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Shane Beamer confirms Mike Shula will handle play-calling duties for bowl game

imageby:Jack Veltri•about 19 hours•

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Mike Shula is pictured on the South Carolina sideline (Photo: CJ Driggers | GamecockCentral.com)
Mike Shula is pictured on the South Carolina sideline (Photo: CJ Driggers | GamecockCentral.com)

It always felt like the easiest choice. It felt that way when Mike Shula was hired as South Carolina’s offensive coordinator. And now, it feels that same way with who’s calling the plays in the Citrus Bowl.

After the team’s first practice in Orlando on Friday, head coach Shane Beamer confirmed Shula will be the play caller when the Gamecocks face Illinois on New Year’s Eve. The decision became much clearer when Dowell Loggains wasn’t spotted at practice.

“Dowell is not with us. He won’t be with us,” Beamer said. “Mike is the offensive coordinator and will be calling everything in the game as well.”

Loggains hasn’t been around the program much in the month of December. The now-former offensive coordinator became the new head coach at Appalachian State, a job he took the day of the SEC Championship game, while Beamer was there in Atlanta.

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The search for Loggains’ replacement didn’t take long. Shula, who joined South Carolina’s staff this year as an offensive analyst, was promoted to be the new offensive coordinator and quarterback’s coach for 2025 and beyond.

“I just felt like the longer it went, the more Dowell was away from Columbia, the less beneficial it was for both sides to be able to call it,” Beamer said. “But ever since we found out we were playing Illinois, Coach Shula and the rest of the offensive staff, they’ve been putting the game plan together. Dowell hasn’t been in Columbia. He came back Sunday after the (SEC) championship game, and he hasn’t been back in Columbia with the team since.”

In Loggains’ absence, Shula and the offensive staff had been putting together a game plan for the Citrus Bowl. They knew there was always a chance Loggains could end up coming back to call the plays. But they continued to prepare as if he wasn’t coming back.

“In the end, I just decided it was best for Mike to continue to call it,” Beamer said. “So he’s had a month to go back in the archives, and Illinois can look at mid 2000s Alabama offense, can look at the Cam Newton Carolina Panthers offense. … So he’s taken it and run. He and the rest of the staff will do a great job with it.”

South Carolina will have two more days of team practice before getting set to take on the Fighting Illini. The Citrus Bowl will be played next Tuesday with kickoff set for 3 p.m. on ABC.

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