Everything Shane Beamer said at Birdies with Beamer on Monday

Camp week officially kicked off Monday as Shane Beamer sat down with local media after the fifth annual “Birdies with Beamer” Golf Tournament at Cobblestone Park Golf Club.

Shane Beamer will again meet with the media alongside his players and staff on Thursday. Fall camp officially begins Friday, Aug. 1.

Here is everything he had to say at Cobblestone:

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Opening Statement:

“Thanks to Steve (Fink) and Michael DeBates and everyone in our media relations department for putting this on, and thanks to Mike Burrows and his staff here at Cobblestone. (I) appreciate Casey and the guys from Backstreets (Grill) for the gift cards and everyone that puts this event on. It’s a team effort. Appreciate all of you.

(I) Appreciate all the former players that came out here today and played. It was great seeing so many of them, and led by Hall of Famer and four-time winner Sterling Sharpe. (I’m) really fired up for you. What an honor going into the NFL Hall of Fame, and I expect to, when I watch your induction speech, for you to reference this huge win here at the Birdies for Beamer this week as well when everybody sees that also. Probably the highlight of the week, if I’m guessing. But, congrats to you and everything that you stand for, what you’ve done for South Carolina athletics and this football program. (I’m) have fired up for you as well.

Really happy to have former Gamecock great Alex English out here today as well. Really cool to see him playing in it. Grateful for coach Paul Mainieri, our head baseball coach, being here as well. And thank you (media). I Know It was hot out there today in the tournament. Appreciate y’all getting out here and grinding and being a part of that … I apologize (that) some of our coaches and myself were a little bit late getting out here. We were up in Greenville this morning for our state high school coaches association clinic. Joe DeCamillis, Torian Gray spoke up there this morning. So myself and our 10 coaches were up there and literally came straight from Greenville here.

Steve mentioned it, we report (on) Thursday. Finished up the summer last week with our workouts. Really happy about the way that’s gone with Luke Day and his staff. We’ll meet as a coaching staff tomorrow, kind of review the summer with him and where we are as a team going into camp. Gave our players the weekend off. They’re off today, then they’ll report back tomorrow. We got a couple days of workouts and weight room here on Tuesday and Wednesday before we officially report on Thursday and then start practice on Friday morning. Really eager to get out there. Been long enough, seems like forever ago that we last played a game.

So can’t wait to get back out there. Get started with these guys. It’s a fun group that’s really been very purposeful and intentional about what they wanted to get done since they came back in January, and eager to crank things up, and then I guess it’s five weeks from yesterday is when we’ll be kicking this thing off in Atlanta.

So really looking forward to that, and I had a couple phone calls today with some of the people there that are putting on that game, and would encourage all of our fans to continue to buy all the remaining tickets that we have for that game. I know they’re going fast, but we need to make sure that it is nothing but garnet and black in Mercedes-Benz (Stadium) that day. Obviously, Labor Day weekend, a lot going on, but no better way to spend it than on Sunday afternoon in Atlanta, watching us take on a really good Virginia Tech team as well. So we’ll need all the Gamecock fans in Atlanta that day and encourage people.”

Anything new on Rahsul Faison?

“No. Wish I had a different answer for you. He texted me earlier, and I called him back, talking about Civil War, and I was on the phone with some people yesterday, trying to get some things done from that standpoint. (I’ve) got a lot of respect for Charlie Baker, who heads up the NCAA, and confident that they will do the right thing when that time is.”

Is legal action more of a possibility now?

“That’s probably a better question for Sul. I guess you guys will see him on Thursday, but right now, our thought process is we’re full speed ahead, planning on him being with us, and kind of optimistic that the NCAA will make the right decision.”

What can you say about Geoff Collins?

“You guys know me, and I was telling Jay Philips and Will (Gunter) outside, that I’m not a guy that just hires people to hire people. I’ll never want to be the head coach who has the biggest staff in the country. I’m not that guy. If you bring somebody into our program, there’s a reason you’re bringing them in. Certainly, with Geoff, there’s a reason he’s a really talented coach. You look at his background in coaching, the places he’s been, who he’s worked with, the roles that he’s had. Obviously, he’s been a defensive coordinator, and in the SEC, he’s been in the personnel world, doing that at Alabama for Nick Saban back when they really cranked it up as well. So he’s got that experience. He’s been a head coach. I think anytime you can have, you know, multiple head coaches on your staff, that’s a great thing, and we have that with Shawn Elliott, Mike Shula, Mike Furrey as well, guys that have been head coaches that are half now.

