Blending personality with experience, Shane Beamer is molding a rising South Carolina program in his image

Apr 23, 2023

Ever since watching his father, Frank, bring Virginia Tech to the cusp of a national championship, Shane Beamer wanted to coach major college football. After putting in the work as an assistant for two decades, Beamer dove into the deep end at his first chance when South Carolina offered the Oklahoma assistant head coach a job in the SEC in 2020.

It's one thing for assistant coaches to prepare for what life will be like when their dreams come true. It's an entire different thing to implement those goals.

"I don't think I ever really realized the amount of things that come across this desk. They're not even football related." Beamer told CBS Sports. "That was the hardest thing for me. I'm very organized, have a to-do list and things like that. There's just so much coming at you when you first get hired as a head coach. It's overwhelming."

Beamer responded by taking bits and pieces from what he learned over two decades and molded himself -- and his program -- into a reflection of himself and his personality. From his time with the Gamecocks under Steve Spurrier, to a stint under his father at Virginia Tech, Beamer learned he had to be himself if he was to carve out his own niche for success at college football's highest level.

"I see coaches who come from a program that's established, they get a head coaching job somewhere else, and they take every slogan and mantra that the previous used, and they start using it at their own program," Beamer said. "Kids see things. They have visited different schools. I didn't want to be cookie-cutter. There are things that I took from the Georgia program that I tried to spin and make our own here. There are things I took from Virginia Tech and Oklahoma that I've tried to put our own spin on it here.

"I want to be me, be real, be genuine at this program, and be different in a lot of ways," he continued. "Take the good from places, but not necessarily copy what others have done. People see through that."

Beamer's willingness to take part in viral content is a perfect example of his personality. Twitter, TikTok, Snapchat, Facebook and other social media apps are how people of all ages -- specifically recruits -- communicate and receive information. Beamer and the South Carolina creative department have made a concerted effort to take advantage in a variety of ways, its most recent being a spoof from "The Office" that rapidly made its way around college football Twitter:

You wanna see some real speed? pic.twitter.com/Ir6DwCnKzy

Beamer is willing and able to take part in these endeavors.

"I feel like my acting skills were good," Beamer said of "The Office" video. "That one took a little bit of time. I think I did about 10 sprints. We had to get the sprint where it was 13mph. Then we had to get the sprint where it was 31mph. We couldn't get the speed right on the radar."

And, of course, who could forget Beamer's willingness to have a bucket of mayonnaise dumped on his head.

The hard work off the field doesn't mean much if Beamer doesn't produce a successful product on it. He's following through on that end of the deal as well. Last year, Beamer's Gamecocks knocked Tennessee out of the College Football Playoff race 63-38 with the help of quarterback Spencer Rattler's six-touchdown performance. The Gamecocks broke a seven-game losing streak to rival Clemson one week later in a 31-30 win in Death Valley.

An earthquake on the national scale and a win at your rival's place isn't a bad seven-day stretch for anybody, much less a man who is still in the infancy of his coaching career.

Recruiting is the lifeblood of any college football program, and Beamer is having success in that department, too. The No. 16 Class of 2023, according to 247Sports, includes five-star EDGE Nyckoles Harbor. One five-star player and a top-20 class might not seem like much, but elite blue-chip talent can go a long way in elevating a program.

The combination of viral marketing, success on the field and an uptick in recruiting has transformed South Carolina from anonymity into a program on the rise. Two-time reigning national champion Georgia resides in the same division, however, and replicating the success of 2022 in short order isn't -- and shouldn't be -- the expectation in Columbia. The SEC is expected to change its scheduling format when Texas and Oklahoma join in 2024, and so will the barometer for success at South Carolina.

Beamer has brought hope to Columbia for the first time since the days of Steve Spurrier in the early 2010s. A feat for a man who is just two years into the biggest job of his life.