Mount Pleasant Magazine Sept/Oct 2021

33 www.MountPl easantPodcas t . com | www. ReadMPM. com | www. I LoveMountPl easant . com I t’s autumn, the season when our thoughts stray to mountain road trips, festive holidays and, of course, college football. And there’s arguably no more heated intrastate rivalry than that of South Carolina’s Gamecocks and Clemson’s Tigers. As the season unfolds, Mount Pleasant Magazine turned to the words of each team’s coaches for an insider’s look at what to expect in 2021. First, let’s hear from the University of South Carolina’s Head Football Coach Shane Beamer. Beamer played during his own college years at Virginia Tech, under the tutelage of his father, Frank — the Hokies’ legendary head coach. No stranger to the Palmetto State, Beamer also spent four years as an assistant coach for USC under Steve Spurrier, a mentor he still speaks of in fond terms. After leaving USC to work for his father as an assistant at Virginia Tech, Beamer later served as assistant coach at football powerhouses Georgia and Oklahoma before being named the Gamecocks’ head football coach earlier this year. A Charleston native, Beamer remembered that his father “always used to talk about South Carolina as a job he thought had unlimited potential and had every resource [he] needed to be successful.” Some pundits have weighed in on Beamer’s USC hire, speculating that he will either be just the man to rescue the program or will lead it into wrack and ruin. Beamer himself takes a more measured view of how the Gamecocks’ 2021 season will play out. Nonetheless, Beamer has said that he is ready for the challenge of “bringing the Gamecocks back to the winning ways” they experienced under Spurrier, which included 11-2 records for three consecutive seasons. Considered one of football’s best recruiters, Beamer believes this year’s crop of newcomers is a good one. He observed that COVID-19 hampered USC’s recruitment efforts a bit and admitted that he had to utilize the transfer portal more than any other year “because the signing class when [he] committed was not very big.” Shane Beamer, the head footba l l coach at the Un i ver s i t y of South Caro l i na , was born i n Char l es ton . Williams-Brice Stadium is the home of the University of South Carolina’s football team.