Everything Shane Beamer said about Mike Shula firing, Ole Miss loss

South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer made the decision on Sunday to fire offensive coordinator Mike Shula after just 10 games as the playcaller. Beamer met with the media for his weekly evening teleconference to discuss the decision and talk more about the Ole Miss loss.

Here’s everything Beamer had to say.

Opening statement

“Guys that played well for us offensively, Josiah Thompson did a nice job out there at left tackle, Jordan Dingle at tight end, Rahsul Faison at running back, and Brian Rowe at wide receiver. I like the way that those guys played and competed. Defensively, Gabriel Brownlow-Dindy, Jalon Kilgore, Dylan Stewart, and Justin Okoronkwo all did some really good things for us, and proud of the way they played and didn’t feel like anyone did from a special teams standpoint. Once again, similar to what I said last night, there was some good in all three phases and certainly some bad in all three phases. Once again, got it to the fourth quarter, and it was a ball game, and didn’t finish like we needed to. Another disappointing night. Hurt for our players, though, how much they care and how much they’re putting into it. Once again, effort wasn’t a question, but not making enough plays to finish in the fourth quarter, and we have to be better along those lines.

“That’s why I made the decision that I made today to make a change in offensive coordinator. Mike Shula is a fantastic football coach. Mike Shula is a fantastic person. His resume and all he’s accomplished as a coach speaks for itself at the college level and the NFL level. I just made the decision that I made last decision last December to promote him and believed it was the right decision for a lot of reasons, as I spoke about at the time, and frankly, it just hasn’t worked like I wanted it to work. We all have a hand in it, players and coaches. We all have to be better. But just did not like the way we were performing offensively through now 10 games. I felt like going forward, short-term and long-term, this was a decision that I needed to make for the betterment of our program.

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“I know no one wants to hear it. We’re not far off. We have been in the fourth quarter of games against multiple teams this year that are College Football Playoff contenders, and we’re right there, and I expect to have this team back in the mix for a College Football Playoff berth, just like we were last season. I expect to have this team in that mix soon. It obviously won’t be in 2025, but in order for us to get where we want to go, we need to elevate and take another step. From an offensive standpoint, it’s not just about this season. We haven’t been consistent enough from an offensive standpoint the last few years, and there’s another level of play that we can get to offensively, and it’s my job to do that, and today was the first step along those lines. So wish Mike well, he handled it like the class individual and human being and pro that he is and understood and wish him well going forward. I have not met with the players today. I met with the quarterbacks and met with some guys individually, but the players were off today. We have a team meeting tomorrow morning at eight, and then I’ll talk more about the situation with those guys tomorrow.”

Who is going to be the play caller going forward?

“Not going to get into that right now. I haven’t even met with our football team yet. I’ll talk with our team tomorrow and talk about our plan of attack going forward. We’ve got a capable offensive staff with those coaches that are in there right now. It’ll be a collaborative group effort putting together the game plan over the next couple of weeks. And in regards to who’s calling plays on game day, that’s something we’ll get into at a different time.”

Was this fully your decision to move on from Shula? How much did Jeremiah Donati have to do with it? Or was it more mutual between you two?

“This was 100 percent my decision. One billion percent my decision. I reached out to Jeremiah this morning and had a great conversation with him. But this conversation was not initiated or anything from anyone else but me.”

What stopped you from making this decision, either after the LSU game or at any other point this season?

“Think every situation is different. Every week is different. As a leader of this program, I make the decisions that I feel are best at that time. At that time, I made the decision that I did with Lonnie (Teasley) previously, and not Mike, and then Mike today. There’s different reasons for that, but in the end, I make the decisions that I feel are best at that time.”

Looking back on it, was there one thing with Shula’s game plan that just didn’t translate over into the games?

“No, I wouldn’t say that. Again, I’m aware of what the game plan is each week. I’m in a lot of those offensive staff meetings. I’m in every quarterback meeting. I know what’s being called on the headset and all the preparation each week, but at the end of the day, you’re judged on what happens on Saturday. We just haven’t been efficient and productive enough on Saturdays. And it’s not if there was something with the game plan that I didn’t like going into it, I would certainly speak up. But we need to look at everything that we’re doing schematically, personnel-wise, for sure. I mean, there’s a lot of plays last night, too. I mean, we all have a hand in this. And there’s a lot of plays last night where there were open receivers that the ball didn’t get to for whatever reason, whether it be decision making or protection, or throw, whatever it may be. So we all have to coach better. I wouldn’t say there’s one thing in regards to the game plan. It’s just on Saturdays, there’s a nine-game body of work here in the 2025 season that I just did not see us progressing collectively and individually at a rate that I thought was good enough.”

How important is it to get some wins on the board before it could be your name on the chopping block?

“Well, what do you think? (Response from report: “I don’t know.”) Okay, well, I think that’s kind of speaks for itself. This is a bottom-line business, and right now, we’re not good enough, and I think you understand that. As I told our coaching staff today, it may seem like an eternity ago that we won six games in a row and beat Clemson, and we thought we were getting into the College Football Playoff. It wasn’t that long ago, and we’re not that far away from being back in that mix. What my focus is right now is putting together a game plan, one, to go get better this week during the bye week, and two, figure out a way to go compete and perform better against A&M, against a bunch of kids that are playing their butts off right now and playing with great effort and are really hurting.”

