South Carolina AD Jeremiah Donati shares support for Shane Beamer: 'We're behind him 100 percent'

With five games left to play in the regular season, South Carolina has an uphill battle to secure bowl eligibility. To do that, the Gamecocks will need to find a way to win three of those upcoming games.

It’s been a challenging season so far. As South Carolina has lost four of its last five games, head coach Shane Beamer has been his own biggest critic, feeling that he’s let “a lot of people down right now.”

However, Beamer believes the Gamecocks aren’t too far off from turning things around. Earlier this week, he vowed that a fix would come to get the team back on track.

In his pursuit of doing so, Beamer has said he feels “extremely” supported by South Carolina athletics director Jeremiah Donati.

“We talked the same that we always talk. He’s on every trip. He’s in the locker room after games,” Beamer said on Sunday earlier this week. “He and Jeff Crane both are extremely supportive and have been since the day both of them have arrived. Feel fortunate to have them as my two bosses.”

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Donati has also shared his support of Beamer and the job that he’s done in his time at South Carolina.

“Shane’s a tremendous coach. Even our highest-paid employees need encouragement,” Donati said when asked what his message to Beamer would be after Friday’s Board of Trustees meeting. “This is a big job, and so we’re behind him 100 percent, and that’s just been my message to him is just keep fighting a good fight every day. He’s a tremendous leader of young men. He’s tremendous. He’s got a great message. He’s got great energy. And we need that.”

Beamer and Donati have regularly been in communication throughout the season, even into the early hours of the morning in some cases. After the LSU loss, Beamer mentioned that he called Donati at 4:18 a.m. to discuss the decision to move on from offensive line coach Lonnie Teasley.

Donati said Beamer knows that he’s available at all times whenever he needs to talk with him.

“We have an open line of communication. I mean, sometimes the meetings are scheduled, sometimes there’s just impromptu calls, and I might stop by practice or that kind of thing,” Donati said. “But, you know, I think, in our jobs, especially these days, when things are so fluid, the best thing I can do is be a resource to him, to give him my time in my ear, and sometimes it might be counselor advice.

“But there’s a lot of things that go into running a football program, and there’s things that I can’t be helpful with, and there’s things that I can, so I just try to make myself available. And I think he would agree that, whether it’s me or Jeff Crane, who’s the sports administrator for football. There’s always someone waiting to or ready to talk to him.”

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There have also been rumors circulating about Beamer and the head coaching vacancy at Virginia Tech, where he’s an alumnus as a former player and coach.

Beamer was quick to deny those rumors when asked specifically about a story from CBS Sports reporter Brad Crawford, which linked him to the opening at Virginia Tech.

“I have no idea where that story came from,” Beamer said. “I’ve conveyed how many times I want to be here. This is my dream job. I said that when I came here. Nothing has changed.”

Donati said Beamer has told him before that South Carolina is his dream job and that he wants to be here for years to come. So he has full confidence in his ability to lead the turnaround with the Gamecocks.

“I take people at face value until given a reason to not,” Donati said. “So I don’t have any reason to believe he’s leaving at this point.”

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