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Flight tracking season: South Carolina's new assistant coaches arrive in Columbia

imageby: Jack Veltri21 minutes agojacktveltri

South Carolina’s new trio of assistant coaches has officially arrived in Columbia.

A few hours after the Board of Trustees approved contracts for offensive coordinator Kendal Briles, offensive line coach Randy Clements, and running backs coach Stan Drayton, a pair of University of South Carolina planes made trips to both Pennsylvania and Texas to pick them up.

In the spirit of flight tracking season, GamecockCentral went to Jim Hamilton–L.B. Owens Airport to check out the scene as the planes arrived from their different pickup spots.

Right before 3 p.m., the first plane landed at the airport, which came in from State College with Drayton, who was sporting a white Gamecock hat, on board.

A few minutes later, once he and his wife, Monique, walked out to the car that had been waiting to pick them up, Drayton shared his first official words with Gamecock nation after arriving in Columbia.

“What’s not to be excited about being in Columbia?” Drayton told GamecockCentral when he was asked about his excitement to be at South Carolina.

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Then, about 15 minutes later, at 3:16 p.m., the second plane, which came in from Texas, had landed with both Briles and Clements aboard. Much like Drayton, Briles also came off the plane sporting the same white Gamecock hat. There was then a quick photo op in front of the plane with Briles, his wife, Sarah, and three children.

Seeing as the Briles and Clements families were loading up into two SUVs, GamecockCentral decided to head on over to the football facility to see them as they entered inside. Once there, head coach Shane Beamer made his way outside to greet them, first shaking Briles’ hand. The two exchanged jokes about the weather being better on Thursday since Briles’ first visit from this past weekend.

Beamer then greeted the rest of Briles’ family, along with Clements and his wife, Polly. It’s also worth noting that Mike Anthony, the assistant quarterbacks coach at TCU, was there with them.

As the families and coaches walked into the facility, “Sandstorm” by Darude was blasting inside the building.

South Carolina will hold an introductory press conference for Briles, Clements, and Drayton on Friday at 10 a.m.

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