Shane Beamer details benefit of spending time with Lincoln Riley, Kirby Smart as first-time head coaches

South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer may only be entering his third-ever season as a head coach, but has learned a lot from his 20 years of experience as a graduate assistant and assistant coach on a multitude of staffs across the country.

Beamer sat down with Next Up’s Adam Breneman and spoke about establishing his own culture and identity as a head coach, but also the lessons he’s learned from his journey as an assistant from some of college football’s best.

“It was really narrowing down on that, but then also being around a lot of coaches that I just took things from,” Beamer said. “I mean I’ve taken from every coach that I’ve been around, but most recently before I got the South Carolina job was with Lincoln Riley, first-time head coach. He got hired in the summertime, I came in following that season so I was with him for really his first true offseason, so that was really beneficial.”

Beamer spent three seasons at Oklahoma as a part of Riley’s staff before becoming South Carolina’s head coach in 2021. But before his days at Norman, he worked under the head coach hasn’t done much lately other than winning back to back national championships in the past two seasons.

“Before that I was with Kirby Smart at Georgia, first-time head coach. I came in with him year one, so I got to see a lot of how he implemented things his first year. And then before that was with my dad,
Beamer said. “So I took from everybody, but it was really beneficial for me that I was around two first-time head coaches the two most recent jobs before I came back and just kind of narrowing down what I’d want this program to be about or what a program that I was a head coach would be about.”

Shane Beamer’s father is obviously legendary longtime Virginia Tech head coach Frank Beamer, a Hall of Famer who likely had plenty of wisdom to share with his son as a first-time head coach. That plus the experience of seeing how two of college football’s best coaches managed in their first-ever seasons gave him all the experience he needed to take the reigns for the Gamecocks.

“So that’s essentially what it was, just taking from every coach that I’ve been around, and to me you can’t necessarily steal from somebody. But I think there’s certain things that you take whether it be from practice, or quotes, sayings, philosophies that you tweak and kind of make your own if that makes sense,” Beamer concluded.