Keep Shane Beamer, South Carolina is the Headline of the Story

PrestonyteParrot · Wednesday at 7:43 AM

Keep Shane Beamer, South Carolina

A few weeks ago, in this space I wrote that Shane Beamer was in his “Alamo” at South Carolina. A trip to The Swamp, a bye week, and a home date with Tennessee would define his fate, and I didn’t think the prospects looked good.

Well, I was wrong about how it played out.

The Gamecocks throttled the Gators in Gainesville and sent No. 11 Tennessee back to Rocky Top with a L on Saturday, completing one of the more surprising 2-game season turnarounds in recent SEC memory.

Things don’t lighten up for the Gamecocks. They visit Oklahoma and its vaunted defense on Halloween and Georgia comes to Williams-Brice in late November before the annual rivalry game with Clemson a week later, with this year’s edition on the road at Memorial Stadium.

The wheels could come off, I suppose.

I just don’t think they will.

“They are as talented as anyone we’ve played, from line of scrimmage to playmakers. It’s NFL guys at a host of spots,” Florida head coach Jon Sumrall, whose team has played Ole Miss, Missouri, and Texas, said of the Gamecocks.

We saw all that on Saturday.

The Gamecocks did what basically no one’s done all year against Tennessee and moved the football with a modicum of consistency. They also made the big plays on the line of scrimmage that Tennessee’s made all season, including edge Dylan Stewart, one of those “NFL guys.”

Dylan Stewart is simply a game breaker.

He may have just won this game with that forced fumble. pic.twitter.com/rfLaduoHbZ
— Chris Hummer (@chris_hummer) October 24, 2026

Saturday’s win was just the fifth time in South Carolina history that the Gamecocks beat ranked teams in back-to-back weeks. The only coaches to do it are Steve Spurrier and Shane Beamer.

I don’t think you will fire someone who shares that company.

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Harvard Gamecock · Wednesday at 8:34 AM

So in review, The sentiments of our fan base regarding Shane Beamer could be described as follows:

18IsTheMan · Wednesday at 8:39 AM

I think we're just gonna have to ride with Beamer and take the good with the bad. We're going to lose games we should win, but then he'll pull out wins like UF and UT every now and again.

Harvard Gamecock · Wednesday at 9:09 AM

18IsTheMan said:
I think we're just gonna have to ride with Beamer and take the good with the bad. We're going to lose game we should, but then he'll pull out wins like UF and UT every now and again.

If the fan base is agreeable to a sentence of mediocrity, then there should not be any complaints.

18IsTheMan · Wednesday at 9:28 AM

Harvard Gamecock said:
If the fan base is agreeable to a sentence of mediocrity, then there should not be any complaints.

Probably. In 5+ seasons he's beaten: UFx2, A&Mx2, UTx2, Clemsonx2 and OU.

Throw in a thriller against Bama and the LSU game that was stolen from us.

He straightened out the UK series (until this season).

He's beaten 7 ranked teams. Spurrier beat 9 ranked teams over a comparable time frame.

Piscis · Wednesday at 9:34 AM

18IsTheMan said:
Probably. In 5+ seasons he's beaten: UFx2, A&Mx2, UTx2, Clemsonx2 and OU.

Throw in a thriller against Bama and the LSU game that was stolen from us.

He straightened out the UK series (until this season).

He's beaten 7 ranked teams. Spurrier beat 9 ranked teams over a comparable time frame.

Sadly, he's done about as well as any coach has done over the same time frame. We are what we are and we need to accept it.

Firing Beamer would only create another coach to hate and blame mediocrity on in 5 or 6 years.

kidrobinski · Wednesday at 9:41 AM

Harvard Gamecock said:
If the fan base is agreeable to a sentence of mediocrity, then there should not be any complaints.

If it was that simple every program in the country would be national champs. What makes us more entitled than a Wyoming or a Montana? Because we spend money?

Go Gamecocks · Wednesday at 9:45 AM

Give Shane credit for recruiting enough big playmakers to give us some big wins.

'26 comes down to what kind of game Sellers is having. What happens when Sellers is gone?

I'd also suggest that we are winning in spite of having mediocre WR & DB groups without any noticeable big-time playmakers.

What would we look like with better DBs and one or two elite WRs like Deebo, Sidney Rice, or Alshon?

Lurker123 · Wednesday at 9:51 AM

Harvard Gamecock said:
If the fan base is agreeable to a sentence of mediocrity, then there should not be any complaints.

