Shane Beamer debates how spring practice has changed during time as coach

South Carolina Gamecocks head coach Shane Beamer has now been through five springs running the program. During that time, he’s worked to build the program to where it finished in 2024, on the edge of the College Football Playoff.

Now looking to get over the hump and make the Playoff, Beamer went into spring practice looking to put his best foot forward. That didn’t mean shaking things up, though, and he recently explained how there hasn’t been much change each season during his tenure.

“Not really,” Shane Beamer said. “I mean, every year you’re kind of tweaking and you look back on what you did the year before and how to be better. Or I look back on what I did last year, or what we did in practice 12 last year. I look back at notes, and then I adjust today based on that, but not a ton.”

While, for the most part, Beamer doesn’t want to make changes each year in his practice schedule, that doesn’t mean there aren’t changes from time to time. This season, for instance, they’re down to 14 practices this spring.

“It’s a little bit different this year. Instead of getting 15 practices, we’re doing 14. So that’s a little bit of adjustment just with how we’re finishing up the spring,” Beamer said. “Because you’ve got to combine a couple days, if you will.”

Shane Beamer grew up around coaching with his father. He began his own coaching career in 2000 as a graduate assistant, working under numerous other coaches before becoming the head coach at South Carolina in 2021. During that time, he was able to establish how he wants to operate spring practice, even if there are some minor changes.

“Yeah, I think every team’s different. You’re constantly tweaking and adjusting,” Beamer said. “But overall, the general philosophy really hasn’t changed a whole lot since year one. You’re hopefully always trying to, you know, learn and get better and do things better the next year than what you did the first year, but probably more similarities and differences.”

Shane Beamer is excited for high expectations in 2025

Shane Beamer knows there are high expectations for South Carolina going into 2025. That’s not something he’s running from and instead is trying to embrace them.

“You want high expectations. Our players and the people in our program I believe embrace those high expectations and understand that with those expectations, you have to prepare the right way, that it doesn’t just happen. Because there’s plenty of teams, and we’ve talked about it a lot as a team, there’s plenty of teams every year that have high expectations and fall well short of those expectations, and it’s usually coming out of the gate as well. So, understanding that there’s a lot of expectations, and rightfully so at our place, you want that as a coach, where there are high expectations within the media, with the fan base,” Beamer said.

“But making sure, too, that’s all talk that last year at this time, nobody thought we would win nine games and be in the mix for a Playoff spot at the end of the season. This year, we need to make sure we do a great job of not sitting here listening to everybody tell us how good we’re supposed to be and understanding the work that goes into it. But certainly beats the alternative of everybody picking you to be dead last, or anything like that. I like the expectations of being up there higher.”