Lonnie Teasley going to be 'huge asset' for South Carolina

When Shane Beamer hired Dowell Loggains, one of the first things brought up was the future of the offensive line coach position. And it caused some trepidation for the newly-hired South Carolina offensive coordinator. 

Beamer initially brought up interim coach Lonnie Teasley as a viable option for the job. But Loggains, who never met Teasley at the time, was hesitant.

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Knowing how important that hire is, Loggains understood how integral that marriage had to be between him and whoever was coaching that group. 

But an interview on a recruiting trip helped sell Loggains on Teasley, and Beamer said it’s been “so far, so good’ in the early goings. 

“I wanted to ask open-ended questions. If you could build a run game from scratch and it was up to you completely, what would it look like? I can say I want to run power or counter and two-back or be in 13 personnel and have someone agree with me. So I asked as many open-ended questions as I could so I could understand what he believed in and see if it could mesh,” Loggains said. 

“I asked how he believes in five-man and six-man protections. There are a lot of ways to do it. One’s not right, one’s not wrong but you want to have a match philosophically. The marriage has to be right.” 

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Teasley talked about his philosophies, his background in the NFL with the Ravens and experience with the Gamecocks to date, selling Loggains. 

South Carolina officially hired Teasley in early January, nixing the interim tag and making him the full-time coach with Greg Adkins moving to an analyst role. 

“Whatever I did, Dowell Loggains needed to feel good about it as well. Most times when an offensive coordinator comes in, if he’s bringing someone with him it’s usually an offensive line coach he has a background with,” Beamer said. 

“I think Dowell’s really excited about them. He had a background as an offensive line coach before he came here as an analyst. He’d done it before. I saw the way he related with recruits and our offensive line. I felt like it would be a really good transition. So far, so good.” 

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Teasley is no stranger to the program. He came over as an analyst and took over in the middle of the season this year after Adkins had to take a step back due to health reasons. 

Teasley worked closely with Adkins to put together one of the best on-paper recruiting classes in recent program history. He helped land four-star prospects Markee Anderson, Oluwatosin Babalade and Trovon Baugh and three-star Jatavius Shivers.

He also was the on-field coach responsible for some improvement and a line playing well to close the season.

“Consistency was certainly big. I wanted the best guy for the job and felt like Lonnie’s relationship with the offensive line was really good. There was consistency from the recruiting standpoint as well,” Beamer said.

“Then let’s not forget I wanted Greg Adkins here. He’s one of the best offensive line coaches in the country. And I wanted Greg to be part of this as well. I made that clear to Lonnie and Ad both that I wanted them here.” 

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Teasley is now working full-time as the recruiter and is off to a really good start. Adkins laid the groundwork with it but Teasley landed four-star tackle and top-50 prospect Kam Pringle in the 2024 class.

On3 considers South Carolina the overwhelming favorite to land Josiah Thompson, a four-star tackle and No. 51 overall in the industry rating. 

“A lot of it in college football is can he be a great recruiter? Is he a guy who kids want to play for? You’re going to see in due time he’s going to be a great recruiter.  He’s going to be a huge asset for us that way,” Loggains said. “I think he’s going to sign the best players in the country for us. On top of being a good coach and be able to inspire, teach and motivate the current players.” 

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