Tonka Hemingway: Shane Beamer has taken South Carolina to new heights

Star defensive lineman Tonka Hemingway is one of the more dominant defenders on the South Carolina Gamecocks’ roster. He and the Gamecocks will have everybody’s attention yet again this season. That’s in large part due to the remarkable success the program has enjoyed the past few seasons under Shane Beamer. Hemingway recently said the biggest reason for Beamer’s success is that the players want to lay it all on the line for their head coach.

“I feel he’s taken it to new heights,” Hemingway began. “Playing for him is like you got — you do everything for him. You try to win. You hate making him feel down. Coach Beamer, you want to play your heart out for him, like give him your all.”

Beamer also recently added Travian Robertson to his staff, and he let everyone know how thrilled he was about the new addition at SEC Media Days.

“Excited about Travian,” Beamer said. “He was a player when I was an assistant coach at Carolina, as well. So, he 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.

“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.

The South Carolina Gamecocks begin their 2023 campaign against the North Carolina Tar Heels. That one will kick off on Saturday, Sept. 2 at 7:30 PM EST.

On3’s Kaiden Smith and Riley Gates also contributed to this article.