Shane Beamer reveals how South Carolina changed trajectory in year one

There’s nowhere to look but up if you’re a fan of the South Carolina Gamecock. The team seems to gain more confidence as the weeks pass under head coach Shane Beamer.

Ever since former coach Steve Spurrier left the program in the middle of 2015, South Carolina has struggled to find an identity within the SEC. Since 2019 in particular, they’ve been conference bottom feeders until Beamer brought them back to semi-relevancy with a 7-6 season in 2021.

That, however, was just the start. With big-name transfers choosing the Gamecocks over any other team in the country can attest to the change in culture in Columbia that Beamer has brought with him.

Exhibit A: Spencer Rattler.

The No. 1 quarterback in the 2019 class, per the On3 consensus, had a streaky career at Oklahoma before seeing his job taken by freshman Caleb Williams midseason. It was almost inevitable that Rattler would look elsewhere to finish his collegiate career and out of his pick of the litter, he landed at South Carolina.

Rattler’s Oklahoma teammate, Austin Stogner, who was the No. 3 tight end in the same class as Rattler, has also transferred to South Carolina. Beamer credits this to the fact that great players want to play with great players.

“I think [Rattler and Stogner’s commitments] makes a strong statement and about not only what we’re about, but what we’re doing and also the amount of the young men that we have coming back on our program,” Beamer said to Paul Finebaum.

Beamer said that he had a lot of his players that in other years could have transferred to other schools or entered into the NFL Draft. Instead, the bulk of his team is returning. He said that makes him proud to be their head coach because, in his eyes, that means they believe in what he’s doing on and off the field.

With hundreds of high-level Division I talent still left floating in the transfer portal, who’s to say another big name won’t land in Columbia? We see major names heading to the FCS level in the age of name, image and likeness — it doesn’t seem far fetched that major talent want to pile into a SEC team on the rise.

“I think there’s a lot of young men that are interested in South Carolina that maybe weren’t interested last year at this time,” Beamer said. “We’re still building, we have a long ways to go. This year was a great first year, but there is certainly a lot of excitement about South Carolina football right now and rightfully so.”