Shane Beamer opens up on Lovasea Carroll situation, how he's still impacting program

Lovasea Carroll may have retired from playing football, but he isn’t leaving the South Carolina program any time soon. After Carroll announced earlier this month that he was walking away from the game due to medical reasons, Gamecocks coach Shane Beamer wanted him to know that doesn’t mean he can’t still be a part of the team.

Carroll was present at South Carolina’s spring practice on Tuesday helping his teammates during running back drills. In a press conference afterward, Beamer opened up about the difficult conversation he and trainer Clint Haggard had with Carroll, as well as what he hopes he can bring to the table going forward.

“It’s tough,” Beamer said. “…Hate it for him. That’s not an easy conversation to have, so it’s something that we’ve been looking at and evaluating. Doctors came to the determination that it would be best for him not to continue to play. So that was certainly a hard conversation.

“Any competitor, any athlete, no matter the sport, hates to get told that it’s ending and not on their terms of when you want your career to end. Myself and Clint Haggard, our head trainer, met with him down in Clint’s office. I told Lovasea that day that just because he’s not playing on Saturdays doesn’t mean that his role on the football team is any different. He’s still a valuable member of the football team.”

Lovasea Carroll joined South Carolina in 2022 after spending the 2021 season at Georgia. Listed as the No. 4 athlete in the 2021 class according to On3 Consensus, he played defensive back for the Bulldogs before switching to running back with the Gamecocks. He appeared in five games in 2022 but did not record a carry.

Now, with the news of his medical retirement, he is shifting his focus. Beamer believes Carroll can provide valuable mentorship to young players such as four-star recruit Dontavius Braswell and even some of the more experienced players like transfer Mario Anderson and returning tailback Juju McDowell. So far, he’s done well in the new role.

“He’s handled it great,” Beamer said. “It would be very easy for a lot of guys to just disappear and go into a shell. I don’t think he’s missed a single workout, team activity (or) anything since he found out that he wasn’t going to be able to continue to play. He’s still an active guy and this team and I want him involved in everything that he can be. He was out there today and very active.

“I hate that his football career has ended, but he’s a great representative of our program. A lot of people think a lot of him and we’re here to support him in any way going forward.”

The Gamecocks are coming off of an 8-5 finish in 2022 and will hope for even better results in Beamer’s third season at the helm. The transfer of leading rusher Marshawn Lloyd leaves plenty of questions for the running backs, but thankfully Carroll is still there to help however he can.