Shane Beamer jokes about rumored fight with Clayton White, misinformation online

Sometimes, social media is part of the beauty in college football. Plenty of rumors begin online, occasionally bringing true stories to the limelight. Other times, such as the past couple of days with Shane Beamer at South Carolina, the information is not too accurate.

Whispers of Beamer getting into a fight with Clayton White began to circulate after South Carolina’s loss to Texas A&M. Turning out not to be true, Beamer was able to joke about the matter after running late to his Tuesday press conference.

“Sorry I’m a few minutes late,” Beamer said. “I was continuing the fight that Clayton White and I had yesterday. I didn’t whip his butt enough yesterday so I wanted to finish it before I walked in here.”

Turns out, even Beamer’s wife fell for the rumor despite hearing about it from the head coach himself. This all goes back to his overall point, which is that social media needs to be blocked out. Beamer even called out members of the media for buying into the conversation and reaching out to staff members to find any validity.

“I told y’all Saturday, social media is going to be the end of us all,” Beamer said. “There’s another example. Are you fricking kidding me? Because you guys believed it because you were texting coaching and staff members yesterday to ask if this was true. Sent it to my own wife, a screenshot… of this rumor and her response was ‘Did y’all?’ Just like I told our players, ‘Put the phone down, Emily.’ And everyone else.”

At the same time, South Carolina is struggling at the moment. The record does not indicate what everyone inside the program wanted this season. Noise surrounding Beamer continues to grow with two games remaining, one against bitter rival Clemson.

Beamer was asked if it’s even possible to remain off the phone or social media. Outside of checking a few NFL scores, Beamer says he is doing a good job — partly because he feels as if it’s a part of the job.

“I feel like I can because my responsibility is to the players and coaches and staff in this building and being the best version of myself for them to allow us to go be the best versions of ourselves on Saturday,” Beamer said. “Me typing in my name on social media is not going to do any good. I know that, win or lose.”