Shane Beamer blasts media for criticism of Dowell Loggains hire

South Carolina coach Shane Beamer was fired up in his Tuesday press conference with local reporters, defending his hire of Dowell Loggains as his offensive coordinator among other topics.

Beamer took issue with the apparent characterization of the hire in certain corners of the Internet.

“A lot of people that were interested in this position,” Beamer said, an intensity in his voice as he got rolling on a nearly five-minute monologue. “Sitting head coaches in college football that reached out to me. Current coordinators in the NFL that reached out to me. Current Power 5 coordinators.

“I easily could go out and hire the hot name, the guys that when you guys read the ‘Hot Boards’ on some of y’all’s websites, the names that were on there that the general public thinks, ‘That’s the guru and that’s the guy that we need to bring into the program,’ I’m not interested in winning the press conference, guys. I’m interested in hiring the best coach available for what we need as a program.”

Safe to say Shane Beamer took the criticisms of his new offensive coordinator personally. pic.twitter.com/vQp21p6he3

— The Spurs Up Show (@TheSpursUpShow) December 14, 2022

At the end of the day, Beamer wanted Loggains.

After two years at Arkansas, he’d seen enough innovation and fitting of different concepts together that Beamer was convinced he was the right man for the job. Sure, he doesn’t have a ton of college experience. His 16 years in coaching before joining Sam Pitttman‘s staff as a tight ends coach in 2021 came in the NFL.

Beamer believes it’s the right hire, though.

“I’m interested in not hiring the name that people recognize, I’m interested in hiring the guy that can continue to move this program forward,” he said. “There were a lot of ‘hot names’ if you will last year in college football that got hired places that people that are not as aware of what’s going on in college football said, ‘Oh my God, that is a home run hire by that school.’ Well some of those schools are sitting at home for Christmas right now because they’re not even in a bowl game with what they did.”

Shane Beamer urges media to do its homework

Part of Beamer’s fired-up demeanor on Tuesday seemed to stem from a column written by The Post and Courier’s columnist Gene Sapakoff — though Beamer was fired up on other topics, as well.

Beamer began with a question, then provided his answer. We’re just going to present the entirety of his answer below.

“I read your article this morning, Gene, and that’s great,” Beamer said. “I’m sure in your research you did more than just say, ‘Well I haven’t heard of that guy before, let me see what his stats said. Uh oh, well he had a run as a coordinator in the NFL that maybe wasn’t as successful that he wanted, so he must not be very good.’ Surely you did more research than that, Gene.

“And it’s not just Gene, it’s a lot of people. So surely everybody that wants to critique every hire that we make here, I’m sure you guys knew that Dowell Loggains turned down a coordinator job in the SEC last year. Correct? Everybody knew that, right? I’m sure that you guys know that I’m the fourth SEC head coach that’s reached out to him in the last two weeks about coming to work for him. So we were fortunate to hire Dowell Loggains, because there were a lot of other people that were interested in hiring Dowell Loggains, as well.

“I’m sure you guys reached out to Bill Parcells, who Dowell worked for. Anybody? I’m sure the people on the outside, all the experts on social media, I’m sure they called Sean Payton, arguably one of the greatest NFL coaches of all time, to talk to Sean Payton about Dowell. I’m sure you reached out to Kyle Shanahan, the head coach of the San Francisco 49ers. All those guys are guys that Dowell worked for.”

Beamer brought player references into the mix, too.

“Did you call Connor Shaw?” he asked. “Alshon Jeffery? Dowell coached Alshon Jeffery with the Chicago Bears. And I’ll keep my conversation with Alshon private, but it was pretty dang special what he told me.

“I talked to John Fox, former head coach of the Carolina Panthers, Chicago Bears, Denver Broncos, about Dowell. Clyde Christensen, current quarterbacks coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Sylvester Croom, longtime NFL coach who just went into the Hall of Fame for college football last week. James Franklin, current head coach at Penn State. Stan Drayton, current head coach at Temple University.

“All people that he worked with or Dowell was the coordinator for. So we hired a big-time coach and couldn’t be more excited about hiring Dowell. And the text messages that I got from people that he’s worked with or coached over the last however many years in the NFL validate that for sure. You don’t lost 16 years in the NFL like he has without being a really, really good football coach. And we’re fortunate to have him here at South Carolina.”