Agreed. I cant help but think what these past few years would have been like had we had a coach who wasnt still learning the position.

18IsTheMan · Wednesday at 10:04 AM

Lurker123 said:
Agreed. I cant help but think what these past few years would have been like had we had a coach who wasnt still learning the position.

SOS was certainly not still learning the position when he got here. He was 23-25 in SEC play through his first 6 seasons. Over a comparable timeframe to Beamer's thus far, SOS had, I think, 40 wins (not double checking my math). Beamer has 37.

Spurrier had 9 wins over ranked teams. Beamer has 7.

Spurrier was a little better, but he was our most wildly successful coach in football by longshot, and he was a little bit better than Beamer through 6 seasons. Not leaps and bounds better.

Harvard Gamecock · Wednesday at 10:07 AM

kidrobinski said:
If it was that simple every program in the country would be national champs. What makes us more entitled than a Wyoming or a Montana? Because we spend money?

Who said anything about NC's

Deathstar · Wednesday at 10:22 AM

Tanner would have given him a 5 year extension after the UF game, hopefully the new guy will wait and see what we have at the end of next season.

Lurker123 · Wednesday at 10:41 AM

18IsTheMan said:
SOS was certainly not still learning the position when he got here. He was 23-25 in SEC play through his first 6 seasons. Over a comparable timeframe to Beamer's thus far, SOS had, I think, 40 wins (not double checking my math). Beamer has 37.

Spurrier had 9 wins over ranked teams. Beamer has 7.

Spurrier was a little better, but he was our most wildly successful coach in football by longshot, and he was a little bit better than Beamer through 6 seasons. Not leaps and bounds better.

He also didn't have a losing season here, and at this point was in the middle of the season where we won the division. (I know those dont exist anymore)

I would also say that Spurrier had a bit of bankrolled good will given his career, and it paid off starting at this point of his tenure. What would be this season.

I get the "he's just a couple games away" thing. We said the same for Muschamp. But as time goes on, each falls further behind Steve. (Just to keep pace, we'd have to see 3 straight 11 win seasons after a 9 win seaon this year.)

I understand that mediocrity falls in line with much of our history. Im just not excited about celebrating that and relishing it.

18IsTheMan · Wednesday at 11:00 AM

Lurker123 said:
He also didn't have a losing season here, and at this point was in the middle of the season where we won the division. (I know those dont exist anymore)

I would also say that Spurrier had a bit of bankrolled good will given his career, and it paid off starting at this point of his tenure. What would be this season.

I get the "he's just a couple games away" thing. We said the same for Muschamp. But as time goes on, each falls further behind Steve. (Just to keep pace, we'd have to see 3 straight 11 win seasons after a 9 win seaon this year.)

I understand that mediocrity falls in line with much of our history. Im just not excited about celebrating that and relishing it.

I'm not excited about it.

I think SOS's slow start here just illustrates that this is a hard place to get thing going, even for a national title winning HOF coach. Beamer is 49, so still young.

He's a conundrum. He just hasn't been consistently bad or good. He's had one good season, two really good seasons (for us, 8 and 9 wins is really good) and two bad seasons. This season is pending.

I think if you told any fan "If you hire this coach, over the next 5 1/2 years you'll beat UT, UF, A&M and Clemson 2x each and also beat OU in Norman." they'd sign up for that.

I'm mostly just resigned to the reality that I don't actually think anyone else not named Urban Meyer would do a markedly better job here.

ThinnyJ · Wednesday at 11:09 AM

Piscis said:
Sadly, he's done about as well as any coach has done over the same time frame. We are what we are and we need to accept it.

Firing Beamer would only create another coach to hate and blame mediocrity on in 5 or 6 years.

I do kind of agree with this sentiment.... I just don't think getting rid of him is the answer now. It's not like anyone at all has ever came in and immediately changed outcomes. If he leaves, SOOO many other people leave with him and we have to start all over again... Give him at least a couple more seasons to see where things are headed. But we better be doing something to keep Briles - this should be top priority imo

Lurker123 · Wednesday at 11:48 AM

18IsTheMan said:
I'm not excited about it.

I think SOS's slow start here just illustrates that this is a hard place to get thing going, even for a national title winning HOF coach. Beamer is 49, so still young.

He's a conundrum. He just hasn't been consistently bad or good. He's had one good season, two really good seasons (for us, 8 and 9 wins is really good) and two bad seasons. This season is pending.

I think if you told any fan "If you hire this coach, over the next 5 1/2 years you'll beat UT, UF, A&M and Clemson 2x each and also beat OU in Norman." they'd sign up for that.

