Shane Beamer enters Florida matchup with great respect for Billy Napier

South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer and Florida head coach Billy Napier are two of the SEC’s young coaches, largely seen as rising names in the sport as a whole. This week, the two meet on the field for the first time as SEC head coaches.

Even though Shane Beamer has never been on a staff with Billy Napier before, they were on opposite sides of the South Carolina-Clemson rivalry as assistants, and Beamer has tons of respect for the Florida coach.

“Impressed. I mean, a lot of those guys when I first got to South Carolina, Dabo [Swinney] was an assistant coach at Clemson,” Shane Beamer said. “And then, he got the job and Jeff Scott, I guess, replaced Dabo as an on-field coach. Then, Billy came in.”

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“I guess my last year at Carolina was 2010. I think Billy was the coordinator that year if I’m not mistaken. So, somebody that I got a lot of respect for. He did a good job when he was at Clemson and then since he left Clemson, the stops he’s had and the success that he’s had as a coach and a recruiter,” Shane Beamer said.

“I mean, somebody that we certainly had respect for when I was here as an assistant coach, and then what he’s done since he left Clemson is really, really impressive, also, and did a great job at Louisiana as a head coach there, and is certainly on track to doing good things in Gainesville also.”

Billy Napier is often thought of as a Nick Saban disciple, which he is. Napier spent 2013-16 with Alabama as a wide receivers coach. However, from 2003-04, he was a GA with Clemson. He briefly left to be the South Carolina State quarterbacks coach. Napier then returned to Clemson from 2006-2010 in several different offensive assistant roles.

This is going to be an emotional game for Florida, which will be celebrating Senior Day. On top of that, the Gators are one game away from bowl eligibility, so they’ll be playing with a chip on their shoulders.

Shane Beamer on his message to his team before playing Florida

It’s never easy to play a game in The Swamp, even when the Gators are down a little bit. However, that’s exactly what South Carolina has to do. Shane Beamer explained the message that he’s had about playing at Florida to his team.

“We just talked a little bit about it this morning that it’s one of the great venues in college football and it’ll be an awesome environment,” Shane Beamer said.

“It’s a sell out. It’ll be a great day down in Florida and what a cool place it is to play. But beyond that, it’s about us and preparing the right way to go play well. We don’t make a big deal about where we’re going into.”