Shane Beamer compares spring game recruiting visits to regular season visits

The South Carolina spring game crowd wasn’t as big or as loud as crowds are for regular season games, but compared to others around the country, it was still really impressive.

The Gamecocks had an estimated crowd of 51,000 on hand for their spring game last month, which ranked No. 8 nationally.

South Carolina coach Shane Beamer made sure to let recruits who took the spring game in know that Williams-Brice Stadium had one of the best spring game crowds in the country.

“Not that I spend a lot of time sending pictures of other stadiums to recruits, but I know that our atmosphere will be awesome out there on Saturday. And compared to a lot of schools, we’ll have a lot more people in the stands than maybe some other schools, as well,” Beamer said leading up to the spring game.

“So just making sure that those high school prospects know that it’s not like this everywhere, that Gamecock Nation and Williams-Brice Stadium is really, really special. We don’t take for granted, and don’t want recruits to, either, the support that we have here.”

While the crowd was smaller than for a regular season game, there are some advantages to hosting recruits during a spring game.

One of those is that the coaches — Beamer in particular — can spend more time with recruits and give them more attention.

“Probably the biggest thing is you have more time. If it’s a home game, I’m sitting at the team hotel in a hotel room by myself all day until we arrive to the stadium, whereas for the spring game, if we’ve got guys coming in here at lunch time, you literally can spend the day with them here at the football facility,” Beamer said. “Where during the season we’re at the hotel with the team throughout the day, or I am. And then the assistant coaches are kind of back and forth.”

Coaches aren’t spending time going over the game plan again or finishing up last minute prep for the spring game the way they are for regular season contests.

Instead, the focus can be more on recruiting and showcasing the stadium, facilities and more.

“We’re all kind of all hands on deck here for a spring game. Where we’ve got more time in the afternoon to be able to spend time with them. And it’s a little bit of a looser environment, because you’re not getting ready to play another team,” Beamer said. “So from that standpoint it’s great, just to be able to spend more time with them, let them see the atmosphere out there and make it fun for all of those guys – our players and then the prospects and their families that are visiting, also.”