I'm mostly just resigned to the reality that I don't actually think anyone else not named Urban Meyer would do a markedly better job here.

Would a normal, experienced coach not have some of those dizzying highs of 8 or 9 wins while being able to avoid the losing seasons?

He is wildly inconsistent, but i think what annoys me about him (well, one of the things) is that when he fails, he fails big.

Perhaps consistency sums up my point best.

TheRoo · Wednesday at 11:57 AM

Lurker123 said:
Would a normal, experienced coach not have some of those dizzying highs of 8 or 9 wins while being able to avoid the losing seasons?

He is wildly inconsistent, but i think what annoys me about him (well, one of the things) is that when he fails, he fails big.

Perhaps consistency sums up my point best.

Trolling again for engagement, Lurker123? You seem to do alot of that these days.

He "wildly inconsistencies" are virtually on par with Spurrier after six seasons and similar recruiting classes.

Care to explain how that could be?

We won't hold our breath on any explanation as criticism without substance is your hallmark.

If he doesn't suspend Stewart for the UK game, we're likely deep in the Top 25 as of today.

Mike Shula was the issue on the field last season.

We're all still waiting on your reasons for canning him and that master list of new hires.

SouthernBelly · Wednesday at 1:58 PM

Harvard Gamecock said:
If the fan base is agreeable to a sentence of mediocrity, then there should not be any complaints.

Most of the fan base is.

Piscis · Wednesday at 2:15 PM

ThinnyJ said:
I do kind of agree with this sentiment.... I just don't think getting rid of him is the answer now. It's not like anyone at all has ever came in and immediately changed outcomes. If he leaves, SOOO many other people leave with him and we have to start all over again... Give him at least a couple more seasons to see where things are headed. But we better be doing something to keep Briles - this should be top priority imo

I don't think keeping Briles is something we can be sure of, no matter what we do. If we give him a huge raise and don' give White and the other coaches big raises, they will get their lips poked out and they will start looking for other jobs. What happens when Sellers leaves and/or the offense has a bad year? You can't take the raise away.

If some program comes along and offers Briles a HC job, he is likely gone.

TheRoo · Wednesday at 2:20 PM

Piscis said:
I don't think keeping Briles is something we can be sure of, no matter what we do. If we give him a huge raise and don' give White and the other coaches big raises, they will get their lips poked out and they will start looking for other jobs. What happens when Sellers leaves and/or the offense has a bad year? You can't take the raise away.

If some program comes along and offers Briles a HC job, he is likely gone.

It's the gamble you typically have to take. Agents have ADs by the balls. You can't manage your way out of those situations because of leverage in the marketplace. What you don't do is offer a decade contract for $11mil a year.

A&M screwed the college football world for a short period of time with that Jimbo contract and Clemson fell victim. Dabo is one lucky SOB.

TheRoo · Wednesday at 2:22 PM

SouthernBelly said:
Most of the fan base is.

It's always been clear you're accustomed to a much higher standard, SouthernBelly. Thank you for hanging with us peasants.

Piscis · Wednesday at 2:39 PM

TheRoo said:
It's the gamble you typically have to take. Agents have ADs by the balls. You can't manage your way out of those situations because of leverage in the marketplace. What you don't do is offer a decade contract for $11mil a year.

A&M screwed the college football world for a short period of time with that Jimbo contract and Clemson fell victim. Dabo is one lucky SOB.

ADs aren't constrained by concern over budgets too much since they aren't spending their own money. The agents and coaches know the AD is more scared of "letting a good coach get away" than they are of making a stupid deal. The fans would be as mad at the AD if a popular coach left as they would be by a coach they were tired of being kept because he was owed a huge buyout.

The ADs have more leverage than people think. It is becoming pretty obvious to the fans that very few coaches are going to be instant difference makers. Look at some of the hires that looked like a great move that have fallen flat. USC has to be ruing the day they threw all of that money at Lincoln Riley and aTm can't be thrilled with their hire of Mike Elko for $11.5M a year. Pedo State is 3-4, with the wins coming over the three cupcakes. They are probably missing Franklin about now. Look at UF's revolving door of coaches. I can't imagine things would have been any worse if they kept Mullen.

TheRoo · Wednesday at 2:46 PM

Piscis said:
ADs aren't constrained by concern over budgets too much since they aren't spending their own money. The agents and coaches know the AD is more scared of "letting a good coach get away" than they are of making a stupid deal. The fans would be as mad at the AD if a popular coach left as they would be by a coach they were tired of being kept because he was owed a huge buyout.