But I think the biggest thing too, is he’s a great recruiter, coach, but the familiarity that he has with that he has with so many people on our staff, and the familiarity that we have with him. He and I were graduate assistants together at Georgia Tech back in 2000 and shared an office together. This was back when you didn’t have giant staffs of analysts and quality control people. You basically had two GAs … developed a good relationship and kept in touch. But not just me. He and Clayton white worked together at Western Carolina. (When) he was the defensive coordinator at Florida; his defensive backs coach was Torian Gray. When he was the head coach at Georgia Tech, Trey Money, who works with our linebackers, was on that staff. Obviously. He and Derrick Moore worked together at Georgia Tech. He and George Wynn worked together at Florida, probably forgetting somebody, but there’s people on our staff that know Geofff. And Geoff spent some time around our program. So he had other opportunities, but from a personal standpoint, professional standpoint, there were a lot of reasons he wanted to be here, and excited we were able to add him.

But to answer your question, just his knowledge from a defensive standpoint. But I think anytime you can add experience in that room, and we got an amazing defensive staff already, those guys have been together. They work well together. They’re really knowledgeable. There’s talented coaches in that room. But I think anytime you can just, you know, add to not just the defensive staff, staff in general and make it better. You can, you do and I think he will.”

Will Faison be able to practice even if he isn’t cleared yet?

“That’s my plan. He asked me the same question today, and I told him yes. So until somebody tells me otherwise, he’s practicing.”

What will Coach Collins do with the staff specifically?

“I’d say when you talk to Clayton (White), he could probably talk more. But it’s something that Geoff visited us back in March, I guess, March or April, he came and spent a day or two during spring practice. At that point, he was kind of going around and visiting other college programs and NFL teams, and he wasn’t really sure what was next. And it’s something that he and I talked about, along with Clayton, kind of throughout the spring, and got a little bit more real as we got into the summertime.

It’s things that we’ve been kicking around since the springtime. But certainly, I think, when you add up another guy that has coordinated defenses, just ideas that he can bring to that room to help Clayton and the rest of that staff, ideas that he can bring to me, you know, as a former head coach, as well, recruiting ideas. He’s been around a lot of really good coaches and a lot of really good programs, but as far as the you know, day-to-day responsibilities and whatnot, we’ve got a plan, but it’s also still a work in progress as we get as we get going. He got to Columbia, I think, literally, this afternoon, and is already at work.”

What is your involvement with Williams-Brice Stadium renovations, and what do you want to see done that directly affects your players?

“I’m excited about the upcoming improvements and enhancements to Williams-Brice. It’s something that we talked about with recruits a lot, and was able to show pictures to them and their families of what it’s going to look like here when it’s all said and done, which is, it’s already the greatest home field environment, in my opinion, in college football, and it’s only going to be better when we’re done with all of this.

But yeah. Jeremiah (Donati), Jeff Crane, we’ve had conversations, and I’ve been involved with other people in our athletic department as well. But specifically to football, there’s things that we’ve talked about, preliminary ideas, blueprints of what it may look like. Certainly, you guys have been around here long enough and know what the facilities are there. I mean, it’s still the same training room, locker room, walkway to the field, for the most part, that it was when I was here, 18 years ago, 19 years ago, whatever it was. And there have been some enhancements.

There’s a lot of space down there underneath the stadium that I think we can reconfigure and make better from a recruiting standpoint on game days, from a player standpoint, on game days for a lot of people. We can utilize that space better. And yes, I’ve been in a lot of those conversations and (I’m) excited to get that project going.”

What are your feelings about playing Virginia Tech, given your history with the program?

“I’m happy to be playing a marquee opener. It makes it a little bit different, obviously, because it’s where I grew up and my dad’s got a statue outside the stadium. That’s a little bit different. But I love playing marquee openers where you’re where you jump right into it. You look around college football, great matchups like that across the country.

So I think it makes the summers for the players even more exciting, knowing what’s coming, being able to go into Atlanta, playing in the Falcons stadium, and what’ll be a great crowd. We’re the only game on that afternoon. There’s a lot of things I’m excited about. Obviously, there’s storylines, there’s build-up within game one, honestly, I’ll be glad when it’s over, because I’ll be tired. I’ll be ready to be done answering those questions.

