Shane Beamer explains decision to troll Mark Stoops, Kentucky with sunglasses after upset
Shane Beamer’s explanation probably falls on deaf ears in the greater-Lexington area, but the South Carolina head coach said on the SEC coaches teleconference on Wednesday that he hadn’t even considered busting out the sunglasses until early last week. Beamer claims he didn’t really see the Mark Stoops interview about sunglasses and culture changes this summer that started this SEC beef sideshow.
And for him, the decision to don the reflective wraparound shades and dance in the locker room with his players following a 21-14 road win against Kentucky had everything to do with celebrating his team.
“And just mentioned it in the team meeting and it was more about, you know, whether he was talking about us or not, let’s make sure that our culture and what this program is about shows on Saturday night with the way that we play,” Beamer said. “And our guys are certainly motivated to go play, regardless. And that clip from after the game is just, that was a joyous locker room and we had a lot of fun in there at that time.”
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The root of this SEC East spat comes from comments Stoops made during SEC Media days this summer.
Stoops remarked that it takes more than “stupid sunglasses” to change the culture of a program — comments made not long after a video of Beamer lip syncing to Soulja Boy’s Turn My Swag On while wearing a backwards hat and sunglasses.
Beamer responded in kind after the Gamecocks topped the Wildcats.
Beamer claims he had no designs for a viral postgame moment leading up to the game, but someone suggested the sunglasses early in the week of prep.
“Somebody mentioned to me at the beginning of the week, ‘Hey, take those sunglasses for after the game if we were to win.’ And so I guess early in the week I felt like, ‘OK, if we have a chance — if we’re fortunate enough to win that game, it’s something I may do,'” Beamer said.
Stoops has since maintained that the “stupid sunglasses” line was not about Beamer.
And Beamer did his coaching courtesy, too, acknowledging the respect he has for the program and coach he trolled (and rather well) on Saturday night.
“And having said that, let me say this, too: I’ve got tons of respect for coach Stoops and his program and the way they do things and I had a great conversation with Mark before the game about that incident from media days and what not and my respect level for Mark and that program couldn’t be higher. As a head coach, though, I think you’re always looking for ways to find extra motivation for your guys each week. And we really had never even talked about that quote, or that interview from SEC Media days, as a team. SEC Network’s on in our building all the time, every day. So I’m sure our guys were aware of it, but I never even brought it up until Tuesday of this week,” Beamer said.