The ADs have more leverage than people think. It is becoming pretty obvious to the fans that very few coaches are going to be instant difference makers. Look at some of the hires that looked like a great move that have fallen flat. USC has to be ruing the day they threw all of that money at Lincoln Riley and aTm can't be thrilled with their hire of Mike Elko for $11.5M a year. Pedo State is 3-4, with the wins coming over the three cupcakes. They are probably missing Franklin about now. Look at UF's revolving door of coaches. I can't imagine things would have been any worse if they kept Mullen.

The NIL came along at the same time HC contracts were becoming ridiculous beyond reason.

Now we know a HC name doesn't get you anywhere unless you have the cash to go along with it.

The ADs still don't have much leverage though. Any SEC coach is going to command a 5 or 6 year contract and a sizable buyout.

Honestly, our AD did a great job with the Beamer situation in the beginning.

That's all you can really do. After that, it's about performance and contract standards based on that performance.

Gamecock Disciple · Wednesday at 3:06 PM

Interesting looking at the data/results. We have so few coaches who probably want to come to SC, we certainly don't have a TT gazillionaire funding our FB program, Beamer wants to be here, and yes, he has won impressively. I like the fact he is still recruiting and getting very good HS players to come to Columbia ... I have read where many do not want Sellers back. I am NOT one of them ... what he can do in scrambling, arm strength, etc. is incredible. Yes, he has missed some wide open players at times but overall, without him, we are much worse (IMHO). For those not wanting him back, who do we have that can lead our offense? I am more intrigued with Duckworth than Woods, but what do I (or any of us on here) know? The coaches know the players better than anyone ... does not mean they make the right calls, but they see much more than we do ... we shall see where things take us but one week at a time and barring a TO or key injuries disaster, I full expect our beloved Gamecocks to be in the thick of things with a chance at winning ... Go Gamecocks!

Sweetwatergolf · Wednesday at 3:11 PM

ThinnyJ said:
I do kind of agree with this sentiment.... I just don't think getting rid of him is the answer now. It's not like anyone at all has ever came in and immediately changed outcomes. If he leaves, SOOO many other people leave with him and we have to start all over again... Give him at least a couple more seasons to see where things are headed. But we better be doing something to keep Briles - this should be top priority imo

Emphasis on last sentence......

TheRoo · Wednesday at 3:12 PM

Gamecock Disciple said:
Interesting looking at the data/results. We have so few coaches who probably want to come to SC, we certainly don't have a TT gazillionaire funding our FB program, Beamer wants to be here, and yes, he has won impressively. I like the fact he is still recruiting and getting very good HS players to come to Columbia ... I have read where many do not want Sellers back. I am NOT one of them ... what he can do in scrambling, arm strength, etc. is incredible. Yes, he has missed some wide open players at times but overall, without him, we are much worse (IMHO). For those not wanting him back, who do we have that can lead our offense? I am more intrigued with Duckworth than Woods, but what do I (or any of us on here) know? The coaches know the players better than anyone ... does not mean they make the right calls, but they see much more than we do ... we shall see where things take us but one week at a time and barring a TO or key injuries disaster, I full expect our beloved Gamecocks to be in the thick of things with a chance at winning ... Go Gamecocks!

Agree. Anyone who wouldn't want Sellers back either doesn't understand the game whatsoever or is probably a trolling, non-Gamecock fan.

SouthernBelly · Wednesday at 4:09 PM

TheRoo said:
It's always been clear you're accustomed to a much higher standard, SouthernBelly. Thank you for hanging with us peasants.

Thanks for being a fan. I don't know why you recently took such a liking to my posts, I'm just a regular dude talking about an interest. It's a little overwhelming at this point but I get it.

Go Gamecocks · Wednesday at 4:14 PM

18IsTheMan said:
Spurrier was a little better, but he was our most wildly successful coach in football by longshot, and he was a little bit better than Beamer through 6 seasons. Not leaps and bounds better.

Not sure Steve ever had an OL that's performing as well as the one we have this season.
Poor OL was one of his biggest struggles when HBC had John Hunt.
The only OT I can remember making a roster in the NFL was Brandon Shell, and he only played a few seasons. We had a few interior OL play NFL off some of HBC's teams.

Gamecock Jacque · Wednesday at 4:22 PM

SouthernBelly said:
Most of the fan base is.

Thanks. That explains everything.