I started out at Georgia Tech as a graduate assistant. I played Georgia Tech, I went to Tennessee next, I coached against Tennessee. Then I went to Mississippi State, I’ve coached against Mississippi State. Then from there, I went to South Carolina. When I was at Georgia. I coached against South Carolina. Then I went to Virginia Tech, and haven’t coached against Virginia Tech yet, but, and then there’s Georgia, and then at South Carolina coached against Georgia. So I’ve been back or coached against the places that I’ve been.

Certainly, it’s a little bit different, because you’ve got so many ties there, whether it’s me or, you know, Torrian Gray, playing a hell of a lot more snaps on the field than I did. So it’s his alma mater as well, but there’s just the relationships. Obviously, my dad still lives in Blacksburg, and he sees those people all day, all the time. We’re up in Greenville this morning. One of the Virginia Tech assistant coaches is Pierson Prioleau, that’s from South Carolina. Then Pierson and I were freshmen together at Virginia Tech in 1995, so, I mean, Brent Pry, the head coach, when I was a freshman in Virginia Tech, He was the defensive graduate assistant.

So I mean, there’s just a lot of ties and relationships. But at the end, it’s a place that I’ve got great memories of, a program and a team that I got a lot of respect for. It’d be a big challenge, certainly, and eager to compete. But, you know, once, once we kick it off, it’ll be about the guys on the field, for sure. But you know, it was one of those, when I got hired, it was already on schedule. It seemed so far away. And now that it’s here, it’s, you know, pretty neat, but I’ll be glad when it’s over.”

On what Frank Beamer has said about the Virginia Tech contest

“Yeah, he’s giving the politically correct answer, saying he wants both teams to play well. I called my parents on Saturday. I was driving back from the beach, and my son and I were in the car, and we called my parents. He was telling me that same story, and it was kind of, ‘Hold on now, you can tell Brent that, but you’re sitting with us, so you’re not going to sit with my wife and where she is. Just hoping both teams play well. There better be a little bit more allegiance to us than just hoping you see a good game.'”

Shane, how are you guys doing? Doing from an injured standpoint, going into camp, anything new?

“I think very well, the summertime was productive, and for the most part, we did okay there. I’ll have a better update for you on Thursday. We’ll meet tomorrow with the staff and kind of review where everything is with Clint Haggard, our head athletic trainer, who celebrated her birthday over the weekend. Happy birthday, Clint, and I get an update then.

But we’re in decent shape. Not a lot has changed since I saw you guys. They did the spring, but got a couple updates for you, and I’ll be better prepared to talk about that on Thursday after we meet.”

On rebuilding the special teams

“Something we’ve spent a lot of time on. Joe DeCamillis and Tim McConnell do an awesome job with our special teams, along with our entire staff that’s involved. But I like the pieces we have. We’ve recruited the right guys there, we feel like, need to be better than we were in the return game last year.

How that starts, there’s a lot of things that you want to have, capable returners, and it’s something that we spend a lot of time on in the spring, practicing in the summertime as well. So eager to see us take a step there. Personnel-wise, they’re very capable; they’re just unproven in a lot of ways. They’re talented kickers and punters and snappers and holders, but they’re going to be doing it for real for the first time ever in a game in five weeks. I’ve got to do a great job and our coaches are putting them in situations to try and prepare them the best we can.

We did a little bit of that in the spring game, if you’ll remember, bringing them out there to the middle field and kind of having a competition, but (we) got full confidence in them. It’s not just them, it’s the people around them. But you’re right. We’ve made a lot of game-changing plays on special teams in the last four seasons, and that’s been a hitch for us, and it will have to be again this year as well.”

LaNorris and Dylan (Stewart) and a couple of players held a meet and greet event where LaNorris unveiled his own action figure. How involved are you guys in sort of unique NIL opportunities like that, and did you ever think you’d be coaching a player with his own action figure?

“How involved am I in that? Very little. Never thought I’d be coaching an action figure, nor did Coach Shula, our offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, probably.

But happy for our guys that they can capitalize on their name, image and likeness, and do things like that. I saw LaNorris’s quotes from that about the meaning behind that and being able to give back, and, you know, happy for him and the rest of our guys to be able to do that as well. But no, there’s a lot of things that are brand new to college athletics that all of us as coaches are dealing with for the first time, and coaching players that have their own action figures certainly is one of them.”

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