Shane Beamer explains decision to allow Gilber Edmond back at South Carolina
South Carolina football coach Shane Beamer was anything but short for words on Friday when explaining the difficult decision to let a former player return to play for his program.
Following the 2022 season, defensive end Gilber Edmond left South Carolina to enter the transfer portal. He ultimately landed at Florida State. After just one season in Tallahassee, Edmond re-entered the transfer portal. He reached out to Beamer and expressed his desire to return to Columbia.
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“That was one that I didn’t anticipate having a decision to make on,” said Beamer. “I got word, a week ago Friday or two weeks ago Friday that Gilber had interest in coming back into this program. I think every situation is different. I’m never going to let this be a situation where, ‘Hey, you guys leave and if it doesn’t work out where you are, come on back.’ It’s not like that at all, and I told our team that. I’m not going to let this become a precedent where you try your hand somewhere else and you come on back if it doesn’t work out.”
Beamer spoke for five minutes and two seconds when addressing the decision to let Edmond return to the program. Here were some of the highlights.
Didn’t Burn a Bridge
“There’s some guys Mike, I’ll be completely honest, who have left the program and if they called and said they wanted to come back to the program, it would be a ‘Heck no’ from me quickly. That wasn’t the case with Gilber. And it goes back to why he left our program to begin with. He handled it the right way when he left. Was I ticked off when he left? Yes. Was I disappointed when he left? Yes. Was I happy? Not at all. But he handled it the right way and I understood the reasons why.
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“I’m sure NIL was involved, but what people don’t realize is Gilber’s from Florida and his parents are getting up in age. I think his dad is 71 years old. It was a situation with him where he really felt like he needed to get back closer to home. I understood that. I didn’t like it, and I think there were other things going on; I’m not naïve, but he handled it the right way. We had a respectful conversation when he left here last year about why he was thinking about leaving.”
What’s Best for the Team
“It’s something I thought long and hard about… Starting on Friday night of that weekend, I talked to Gilber and we had a good, long conversation. I talked to seven to eight of the older guys on this team, leaders on this team, to get their thoughts on what they thought as well. I talked to some of the staff members that would have a dog in that fight to kind of see what their thoughts were on things. I thought a lot about it and went back and forth. In the end, my job is to always do what I think is best for the football team.”
Starting from the Bottom, Again
“When I talked to him, he was very eager about getting back here. I tried to paint as ugly of a picture as I could. There’s going to be guys in that locker room that are mad that you left and it’s going to take some time to rebuild that trust with them. He was adamant about wanting to. I said, ‘Emory Floyd is wearing No.8, so you’re not getting No.8, and I don’t have any cool number I can give you.’ He said, ‘Give me No.55. That’s what they gave me when I started out as a player here as a freshman. I want to come back and finish what I started.’
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“I said, ‘I don’t know what you were making from an NIL standpoint at Florida State, but you ain’t getting anything remotely close to that here. If you’re coming back here, it’s not for NIL reasons.’ And it’s not. I said, ‘That room is different than the one that you left. There’s only two guys in that edge room that you still know, and that’s Terrell Dawkins and Bryan Thomas. Everyone else is new and it’s probably a better group now than the one you left last year, so you’re going to have to compete to earn a role.’ He said, ‘Coach, I just want the opportunity to come back to South Carolina, to finish what I started back when I was a freshman.’”
The Decision
“The more and more I thought about it, he was a great young man when he was here. There were no issues when he was here as far as misbehaving and showing up on lists. He did what he was supposed to do. He was popular on this team. I thought it was an opportunity to make our team better with a guy who was a good player and good person when he was here.”
Making a Statement
“It makes a helluva statement about our program, a helluva statement about our program. You hear about a lot of these guys that leave here for different reasons, they want to go home. He went home. He went home to the state of Florida, went undefeated, won a conference championship and all that wasn’t enough. He said, ‘I want to come back to Columbia, South Carolina because I realize now that the grass isn’t always greener. I realize now what a special thing we have at South Carolina.’ He was probably going to be a starter in Tallahassee this upcoming season, he said I’m willing to give that up to compete for a role.
Beamer finished his answer by sharing that Edmond spoke in front of the team about a week ago during a team meeting. While Edmond does whatever he needs to do in order to regain the trust of his teammates and coaches, Beamer added that “he’s on the right track to doing that.”