TheRoo · Wednesday at 4:23 PM

Harvard Gamecock said:
If the fan base is agreeable to a sentence of mediocrity, then there should not be any complaints.

What would be your gameplan Harvard?

I've never really seen anything but criticism. No ideas/solutions.

With that lofty background, I think we'd all love to hear your thoughts on the matter.

TheRoo · Wednesday at 4:28 PM

18IsTheMan said:
Probably. In 5+ seasons he's beaten: UFx2, A&Mx2, UTx2, Clemsonx2 and OU.

Throw in a thriller against Bama and the LSU game that was stolen from us.

He straightened out the UK series (until this season).

He's beaten 7 ranked teams. Spurrier beat 9 ranked teams over a comparable time frame.

He's beaten 9 ranked teams --- Same as Spurrier.

thebeeb · Wednesday at 5:23 PM

I don't think the word "championship" exist anywhere in this thread.
Gamecock fans are all about marquis wins. Many/most of the post address that.
We're an Eight win program. That number seems to be ingrained in GC heads.
You see it as the predominant prediction every year pre-season whether the prior season was 4 wins or 9.

Beamer is an 8 win coach. It's a match made in heaven, and he will make double digit millions (or close enough)
for years to come if he can just continue to consistently win 2 out of 3 games. Make the playoffs once every 4 or 5 years
and will be here as long as he wants to be. Win one playoff game at WB and will be worth a multi year extension
with a huge buyout.
And... even though he still goes after the fans at times, he knows dollars for wins, he has the best job in CFB.

Deathstar · Wednesday at 5:24 PM

ThinnyJ said:
I do kind of agree with this sentiment.... I just don't think getting rid of him is the answer now. It's not like anyone at all has ever came in and immediately changed outcomes. If he leaves, SOOO many other people leave with him and we have to start all over again... Give him at least a couple more seasons to see where things are headed. But we better be doing something to keep Briles - this should be top priority imo

We cannot get rid of him for at least another season due to the buyout, but I would not want to extend him either. Let’s wait and see what happens for two seasons. If someone takes him from us with the $20 million buyout paid to us, then Beamer will have been a success financially as an coach and we can look for a better coach with that $20 million.

Gamecock Jacque · Wednesday at 6:06 PM

thebeeb said:
Beamer is an 8 win coach.

Beamer has won 8 games twice in now his sixth year. Can you explain how that makes him "an 8 win coach"?

Lurker123 · Wednesday at 6:19 PM

Gamecock Disciple said:
Interesting looking at the data/results. We have so few coaches who probably want to come to SC, we certainly don't have a TT gazillionaire funding our FB program, Beamer wants to be here, and yes, he has won impressively.

Why do we have so few coaches who want to come to SC? There are plenty of programs in worse situations who seem to be able to fill the position.

You are righ though, that we dont have that gazillionaire. I wouldn't say Beamer has won impressively. He's won inconsistently, maybe.

bayrooster · Wednesday at 7:15 PM

thebeeb said:
I don't think the word "championship" exist anywhere in this thread.
Gamecock fans are all about marquis wins. Many/most of the post address that.
We're an Eight win program. That number seems to be ingrained in GC heads.
You see it as the predominant prediction every year pre-season whether the prior season was 4 wins or 9.

Beamer is an 8 win coach. It's a match made in heaven, and he will make double digit millions (or close enough)
for years to come if he can just continue to consistently win 2 out of 3 games. Make the playoffs once every 4 or 5 years
and will be here as long as he wants to be. Win one playoff game at WB and will be worth a multi year extension
with a huge buyout.
And... even though he still goes after the fans at times, he knows dollars for wins, he has the best job in CFB.

KingWard · Wednesday at 7:34 PM

For entertainment only.

Lurker123 · Wednesday at 7:43 PM

thebeeb said:
I don't think the word "championship" exist anywhere in this thread.

Jmo, bit I dont think any gamecock fan seriously thinks we're going to start competing for championships.

I think championships get brought up with the idea that we cant compete for them, so therefore no coaching change should be made, because no one can get us there.

Deathstar · Wednesday at 7:50 PM

Gamecock Jacque said:
Beamer has won 8 games twice in now his sixth year. Can you explain how that makes him "an 8 win coach"?

A 16 win coach!

Anon808620 · Wednesday at 8:22 PM

kidrobinski said:
If it was that simple every program in the country would be national champs. What makes us more entitled than a Wyoming or a Montana? Because we spend money?

Well, yeah.

Keep Shane Beamer, South Carolina is the Headline of the Story

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