Shane Beamer visits with Super Bowl Champion Chiefs
If you’re going to spend a “professional development” day with an NFL team, might as well make it with the defending Super Bowl Champs.
South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer posted a photo from the Kansas City Chiefs facility on Wednesday and apparently it was more than just a social call to see one of his former co-workers.
“Spent the morning with the Chiefs and did some other professional development yesterday, so I saw you in Florence Monday night, and then at 6.30 a.m. Tuesday morning, I was on the plane,” Beamer said. “Headed to Kansas and spent all day yesterday in Kansas just kind of doing some professional development type stuff.”
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College coaches spending offseason time with NFL teams or even other college teams that aren’t on a future schedule is nothing new, especially when there’s a prior relationship in play.
The month of May, one of the few slower months on a college head coach’s calendar, offers a prime window for coaches to get on the road and collaborate with other top coaches.
“Trying to make myself better as a coach, and that included visiting with the Chiefs today and just picking their brain on some stuff that they’re doing and (seeing) some of the coaches that I’ve gotten to know there as well,” Beamer continued. “But it was great being able to watch them work out a little bit on the field, seeing some of the players that I coached at Georgia and Oklahoma that are now on their team and catching up with them, but something I try and do every year, and hopefully we’ll do a little bit more of this year also.”
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While Beamer didn’t give specifics about the other people or organizations he met with while in the state, he did provide details on one of the factors he was focused on — in particular, ways to get newcomers ready to play even faster.
“Part of the reason I went out where I did and met with some of the people I met with, just talking about how in the summertime we can maybe structure it even better to get those guys ready to play even quicker, whether it be summer workouts in June and July or the way we do preseason practice,” Beamer said. “You’re always looking at how to get guys better or how to get guys ready to play quicker, but then also how quickly you can get your team to come together because every year is a new roster, as I’ve talked about before.”
The calendar heats up again in June as the Gamecocks host summer camps and official visits, while the team works through summer workouts.
But Beamer does hope to at least meet with another couple of teams, including the one right up I-77 that just drafted his star receiver, Xavier Legette.
“I’m going to try and do some stuff in June,” Beamer added. “We’re fortunate that we got a great relationship with the Panthers, and they’re right up the road, so I want to get up there. I’ve talked to Coach (Dave) Canales up there already about coming up, so I want to do that, and then maybe one or two other NFL teams. … It was beneficial, and I hope to do some more stuff like that going forward.”