But is Dowell Loggains’ track record a bit concerning?

Sapakoff’s article seemed to raise some reasonably fair points about what can and/or should be used to evaluate hires from the outside.

Quite obviously coaches actually involved in the hiring process have access to more extensive information. But it is it the right information? Is there any way to make a quality judgment without the entirety of that access?

Beamer was asked what he looked at when evaluating Loggains’ NFL stints.

“I define success, you know, I think you take the things that you have available and I think you’ve certainly got to look at every circumstance, as well,” Beamer said. “I think you can take stats and shape them any way you want to shape them, Gene. I think there’s a deeper story, as well.

“I really didn’t dive into exactly every game he coached in that 16-game season, but I also know from talking to John Fox, the former head coach of the Bears, he talked about some of the struggles they faced the year that Dowell was up there and Jay Cutler got hurt as their starting quarterback. Correct? So I don’t generally research Jay’s history, but when you lose your starting quarterback in the NFL, I think it’s tough.

“Kyle Shanahan is considered probably the greatest or the best offensive, or one of the best offensive coaches in the NFL right now. And he was the offensive coordinator of the Cleveland Browns when Dowell was the quarterbacks coach. They worked together. I don’t really know the history of the Cleveland Browns and that particular season, but I don’t think it was very good that year as well. Nobody questions Kyle Shanahan’s ability, so…”

Growth and evolution. Beamer’s finish to the question, defending the Dowell Loggains hire, seemed to hit at the heart of the point he was trying to make with regard to Loggains.

Everything needs to be evaluated individually, and what a program might need may not always be readily apparent if you’re only digging at the surface level. He’s already seen things that make him confident Loggains is just what the doctor ordered for the Gamecocks offense.

“He’ll be the first to tell you, there’s things that certainly they could have been better, and when you’re near the bottom of the NFL in statistical rankings, surely you don’t want to be there,” Beamer said. “But again, I think you can take any stat and shape it any way you want. I think there’s a deeper investigation that goes into that as well.

“I know enough from talking to people and knowing how football smart he is that I’ve got total confidence in that as well. And you know I wasn’t picking on you, Gene. You’re not the only one, man. Don’t get all sensitive on me now, Gene. C’mon. Dowell dealt with the New York City media for two years, so dealing with you guys will be cake. That’s a compliment.”

So why Dowell Loggains, exactly?

Beamer listed several reasons in defending the Dowell Loggains hire.

“I told you guys when we had that press conference over in the stadium the weekend after the Clemson game that there was a ton of interest in this position and that my phone was blowing up, and that is exactly the case,” Beamer said. “It was blowing up. And I talked to a lot of people.

“Why Dowell Loggains? One, he’s a fantastic person that I’ve known since I was an assistant coach here at South Carolina previously. Why Dowell? He’s an elite recruiter. He’s shown that in his two years already at the college level, as well.”

Most importantly, though, he’s seen Loggains adapt. And in a constantly evolving college football landscape, that quality goes at a premium these days.

That’s what Beamer sees.

“I love the idea of being able to take what he’s done in the NFL as an assistant coach and as a coordinator for multiple teams and marry that with what he’s learned at Arkansas the last couple of years being a part of their offense and realizing that you can have ‘quote unquote’ a pro-style offense but then also it doesn’t have to be as wordy, complicated, volumous, whatever you want to say, you can really narrow things down,” Beamer said.

“So I think being able to take what they’ve done at Arkansas and what he’s learned in his career and marry it to best fit us is pretty cutting edge if you will me. He’s the perfect fit for what we need right now as a football program. He makes our program better.”

And, yeah, Beamer pointed to his own track record making other coordinator hires, as well.

“Talked to a ton of people. Clayton White and Pete Lembo, when we hired those two guys, probably there wasn’t a lot of fanfare when we hired Clayton White and Pete Lembo,” he said. “I’d say they’ve turned out to be pretty damned successful here at South Carolina. They weren’t necessarily the hot name when we hired them. People that are in the profession know about Dowell Loggains.”