Shane Beamer reveals if he's talked to Mark Stoops since last week's comments

Last week, Kentucky coach Mark Stoops took an apparent shot at South Carolina’s Shane Beamer. In particular, he spoke about how coaches try to change the culture of a program.

“I’ve talked years and years ago about climate vs. culture,” Mark Stoops said. “It’s easy to change a climate. You just change a uniform, talk a little game, dance around, put on some stupid sunglasses, and you can change a climate. But to change a culture is at the core.”

Those comments were seen as being directed at South Carolina’s Shane Beamer, who has been loud about changing the culture at South Carolina. He’s also done it by doing things like taking a mayo bath and making a Soulja Boy video. For his part, Stoops said his comments had nothing to do with Beamer.

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Still, Shane Beamer was asked if he had spoken to Mark Stoops since he initially made those comments.

“I have not,” Shane Beamer replied. However, he did admit to seeing the quote and said he appreciated that Stoops clarified it wasn’t directed at him.

“I have great respect for Mark and his program and the Kentucky program. I know when the basketball coach [John Calipari] at Kentucky made the comment that he did about the program that Mark said that he stays in his lane. So, I can’t imagine he would have gotten out of his lane to direct a shot at me.”

Shane Beamer is referring to the social media fight between the Kentucky basketball and football programs. That fight started after John Calipari commented on Kentucky being a basketball school. He and Stoops then got into a very public war of words, which Calipari since backed down on.

“I said it the other day in an interview, Mark was very complimentary of our program before we played them last season. And, in fact, two or three of his assistant coaches came up to me during pregame warm-ups to comment on the culture of our program and how impressed they were with it.”

Shane Beamer explained his social media-heavy approach

One of the reasons people felt Mark Stoops’ comments were about Shane Beamer was because of his social media usage. Beamer explained his approach to social media. For him, it’s about keeping up with the times.

“Well, it’s part of it in today’s time,” Shane Beamer said. “For me, it’s a way for us to get our message out. Two, it’s a way to communicate with recruits. I’m sure a lot of recruits are in school right now, but I’m sure there are some that are on here listening. You’re right, our players are on social media throughout the day, so in a lot of ways … so we don’t worry so much about what’s being said on the outside, but I think you’re naïve if you just bury your head in the sand and aren’t aware of what your players are hearing.”

“They’re only with us for four hours a day, it’s all they’re allowed to be, so there are 20 other hours they’re outside this building hearing stuff. So I think you somewhat want to be plugged into what they’re hearing when they’re not here. [It’s] a way to communicate with the fanbase. And trust me, we work really, really hard during the day, so being able to take a five-minute break to check my phone and see what’s going on and retweet something or all that, is part of the job right now.”