South Carolina kept defensive coaching staff intact. Shane Beamer explains why
Last week, South Carolina football shared a graphic on X (formerly Twitter) with the entire Gamecocks coaching staff Photoshopped inside The Palmetto State.
There was Beamer and his 10 assistants with the caption, “All together, all headed in the same direction.”
Beamer seems to have his coaching staff set. Though there are three new faces, Beamer only made one major change. In early January, Beamer let go of running backs coach Montario Hardesty and later hired Marquel Blackwell from Texas A&M.
Not long after, tight ends coach Jody Wright accepted the head coaching job at Murray State. Beamer hired former Georgia and Texas A&M assistant James Coley to coach wide receivers and moved WRs coach Justin Stepp to the tight ends room.
The final move came after special teams coordinator Pete Lembo also became a head coach, nabbing the job at Buffalo. Beamer replaced Lembo with longtime NFL assistant Joe DeCamillis.
All that means is this: Beamer kept his entire defensive coaching staff intact after the Gamecocks went 5-7, allowing 26.3 points per game (ninth in the SEC) and nearly 400 yards a game (12th in the SEC).
“It was certainly an up-and-down year,” Beamer told The State on Monday.
While he understands people point to South Carolina allowing 30 points to Mississippi State and 41 to Florida, Beamer was quick to say that his defense had great moments, too.
The Gamecocks limited Georgia to just 24 points (and just three in the first half). They kept Kentucky to just two touchdowns. And Clemson didn’t score an offensive touchdown against South Carolina.
“I think we played some pretty damn good defense throughout the year,” Beamer said. “Now was it good enough? No.”
There seemed to be a target from outsiders on defensive coordinator Clayton White for most of the season. The criticism rained down on social media as fans were clamoring for him to be fired.
The frustration with White eased in November, when South Carolina went 3-1, gave up just 16 points a game and forced 10 total turnovers.
“Clayton and I — I felt like at the end of the season that we had a body of work over three years,” Beamer said. “It’s three years in a row that we’ve either been one or two in the SEC in takeaways. And I know the players we have coming back, and I know the players we have coming in.”
Beamer continued: “I felt like, personnel-wise, we had a chance to be better defensively and I just felt like I’m not somebody that wants to make a change for the sake of change.”
In saying that, though, Beamer did not come to the decision of continuity in a breeze.
He admitted to sitting down with White both during the season and after the season, asking how he was going to make the Gamecocks better.
“It wasn’t like Clayton and I didn’t have some hard conversations,” Beamer said. “(It was) about me understanding how we’re going to be better on defense. Like I wanna hear it: What is your plan? How are we going to not have games like Mississippi State and Florida, and even Jacksonville State to a degree? What’s our answer to how we’re gonna be better?”
After meeting with White and hearing his plan, Beamer decided that continuity would better serve South Carolina’s defense than anything else. And that includes stability with the staff and the scheme and everything in between.
“The same Kentucky team we held to 14 points went and scored 38 the very next Saturday against Louisville,” Beamer said. “And the same Clemson that did not score a touchdown against us played pretty good against Kentucky in the bowl game.
“I felt continuity was the best thing for us going forward,” he added.
