Shane Beamer recounts how he was able to land Rocket Sanders
While on an in-home visit in Washington, DC, Shane Beamer’s phone rang. It was Director of Player Personnel Taylor Edwards.
“I texted him back that we’re at a home visit, I can’t talk and he’s like, ‘You need to take this call,'” Beamer recalled.
Beamer’s next question was why? Edwards sent him a screenshot with a FaceTime call from Raheim “Rocket” Sanders, a player that South Carolina was heavily targeting in the transfer portal.
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At that moment, Beamer dropped everything he was doing. He stepped outside and tried to call Sanders. No answer. He called again. No answer. It was that “oh, crap” moment for the third-year head coach.
But then, a call came in.
“We were driving to the airport. That’s when he reached out and said he wanted to be a Gamecock,” Beamer said. “A pretty special moment in DC after a long day of being in the Northern Virginia, DC, Maryland area.”
It was a massive pickup for South Carolina, who now had a solid running back on the team. When healthy, Sanders has proven to be one of the best in the country. In 2022, he ran for 1,443 yards and 10 touchdowns, averaging 6.5 yards per carry.
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Sanders missed some time in 2023, only rushing for 209 yards and two touchdowns. But Beamer was more than convinced with how good he could be.
“Just what a weapon he is. Big, talented, physical guy — you knew that, obviously as an SEC head coach and a fan of college football. You knew who Rocket Sanders was even before we played that game and then watching what he did,” Beamer said.
“You realize just how talented he is for a big guy like that to have a burst, to have such quick feet, to be able to break tackles, but also can make you miss, catch the ball out of the backfield. He’s a really, really talented guy, that’s evident.”
Beamer also had the chance to hear first-hand from some coaches on his staff that previously were at Arkansas about who Sanders is.
“When he went into the portal, it went fairly quick, I would say. I mean, obviously, there was a natural connection with Dowell Loggains from being at Arkansas. But also Jamil Walker, who was the strength coach at Arkansas, and is now our associate strength coach here that he and I were together at Georgia. So we hired Jamil after last season. And he had a really strong connection with Rocket.”
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However, it wasn’t easy to land such a talented player like Sanders. Because of how good he was, other teams from around the country were interested in him.
“There’s a lot of schools that were after him, rightfully so. And he’s from the state of Florida, so you had Florida schools that were after him,” Beamer said. “When he was here on his visit, a lot of schools were reaching out to him and wanting him to take a visit and things like that.”
Ultimately, Sanders had a great time on his visit to South Carolina and picked the Gamecocks.
“He was awesome. Just an awesome young man,” Beamer said. “I didn’t know him at all, and Dowell told me a little bit about him and just a great person. Really awesome to my son and some of the other coaches kids that were around that weekend. So fired up about that.”
