Shane Beamer reveals impact of Ray Tanner, Dawn Staley on South Carolina athletics

South Carolina Gamecocks football coach Shane Beamer is aware of the pros and cons of being a head coach at the college level. And during a recent interview, the Gamecocks head coach revealed that he takes advantage of the two championship-caliber coaches within the South Carolina athletic department.

“I enjoy learning from all coaches, and we’ve got some great coaches here at the University of South Carolina, in all sports,” said Beamer. “And that’s what I love about coaching in college athletics. I can go and visit with so many coaches and learn from them and watch how they handle their teams and things like that.”

One of the pros of being a college coach is having other coaches with different experiences and levels of expertise that you can converse with at nearly any given time right on campus. And Beamer has two of the best coaches to ever do it at South Carolina within shouting distance: women’s basketball head coach Dawn Staley and former men’s baseball skipper turned athletic director Ray Tanner.

“But speaking of those two, I mean, Dawn’s been fantastic,” Beamer continued. “I’ve gone and watched her team practice just to kind of watch how she handles her team. I enjoy watching them play, and we’ve utilized her in recruiting. We’ve had some recruits that have visited campus, and they wanted to meet Dawn Staley, and she’s been more than willing to do that when those opportunities presented themselves, and then the same thing with coach Tanner as well.

“He’s my boss, but it’s great that he’s a longtime coach and was a coach before he was an athletic director. He has great perspective. He’s a phenomenal athletic director, and it’s great to be able to talk to him after games. And he gets it. He’s been in the arena and won at a high high level. So whether it’s talking about football or him coming out to practice and asking about the team or me sitting with him at baseball games and learning about baseball strategy and how he handled his players back when he was coach, he’s a great resource to have as well. I’m thankful that he’s here with me.”

Tanner, as the school’s former baseball coach, led the program during one of its most dominant stretches in school history. When Tanner retired and became the athletic director in 2012, he left a two-time national champion, winning back-to-back titles in 2010 and 2011, three-time SEC regular-season champion, six-time SEC east division champion. In addition to that, he added three national coach of the year awards to that resume, winning his last in 2011. His record for the Gamecocks is 738-316 for a win percentage of .700.

Staley has been head coach of the Gamecocks women’s basketball team since 2008. She has led South Carolina to six SEC tournament and regular-season championships, four final four appearances, and has won two national titles, the most recent being in 2022. Staley is also a two-time coach of the year recipient and five-time SEC coach of the year.

With these two South Carolina legends right on campus, Beamer has the luxury of conversing with two of the best coaches in the school’s history. Now all that remains to be seen is if he can take what he’s learned from Tanner and Staley and use it to help the football program reach a national championship-caliber level.