Monday than South Carolina’s Shane Beamer, and no one is likely to match him in the remaining three days either.
Beamer, who replaced Will Muschamp in December 2020, talked a mile a minute in his media days debut, selling the potential for the Gamecocks, a program that has sometimes seemed on the verge of SEC success without having that transfer into a league title.
He is familiar with the league, through assistant coaching stints at South Carolina and Mississippi State.
The league’s fans are familiar with him if only through his famous father, Frank Beamer, the Hall of Fame coach who had decades of success at Virginia Tech. That names resonates especially strongly in Tuscaloosa.
“I can remember a couple of times that the Alabama job came open and Alabama reaching out to him at Virginia Tech for sure,” Shane Beamer said.
Those occasions came in 1996, when Mike DuBose was hired to replace Gene Stallings, and again in 2000, when Alabama was looking to replace DuBose after a short and stormy tenure.
Frank Beamer had strong interest from Alabama athletics director Bob Bockrath after Stallings stepped down and had at least some conversations with Mal Moore in 2000.
But the coach never moved and Alabama went in different directions, leaving only an intriguing “what-if,” similar to the one that still swirls about the decision to hire Bill Curry instead of Bobby Bowden when Ray Perkins left for the NFL.
It’s probably fair to say, from a lofty hindsight perch, that all sides ended up satisfied with how things worked out, with Alabama’s long and winding road ending up with Nick Saban and Beamer achieving legend status, if not a national championship, with the Hokies.
Shane Beamer was quick to turn the focus right back to his current job.
“My dad got his start in coaching at The Citadel down in Charleston, South Carolina, so he saw upclose and personal what the potential of the South Carolina football program was and is,” South Carolina’s new coach said.
“I can remember all those years growing up, he always used to talk about South Carolina as a job that he thought had unlimited potential and had every resource you needed to be successful.
“I can remember Mike McGee, the previous athletic director at South Carolina, sitting in our living room in Blacksburg, Virginia, interviewing my dad when he hired Lou Holtz, and things worked out well for South Carolina, certainly things worked out well for Virginia Tech, because after that was when Michael Vick came to town, and we played for the national championship.”
It is difficult to look at the current South Carolina roster and see talent on par with Florida and Georgia in the SEC East, to say nothing of powerhouse in-state rival Clemson, a situation that needs a couple of recruiting years and some judicious use of the transfer portal to correct.
Beamer certainly seems eager to get started and, after years of salty Steve Spurrier and the dour Muschamp, brings in a new enthusiasm.
A Palmetto State talk-off between Beamer and the equally loquacious Dabo Swinney would be epic, But South Carolina fans have to hope the words start concerning into action, at least within a few years.
Beamer, who replaced Will Muschamp in December 2020, talked a mile a minute in his media days debut, selling the potential for the Gamecocks, a program that has sometimes seemed on the verge of SEC success without having that transfer into a league title.
He is familiar with the league, through assistant coaching stints at South Carolina and Mississippi State.
The league’s fans are familiar with him if only through his famous father, Frank Beamer, the Hall of Fame coach who had decades of success at Virginia Tech. That names resonates especially strongly in Tuscaloosa.
“I can remember a couple of times that the Alabama job came open and Alabama reaching out to him at Virginia Tech for sure,” Shane Beamer said.
Those occasions came in 1996, when Mike DuBose was hired to replace Gene Stallings, and again in 2000, when Alabama was looking to replace DuBose after a short and stormy tenure.
Frank Beamer had strong interest from Alabama athletics director Bob Bockrath after Stallings stepped down and had at least some conversations with Mal Moore in 2000.
But the coach never moved and Alabama went in different directions, leaving only an intriguing “what-if,” similar to the one that still swirls about the decision to hire Bill Curry instead of Bobby Bowden when Ray Perkins left for the NFL.
It’s probably fair to say, from a lofty hindsight perch, that all sides ended up satisfied with how things worked out, with Alabama’s long and winding road ending up with Nick Saban and Beamer achieving legend status, if not a national championship, with the Hokies.
Shane Beamer was quick to turn the focus right back to his current job.
“My dad got his start in coaching at The Citadel down in Charleston, South Carolina, so he saw upclose and personal what the potential of the South Carolina football program was and is,” South Carolina’s new coach said.
“I can remember all those years growing up, he always used to talk about South Carolina as a job that he thought had unlimited potential and had every resource you needed to be successful.
“I can remember Mike McGee, the previous athletic director at South Carolina, sitting in our living room in Blacksburg, Virginia, interviewing my dad when he hired Lou Holtz, and things worked out well for South Carolina, certainly things worked out well for Virginia Tech, because after that was when Michael Vick came to town, and we played for the national championship.”
It is difficult to look at the current South Carolina roster and see talent on par with Florida and Georgia in the SEC East, to say nothing of powerhouse in-state rival Clemson, a situation that needs a couple of recruiting years and some judicious use of the transfer portal to correct.
Beamer certainly seems eager to get started and, after years of salty Steve Spurrier and the dour Muschamp, brings in a new enthusiasm.
A Palmetto State talk-off between Beamer and the equally loquacious Dabo Swinney would be epic, But South Carolina fans have to hope the words start concerning into action, at least within a few years.
