Shane Beamer, South Carolina to hire NFL assistant as tight ends coach

South Carolina is set to hire Jody Wright as its new tight ends coach, sources told On3’s Matt Zenitz. Shane Beamer and the Gamecocks parted ways with former S.C. quarterback Erik Kimrey last week. Kimrey left to coach at a high school in Tennessee.

Wright, a former Alabama staffer and ex-UAB assistant, was on the New York Giants’ coaching staff the last two years under Joe Judge.

Wright was Alabama’s director of player personnel from 2015-17 after previously working for the Crimson Tide as a support staffer from 2010-12. He was UAB’s assistant head coach and offensive line coach in 2018 and 2019.

South Carolina and Shane Beamer signed the 13th-ranked class in the SEC in 2022 last week. Wright will get to work with former four-star tight end, Austin Stogner, out of Oklahoma as well.

Beamer explains how he plans to address open competitions

Shane Beamer has some decisions to make this season. It starts with the quarterback — but running back won’t be easy to decide, either.

Luke Doty was the starter last season, but the Gamecocks brought in Oklahoma transfer and one-time Heisman favorite Spencer Rattler. They also have four-star recruit Tanner Bailey and three-star Braden Davis coming in, as well — which could make for quite a competition.

On National Signing Day, Beamer said he hasn’t given much thought to the competition because he’s been caught up in recruiting. However, the staff will get a plan together soon to get ready for the open competition.

“That’s stuff, when we get back in next week … we brought these guys in and hardly seen the coaches because we’ve been all over the country recruiting, and then we get back together on Fridays and Saturdays and Sundays for official visit weekends and junior days,” Beamer said in his press conference. “That’s all recruiting. Then we go back out on the road.

“So when we get back in the office next week, we’ll really sit down and figure out how to make sure because we’ve got, obviously, Spencer coming in. We’ve got to continue to get Luke better at quarterback, we’ve got to continue to get Colton better at quarterback. Tanner’s not here, but Braden Davis is here and getting him experience and seeing what these guys can do. So finding a way to maximize their reps at running back, as well, to get a great evaluation on all these guys and what they can do for us. We’ll have a great plan for that.”

On3’s Nick Schultz contributed to this report.