Hiring Mike Shula as South Carolina's new OC was 'always the direction' Shane Beamer was going to go

The decision wasn’t very hard for head coach Shane Beamer. He didn’t have to look far to find what, or more so who, he was looking for.

When Dowell Loggains called him while he was in Atlanta for the SEC Championship game, Beamer knew he was going to have a big hole to fill at the offensive coordinator position. When it came to determining who the next coordinator would be, he was going to have plenty of outside coaches vying for the role.

“Immediately, your phone starts blowing up with people that are interested in the position,” Beamer said. “When you’re a 9-win team and you’re nationally ranked and you’ve got a quarterback like LaNorris Sellers, there’s going to be a lot of offensive coaches that want to be a part of this.”

But as he began his search, he remembered being in Florida with his wife, Emily, for a weekend getaway last year when he got a call from Loggains about a potential coach to bring on staff at South Carolina.

“The day that Sean (Ryan) left, Dowell called me immediately and said, ‘Hey, what do you think about Mike Shula?’ My initial reaction was like, ‘Are you freaking kidding me? Absolutely,'” Beamer said. “I knew what Mike Shula was about as a coach and what I thought I knew about him as a person. I thought he’d be a dynamic fit because of the kind of person he is, the background that he’s had.”

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Beamer initially hired Shula as a senior offensive assistant before the start of the 2024 season. It was a role he did very well in this year, helping Sellers from the sidelines while Loggains called plays up in the press box. He managed to impress Beamer in a short amount of time, so much so that he decided to promote him as the team’s next offensive coordinator and quarterback’s coach.

“It was a home run when we were able to get him here. And then since he’s gotten here in January, he’s been even better than I thought he would be in the regards of helping our offense, the influence he has in that offensive staff room,” Beamer said.

“People like everyone in this building. I would say everyone in this building loves Mike Shula. That’s not just saying that because he’s here. People in this building love him. He’s made us better.”

Shula, who has nearly four decades worth of coaching experience between college and the NFL, has been an offensive coordinator with three different NFL organizations. He was also the head coach at Alabama from 2003-06 before Nick Saban took over in 2007.

Shula’s track record speaks for itself. He’s worked with successful pro quarterbacks such as Cam Newton and Josh Allen. He’s also proven to be a great play caller, helping the Carolina Panthers’ offense average more than 30 points per game in their Super Bowl run in 2015.

Ultimately, when it came down to it, Beamer never really considered any other candidates for this position. He gave some thought to other options out there. But in the back of his mind, he knew what he had in Shula and how that could help the Gamecock offense moving into 2025 and beyond.

“Coach Shula was always the direction I was gonna go,” he said. “… But really, the continuity was critical with me. Just the relationship that he has with LaNorris and our other quarterbacks, knowing the offense. I wasn’t fired up about bringing in a new offensive coordinator and our whole offense has to learn a whole new offensive system. I didn’t think that was the best thing for us right now. So, when you have a high level qualified guy in your building that can do the job and hopefully make us even better, it was a pretty easy decision.”

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With South Carolina’s Citrus Bowl trip less than two weeks away, Beamer and his staff are still working through who will call plays on offense.

Shula said he plans to prepare for the bowl game as if he’s going to be the one calling the plays. He’ll be ready either way. But he’s just excited about the opportunity in front of him with South Carolina.

“Grateful to DLo for reaching out and giving me the opportunity to get here last year and for Coach Beamer to allow that to happen. I couldn’t have had a more exciting year for me. It’s been very energizing personally for me,” Shula said. “It’s good to feel wanted. I feel extremely motivated now to help our offense and help this football team finish the season the way we want to finish it.”

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