Robby Ashford thrives on competition heading into first season with South Carolina
It’s safe to say that Robby Ashford and Shane Beamer‘s son, Hunter, both have different outlooks on competition.
The elder Beamer mentioned during his Thursday media availability that Hunter has recently started playing the “Road to Glory” mode on EA Sports College Football 25, the new college football video game released on July 19. In this mode, players can create a customizable character and follow their career from the recruitment process to superstardom.
Throughout his coaching career, especially at South Carolina, Beamer has emphasized the importance of competition. But he said he “failed with my son” because Hunter prioritized opportunities for guaranteed playing time in the game.
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“He tells me he started playing a season with the team he went to. He went and played for Mississippi State because Mississippi State promised him the starting quarterback job,” Beamer said. “I saw him the next day and I asked him how the season was going. He told me that he was having academic issues, so he was suspended for a game. … But then he also told me that he’s now entered the transfer portal because some other school in this game is promising different stuff as well.”
Ashford, however, said competition is one of the intangible attributes he hopes to provide to the South Carolina football team. In fact, the opportunity to compete is what ultimately drew him to the Gamecocks in the first place.
Ashford heads into his first season with South Carolina as an established college football veteran. The redshirt senior quarterback played two seasons at both Oregon and Auburn before entering the transfer portal last season.
He said early discussions with Shane and Dowell Loggains regarding his role and familiarity with the SEC ultimately brought him to the program.
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“I talked to them really early in the portal. They were in my top (schools). They told me, ‘We need a guy to come here that has experience. And you not only have experience, but SEC experience,'” Ashford said. “Just coming in here as an older guy, it’s just an opportunity to compete.”
Ashford added that competing is important to him because it is an opportunity that has not been provided to him for most of his college football career. In his two years at Oregon, he earned more playing time with the Ducks’ baseball program than he did with football team.
“The only true opportunity I’ve really gotten from a coach that’s told me it’s going to be a competition and has been is with Bryan Harsin my first year at Auburn. I respect him a lot for that,” Ashford said. “When I listened to Coach Beamer, he had a lot of the same things that, when Harsin told me it was a competition, that he meant it. I heard those things from Coach Beamer, and I was like, ‘Okay, I believe that. Maybe it’s just not smoke being blown in my ears like a lot of coaches like to do.'”
Because of this, the opportunity to compete at South Carolina is something Ashford said he is not taking for granted.
“I can’t really complain about that,” Ashford said. “As a competitor, it’s all I want — just an opportunity to compete.”
