Shane Beamer opens up on how recruiting has changed since first stint at South Carolina

For the son of a coach like Shane Beamer, watching college football change over the years has been a process. Beamer’s been around the game seemingly forever.

But recruiting, in particular, has really shifted over the last decade or so.

“It’s changed so much. The attention on recruiting, the technology,” Shane Beamer said on the Andy Staples On3 show on Wednesday. “Probably more than anything, Andy, is just the fact that everybody knows each other, all these recruits just because of social media, all-star games, combines. The world is a lot smaller in a lot of ways, without a doubt.”

While the world is smaller in some ways, the competition is more fierce than ever. It’s a stark change from when Beamer was first getting into coaching himself, when things moved much more slowly.

For one, the rules didn’t allow for quite as much communication.

Take Beamer’s first stint at South Carolina, for instance, when the Gamecocks were able to land in-state prospects like Alshon Jeffery and Stephon Gilmore.

“I think when we were recruiting Alshon I don’t even think texting was legal to recruits at that point,” Shane Beamer said. “I think you had to like e-mail and literally write hand-written letters, if I’m not mistaken. I’m pretty sure that you couldn’t text back then to recruits.”

The lesson from the recruitment of those key players, though, was this: You have to win in state as a starting point. That’s the way to build a base at South Carolina.

“Absolutely the success that we were able to have here previously started with being able to keep the best players in South Carolina home, and we’ve done that now for the most part, signing four out of the top five guys in South Carolina this year,” Shane Beamer said. “Last year same thing, guys we brought in like Markee Anderson, so we’ve really done a good job recruiting this state first.”

Beamer opened up on just how early he started recruiting this class. Hint: It was really, really early.

But as South Carolina puts a bow on its 2024 early signing class, Beamer can feel confident in a job well done. South Carolina cleaned up in the state, while rival Clemson coach Dabo Swinney was left to explain that some in-state prospects simply went elsewhere.

“Josiah (Thompson), Kam Pringle, Blake Franks, Mazeo Bennett. All four of those guys are in-state South Carolina guys,” Shane Beamer said. “Kelvin Hunter‘s another one that when I got hired here three years ago this month you immediately went to work because you know those guys, and we started developing that relationship immediately.”