Shane Beamer says he made ‘one phone call’ before hiring Travian Robertson

South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer added a familiar face to his coaching staff on Monday, hiring former Gamecock defensive lineman Travian Robertson as the team’s defensive line coach. There has been a lot of excitement surrounding Robertson’s return to Columbia, which Beamer detailed in his introductory press conference.

“Couldn’t be more excited to have this guy here today as well,” Beamer said. “Truly bringing him home, it’s amazing how many text messages I’ve gotten from former players, teammates of his, guys that played here when I was here thanking me. Excited employees here at the University of South Carolina that knew Trav as a player and now as a coach that are thanking me for bringing him back and all that as well. So home run hire to be able to get him back, he was a great player here as we know, great student, loves Carolina. He is garnet and black through and through, was a great player here and I know he’s gonna be an even better coach and recruiter for us as well.”

After lettering four years at South Carolina and spending three years in the NFL, Robertson transitioned to coaching, commendably working his way up from being a graduate assistant at Georgia State under head coach Shawn Elliott to where he is today.

“So much respect for him as a person, when he was here as a player and I was an assistant coach, but then what he’s done in his coaching career as well. I’ve got respect for the guys that when they decide to get into coaching they don’t want anything handed to them, they work for it. And he had a great career as a player, played in the NFL, it’s a lot of times guys maybe finish up playing in the NFL and they think they’re just supposed to right to the top in the coaching world, and he didn’t” Beamer said. “He earned it, worked as a graduate assistant, worked at Albany State, went to Georgia State as an assistant coach. Did a great job with the defensive line at Tulane last season as well.”

Robertson was a part of Tulane’s staff that has an amazing season last year, capped off by program’s first AAC football title and a Cotton Bowl win over USC. The Green Wave defense was stellar, with Robertson coaching two all-conference defensive linemen. And when the opportunity to fill a position of need arose, Beamer knew exactly who to call.

“Great family, wife is a Gamecock also and former athlete here as well, so couldn’t be more excited for us to bring him home and couldn’t be more excited for Travian to come home as well. When our previous assistant coach left there was one phone call I made and one phone call only, and it was to him. And I actually called him before we had a position open when I thought there might be a position open, I called,
Beamer explained. “And I’m like man I’m sorry if this thing doesn’t happen, but I’m excited and want to reach out just to make sure that this is something you’re interested in if this does happen. And when it happened it took me about 15 seconds to pick up the phone and call him, Clayton (White) and I met with him on a Zoom that afternoon and about five minutes after we got off the Zoom I called him back and offered him a job.”

There’s no question that Robertson has both proven his worth as a coach and fully understands the ins and outs of South Carolina’s culture, as he’ll look to be a major coaching catalyst in the Gamecocks taking a leap in their third year under Beamer.

“Just wanted to make sure I knew what I wanted out of this position and wanted Clayton to feel good with it as well and he absolutely did. That’s what Clayton and I said, we can talk to a bunch of people but it’s going to continue to come back to this guy every single time. And we got a great group of defensive linemen that he’ll be coaching this upcoming season and he’s gonna make them better. They’ve done some great things over the last couple years but he’s going to take them to a different level,” Beamer said. “He saw this program, the way it was built up from day one and competing for championships and he’s gonna be a key key part of us getting back to that as well.”