Shane Beamer to start South Carolina era with interesting similarity to Frank Beamer's career

Shane Beamer’s tenure at South Carolina will start the same way Frank Beamer’s tenure ended at Murray State.

The Gamecocks open the 2021 season in Columbia on Saturday against the Eastern Illinois Panthers under their new head coach. The opponent is the same one his father ended his coaching career at Murray State with before departing for Blacksburg in 1986. 

“My dad’s very last game as the head coach at Murray State University, I was in fourth grade and it was against Eastern Illinois,” Shane Beamer told the media on Tuesday. 

Murray State, the 1986 champions of the Ohio Valley Conference, traveled to Charleston, Ill. Thanksgiving weekend to take on the Panthers in the first round of the NCAA I-AA (now FCS) playoffs. EIU won the contest 28-21. On Dec. 22, Frank Beamer took the Virginia Tech job and orchestrated one of the biggest program turnarounds in the history of college football. 

“Pretty ironic that his last game before he took the head coaching job at Virginia Tech was against Eastern Illinois, and my first game as a head coach is against Eastern Illinois here at South Carolina,” Beamer said.

The younger Beamer can only hope to have as much success with the Gamecocks as his dad did with the Hokies.

Gamecocks to start graduate assistant at quarterback

Shane Beamer will need some help from a graduate assistant on Saturday to start his tenure 1-0. And not in the traditional way. 

Zeb Noland, a former Iowa State and North Dakota State quarterback, was moving to Columbia this summer to be a grad assistant. He will now start under center for the Gamecocks at William-Brice Stadium this weekend. 

Noland will have the help of a veteran offense returning running back Kevin Harris who had 1,138 rushing yards and 15 touchdowns last season. Last season’s No. 2 receiver Nick Muse is a 6-foot-5 William and Mary transfer who now has one year of SEC playing time under his belt. Last season Muse had 30 catches for 425 yards and a touchdown. 

The Gamecocks struggled mightily last season; they finished their all-SEC schedule 2-8 with wins over Auburn and Vanderbilt. Beamer hopes to bring a spark to the Gamecocks after three years under the tutelage of Lincoln Riley at Oklahoma. Last year the Gamecocks averaged just 23.5 points per game. 

Eastern Illinois went 1-5 last season, and they have lingering questions at quarterback. They return most of their defense, but it remains to be determined if the defense is improved.