Columbia, SC. – It’s football season in the south. The humidity pushes down on you like a hot steamy blanket. But in Columbia, the weather bows down to the breath of fresh air — that is second-year head football coach Shane Beamer.
“There’s always excitement when a new coach comes in, but what certainly helped was the fact that I’ve been here before and I was outspoken about how much I wanted to be here and how much I love this place. I think people saw that and realized it was real and genuine, and then obviously having some success on the field during the season only amplified that,” Beamer explained.
The son of Hall-of-Famer Frank Beamer burst onto the SEC football scene like a mid-afternoon thunderstorm, injecting the program with a lightning bolt of energy that’s as undeniable as his social media presence.
“For me, it’s trying to promote the program and just a glimpse into what I’m about. I feel like I’m the same person — obviously, the responsibilities are different, but I feel like I’m the same person that I was as an assistant coach it’s just on a much more magnified. But we’ve got a fantastic team around me in our social media department and things like that, so if you’re asking me if I came up with different ideas for videos and things like that, no. I had nothing To do with that. But when they give me an idea I’m pretty quick to say yes because of how talented the people we are here at Carolina,” Beamer said.
The flood of energy in his first head coaching job resulted in the Gamecocks rising to seven win season that included a bowl victory over North Carolina in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl.
As season two blows on in, what makes this ‘Shane storm of success’ sustainable is the foundation of old school values-’Beamerball’ at its core. Blended with new school technology necessary for today’s climate. A climate his legendary father wasn’t bombarded with until the end of his career.
Appy: “Can South Carolina be to you what Virginia Tech was to your Dad?”
Shane Beamer: “Absolutely. I think success is very sustainable here. You’re right, it is a different time. When my dad’s six-year came up he hadn’t gone to a bowl game yet. If I was here and we didn’t go to a bowl game in our first six years I wouldn’t be here. I wouldn’t have seen the third or fourth year, it’s just a different time. But certainly, when you talk about the ability to sustain the success we certainly can here. This is a community that my family and I, we love living in a state we love to live in. I’ve said it before publicly and I truly believe it. We have everything we need to be successful here and win at the highest level on and off the field from a resource standpoint,” Beamer said.
Shane’s coaching path gathered knowledge like a methodical hurricane moving across the eastern US-- sweeping over top programs-Including his dad’s -at Virginia Tech. But despite all the stops at high-profile places, it’s ‘Beamerball’ that shows up most often in the future forecast.
”The way that that I believe you win football games and dominating the fourth quarter being able to run the ball stop the rod be explosive and when the turnover battle those are a lot of things that my dad you know hung his hat on and I’m probably I got us all the time you know where you..coaches you’ve been around and all that — what all you’ve taken from them. And I really feel like I’ve taken more from my dad than anybody. Our assistant coaches kid me all the time that yes, I’m young and high energy — but they kid me that I’m very much like an old school coach,” Beamer said.
What remains constant, his family support and his family values. “It’s great to be able to have them at all the home games then for them to be able to get down here close for my children’s sports activities and school activities and things like that it’s so great,” Shane says.
While the leading edge of this storm is in Columbia clearing the Gamecocks path to victory, its eye remains rooted in Blacksburg. Still spinning , powerful as ever. A recent Twitter post had Shane speaking to his team from the upper deck of Williams Brice Stadium, explaining to them, how much the fans sacrifice in order to see them play. “People pay money to park, to then walk all the way down Bluff Road, to then climb up this ramp and the steps like we just did to watch you play,” Beamer told his team.
“When I sat down the things I wanted in our program to be about: Love, Gratitude, Positive energy, Trust, Toughness, Accountability, Competition -- those are all things that I’ve always believed in as a coach and as a person throughout my life.
And when I got hired here and I sat down with these players and this program and kinda listened to them about what their needs were and where they felt like we needed to go and what we needed to do to get there those values were things that we needed in this program at the time.
So it was really cool for me to be able to say ‘this is what I want this program to feel like, and to look like’ and then here’s the players telling me ‘this is what we need’. And it’s the exact same thing. So that part has been easy,” Coach Beamer says.
Year two of the Shane Beamer era at South Carolina opens Saturday night Sept. 3 when the Gamecocks host Georgia State.