When you promoted Shula to OC in December, it probably felt like the obvious move. But looking back at it now, is there any part of you that regrets not looking externally to see what else was out there? And is that an approach you will take with the next hiring you make to fill that role?

“I think, in regards to last year, I mean hindsight being 20/20, certainly when I made the decision that I did, it wasn’t just a rash decision the day that we had an opening for offensive coordinator. It was something that I was thinking about throughout the season. Regardless of whether we had a coordinator opening or not, I wanted to keep Mike Shula around on our staff because he was a very valuable member of our staff in ’24. When we had that opening, I know it was a quick decision to hire Mike, and it was the right thing to do at the time. There was continuity. There was continuing down the road that we were on. It was building on the way we finished last season. It was a relationship with LaNorris. It was his experience in the NFL. I absolutely felt it was the right thing to do for those reasons, and I stand by that. Did not know that we wouldn’t progress like we have, and that’s the disappointing part.”

“Going forward again, I’ll make the decisions that are best to elevate the program. But certainly, there’s a lot to this. This will be an attractive opportunity for someone. We’ve got a really talented roster on offense that’s young. There were a bunch of true freshmen on that field last night who are going to continue to get better. This is an unbelievable program that we have with the people in our program. There’s a lot of things that are in place for us to take the next step. Right now, we’re playing in the toughest conference in America with arguably the toughest schedule in America. We’re in a rough patch right now these last four games, but we’re going to be better for it in the end, having gone through this and excited about what’s next here as we move forward.”

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When you guys get together as an offensive staff to start planning what you’re doing for A&M and then the future, how much will you be involved in designing the plays? How will that work?

“Yeah, every week I have a hand in everything that we’re doing as the head football coach. I don’t go in one room and not go in the other room and be surprised by what we’re doing on Saturdays. I’m meeting regularly with coordinators and helping to put together the plan each and every week and and going into A&M and the rest of the season, that will be no different. And as we go into the A&M game, it’s looking at how we can be better, how we can help our players play better because they did not play well last night on offense. There’s a lot of good last night, don’t get me wrong, but overall, we did not play well enough on offense. And that goes back to coaching. And we got to help these guys be better in all three phases. And that’s my job as the head coach, and whatever it takes to help us do that is what I’ll do.”

Is there going to be any consideration to opening up the competition at quarterback? Are you committed to LaNorris Sellers the rest of the way this season?

“No, I believe in LaNorris. Certainly, we all need to be better. There’s no question about it. Competition is a core value of this program. But LaNorris Sellers gives us a chance to win football games, and it’s our job to help him go be better.”

Shula was also the quarterback coach, so how much of a role did that play in the decision? Where have you seen Sellers get better this season compared to last year under Dowell Loggains?

“Knowledge of the offense, certainly being in this system for year three now, the knowledge of what we’re doing offensively, the understanding of defenses. Certainly, he understands what defenses are trying to do. He understands what we’re trying to do better. He’s absolutely grown in that area. But yeah, there’s different reasons for making these decisions. But as the quarterbacks coach and the offensive coordinator, we need to be better as an offense, and we need to help our players play better.”

When you make a decision like this, do you have to do a quick evaluation of your staff to see who’s called plays before? How does that process work for you?

“Yeah, I think you look at the people on staff, and we all complement each other in different ways. And you look at every coach on our staff, we’ve got a bunch of capable and talented coaches in our offensive staff room. There’s a multitude of factors: the positions they coach, who they’re working with, how to best get the most out of that offensive staff room, and get the most out of the offense. And it’s not necessarily play calling experience or not play calling experience, it’s what dynamic gives us the best opportunity. And again, it’ll be a collaborative group effort on game days, even a collaborative group effort throughout the week to put together the game plan. Marquel Blackwell has experience as an offensive coordinator. Mike Furrey is the passing game coordinator here currently. Shawn Elliott is the run game quarter coordinator here currently. We’ve got a talented group of coaches in that room with those guys, and they’re very capable. We need them to be at their best these next three weeks, and I know they will be.”

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Have you had conversations with Sellers about what his future might hold and what he could be doing after this season?

“Yeah. I mean, I talk to LaNorris regularly about, you know, just life and football and how to help him be better. So certainly, we’ve discussed, there’s a time and place to discuss his decisions beyond 2025. Right now, it’s helping him and the rest of our team be the best version of themselves these next three weeks. We still haven’t played our best football, and we’re still chasing that.”

For the players, is it the same schedule as it was the last bye week?

“Yes, sir. Gave them today off, and we’ll get together Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, we’ll be together as a team, and then they’ll be off Thursday, Friday, Saturday. They need a break physically, mentally. Coaches will continue to work in the office some during the week on A&M and getting better, also doing some recruiting on Friday, and then everybody will be back in here on Sunday, full speed ahead on A&M.”

Have you been able to put your finger on some of the fourth-quarter struggles in finishing games?

