Shane Beamer 'excited' about hiring of Travian Robertson

The hiring of new South Carolina defensive line coach Travian Robertson served as a homecoming, as the former Gamecock defensive end returns to Columbia in a different role.

Robertson not only impressed during his playing career, but his coaching career as well making a quick climb up the ranks. And at SEC Media Days, South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer spoke about the value of his addition to the staff.

“Excited about Travian,” Beamer said. “He was a player when I was an assistant coach at Carolina, as well. So loves Carolina through and through. The process to hire him was very short and sweet because I knew how much I wanted him at Carolina and I knew how much he wanted to be at Carolina.”

Robertson’s coaching career got started working with the defensive line as a graduate assistant for Georgia State under head coach Shawn Elliot in 2017. He’d land his first defensive line coaching gig the following season at Albany State, spending just one season with the Golden Rams before returning to Georgia State to become their defensive line coach.

He spent last season as Tulane‘s defensive line coach during their historic winning season, the kind of winning that Beamer wants to do in Columbia, and felt the need to add to his staff.

“Obviously he’s worked his way up through the coaching ranks. Did a great job at Tulane last season, a Cotton Bowl team last year that won a conference championship. So being able to take some of the things they did defensively at Tulane and help us be better,” Beamer said.

Robertson lettered four times during his playing career at South Carolina and was named a team captain in his final season with the team, which was quickly followed by him being selected with the No. 249 overall pick in the seventh round of the 2012 NFL Draft by the Atlanta Falcons.

He’d also spend time with the Seattle Seahawks and the Washington Redskins during his time in the NFL before his professional career would come to an end in 2014. But the lessons he from playing as well as coaching are already being passed down to the Gamecocks, already shown signs of improving their squad this offseason.

“He’s a guy that has played the position and he’s played the position at a high level. So what I mentioned a few minutes ago about our players pulling me aside after one week to say, you hired the right guy, that means a lot to me. He’ll make our defense better,” Beamer concluded.