Robby Ashford will finish season with South Carolina while in portal. Shane Beamer explains how it will work

If this were any other season, Robby Ashford might not have continued at South Carolina like he is doing so right now. But just like everything in college football, times are changing and so is Shane Beamer.

Ashford entered the transfer portal last week after spending one season with the Gamecocks. Typically, a player in the portal would be looking for a new home, marking the end of the road with their previous team. But it seems his time with the program isn’t over just yet.

On Wednesday, Beamer confirmed the redshirt senior backup quarterback has been practicing with the team while having his name in the portal. The plan is for Ashford to continue with the Gamecocks for the rest of this month and into the Citrus Bowl before going their separate ways.

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In the past, this probably wouldn’t have happened under Beamer. His stance on players entering the portal and still suiting up for a bowl game had always been “you’re either with us, or you’re not.” There was never any in between. But it seems the fourth-year head coach will change his tune a little bit and let Ashford play his final game with the team on Dec. 31.

“Look, Robby loves it here. Robby’s enjoyed his experience here. Robby wants to be the starting quarterback — I get that. He should be. There’s only one of those guys on the field,” Beamer said on Wednesday. “Robby came and talked to me the week after the Clemson game about his future. (He) doesn’t want to go — loves it here — but also understands we’ve got a pretty good quarterback right now in LaNorris (Sellers).”

While Beamer would love for Ashford to stay beyond this season, he understands the situation that he’s in. With the portal being open until Dec. 28, his best option was to put his name in the hat and go from there. Teams in need of a quarterback have already been shopping around.

After their initial conversation, they met again later on with Ashford deciding to go through with his decision to transfer. The idea of finishing the season out with South Carolina also came up.

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At first, Beamer was hesitant to go through with this thought. He hadn’t been willing to do it before, so why would he do so now? Contemplating what he wanted to do, he turned to the leaders of his team for their opinion on the matter.

“He wants to stay and finish. He’s a play away from being in the bowl game. He wants to finish this thing the right way when he started with you guys,” Beamer told those players. “It’s a little bit different than a backup receiver that wants to go in the portal just because he wants to get more playing time or more money or whatever. This is a guy that, there’s only one of them on the field, and there’s only a few places that are taking quarterbacks right now.”

The leaders that Beamer spoke with came to the decision that they were in favor of letting Ashford stick around with the Gamecocks while finding a new team through the portal. They saw it as this: “Let him finish. He started this thing with us. He’s been a good teammate and let him go out the right way,” according to Beamer.

So, for the time being, Ashford will still be a part of the team like he was before. Beamer has worked on a schedule to where he will let him go visit other schools.

Beamer said Ashford went on a visit last weekend when the players had off from football. Then on Wednesday, he was in Las Vegas for a visit with UNLV, who had just picked up a commitment from former Gamecock tight end Nick Elksnis.

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But of course, there are conditions to this agreement. Beamer told Ashford he will need to be back by Thursday night. The reason being that South Carolina will have three straight days of practice this weekend.

“I think each situation is different,” Beamer said. “Quarterback is a unique position because they only take one. He’s done things the right way here.”

If Ashford cannot hold up his end of the deal, Beamer won’t shy away from doing what he believes would be best for the team. He doesn’t see it getting to the point of becoming an issue, though. Instead, he believes it will be a decision that works out for both sides.

“I told the team yesterday in front of Robby,” he said, “if we go through this process and over the next few days, I sense anything that he’s not being a great teammate or isn’t completely committed, then we’re going to have a different conversation. But I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

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