Shane Beamer acknowledges ‘strange’ circumstances surrounding South Carolina transfers

The rise of the transfer portal in college football has led to a rise in tampering speculation, as reports and rumors of players being recruited while still on another team’s roster have recently come to light.

Tampering as it relates to the transfer portal has become one of the most discussed topics of SEC spring meetings this week, and South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer shared his experience with tampering on Wednesday.

“We lost four guys that were key contributors for us after the season, and it was strange in a couple of those situations based on conversations that I’d have with guys two or three days before they went in the portal,” Beamer said. “It’s interesting how things happen, but again, rumors is one thing, proof’s another thing and as far as our situation I haven’t had anything where I’ve necessarily turned anybody in for tampering.”

The Gamecocks notably lost some offensive firepower to the transfer portal this offseason, losing weapons like their leading rusher from last season MarShawn Lloyd to USC and tight ends Austin Stogner and Jaheim Bell to Oklahoma and Florida State.

And as Beamer and other SEC coaches try to fend off suitors attempting to acquire their players through the transfer portal, they also try to do things the right way when managing transfers within the conference as well.

“But I also think we as head coaches have tried to do a good job of, I’ve had other SEC coaches call me if they heard about something with one of their players and somebody affiliated with our program and I’ve called other coaches as well hearing different things,” Beamer explained.

There are rules in place to help properly regulate transfer portal activity, but similar to NIL, many coaches would like to see more put into place in order to improve clarity. But for now, coaches and staff will have to continue learning on the fly and adjusting to the new, unprecedented changes that exist in the college football landscape.

“And it’s not a coach in the SEC calling a player of mine directly, but it could be somebody affiliated with their program or high school coach, or whatever it might be,” Beamer said. “There’s a lot of third parties obviously involved and I think we as coaches try and do a good job of communicating with each other and trying to do things the right way.”