“No, it’s been very frustrating, because you’re exactly right. We haven’t been. Very disappointing and really disappointing last night. I mean, we put so much of an emphasis on it. We always put an emphasis on it, and we put a big emphasis on it this week in practice about the fourth quarter, and all week long, we were talking about, we’re going on the road and just get it to the fourth quarter, and let’s find a way to go win it. And we got it to the fourth quarter last night, and when we came together on the 50-yard line, I believe that every single person in that huddle believed that we were going to win the football game. And you know, we had a situation there. I think it was about seven minutes left, and it’s 23-14, and we’re in field goal range. We’ve got to finish that drive. And 1st and 10, we run the ball for three yards. We bring up a 2nd and 7, we bring we call a shot play to try and score something very similar to what we scored on against Oklahoma last season, something very similar to what Alabama scored on us last week, and they covered it well, and we ended up getting sacked. Bring up a 3rd and long, now we’re out of field goal range. We call a play to try and get back in field goal range, and there’s a little bit of a miscommunication between LaNorris and Brian Rowe and the umpire in the middle of the field. And then we have an incomplete pass. And then on fourth down, we’ve got, I believe it’s Dre Jacobs coming wide open on fourth down when I went for it, and we give up a sack on a two-man rush. We didn’t finish that drive; that’s making plays in the fourth quarter, and we didn’t do it. And then we gave the ball back to them. And then on the very first play we were we missed a tackle, and it turned into a 50-yard touchdown run. That’s where we’ve got to be better. It’s just in the fourth quarter, we’ve got to make plays. We’ve got to put our guys in position to make plays. We have to help them throughout the week to be able to go make those plays. And then when it’s when it’s crunch time like that. We’ve got to perform. And we just haven’t done enough of that this season on all three phases.”

When you watch the tape, is it surprising to you that Sellers missed some of those open throws that he had on Saturday?

“Yeah, I mean, because he certainly hit those, and we were just off last night in a lot of ways. But there were certainly some open receivers last night that we weren’t able to connect on. I’ve seen LaNorris make those throws. We all need to be better on that offense, and he himself included, and all of our coaches and staff and players, and we will be. Like I said, I made a decision today as the leader of the program to try and elevate this thing and help our guys be better than what we’ve been this season.”

What qualities are you looking for in your next offensive coordinator?

“Yeah, I mean, I’ll get into that down the road. There’s a lot of things that I’m looking for. I’m looking for somebody that can help elevate this program and help us take the next step, because we’ve accomplished a lot of firsts in our time here. We’ve done a lot of great things in our time here. We were on the verge of being in the College Football Playoff last year, and we’re not far away from being back in that mix. We have the greatest fan base in all of America that are passionate and want to support us and want to see that happen. I’m committed to hosting a College Football Playoff game here in Columbia very soon, and if that’s if we don’t have a bye in the first round. With the talent we have in our program, with the recruiting class we have coming in, with the opportunity to go attack the portal, as I said earlier, it’s in the greatest fan base in America. This will be an attractive position to someone. The main characteristic is someone who can take this offense and take our quarterback room to another level.”

On the defensive side, what do you take from last night, where it seemed like you guys did a good job, maybe getting Ole Miss behind the sticks some, but they just kept seeming to pop big plays at sort of inopportune times?

“Yeah, can’t give up explosives. Our plan to win each week is winning the explosive play battle, and typically, in any level of football, high school, college, NFL, if you win the turnover battle and you win the explosive play battle, you’re probably going to win the football game. And we did not do either last night. That’s an explosive offense and and we’ve got to do a better job of preventing explosive plays. It’s tough when you give up long plays like that. They’re good. They’re going to hit someone, but you’ve got to do a great job of limiting those, and we didn’t last night.”

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When you have the staff turnover midseason like that, how does that affect things, and what kind of challenges does that present? The second question along those lines is the comments Maryland head coach Mike Locksley had last week that I would imagine came across your desk. Was curious to know what your response was to what he had to say?

“Oh, man. There’s a lot of places I like to go with that one, but I’ll just say, you know, really disappointing to see a fellow head coach say that. Disappointing for someone to insinuate something when the only violation that was committed was him commenting on a prospective student athlete publicly. So I’m sure that Maryland’s Compliance Office and the NCAA are handling that the right way, and I’m sure he’ll be held accountable for those comments, but disappointing to see that. Again, wish him well, but disappointing to see a fellow coach insinuate something like that.

“In regards to recruiting with us, it’s not ideal. But the recruits that I’ve talked to on the previous change and the recruits I talked to today are certainly, they’ve been great, and they understand. They watch the games every Saturday. They know how close we are. People don’t want to hear it, but with these guys that we’re recruiting right now, it’s not like we’re going out and getting beat 42-3 every Saturday. I mean, you turn on the game every Saturday and it’s literally a fourth quarter, and we’ve got a chance to win it. And what we’ve been telling these recruits is we’re one or two difference makers away, one or two players or plays away in every game from winning. Those guys can be those guys. And they see that. They know that. And the conversations that I had with the guys today, from an offensive standpoint, recruits, were pretty much verbatim. ‘We can’t wait to get their coach.’ So it’s been good.”

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