Shane Beamer emphasizes change in energy surrounding Gamecocks program
Last year, the most conversation about South Carolina at SEC Media Days centered around a recreated Arby’s photo. This year, the Gamecocks were mentioned as one of the dark horses to win the SEC East.
Such is life for Shane Beamer and the Gamecocks, who used a strong finish to the season coupled with a strong offseason to catapult into the national conversation.
In his opening remarks, Beamer noted that there is so much more talk surrounding the program than there was last season, deservedly so. Entering his second season as head coach Beamer already has people talking, and talking a lot, about the Gamecocks.
“Last year I stood up here and there wasn’t a single person in here that was talking about South Carolina football other than maybe our beat writers,” Beamer said, “No one was talking about any of the individuals in our football team across the country last year.”
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Things are a lot different this year. Beamer made a splash this offseason when he added a hoard of transfers, headlined by former Heisman contender Spencer Rattler. Beamer already had a solid class before adding Rattler, but the commitment immediately skyrocketed the Gamecocks into national media conversation.
Cam Smith is also getting talked about more as a first-round pick, and there’s plenty of buzz around South Carolina tight end Jaheim Bell.
“People are talking about our players as individuals more nationally than what they were last year. There’s more buzz about this program right now,” Beamer said.
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The newfound chatter is well deserved. The program made noise before even taking the stage on Tuesday. Head of New and Creative media Justin King and his team made sure to give Beamer and the Gamecocks a proper sendoff.
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The video has since gone viral. It was brought up multiple times to Beamer and was the talk of day two at media days. It was as if King and his team put a megaphone to whatever Beamer and the Gamecocks said Tuesday. With that, people are starting to take notice of the culture that Beamer has built and is continuing to build.
The avalanche that the Rattler news started, only got bigger during media days. Top that with the megaphone that King and his team gave Beamer and crew, the chatter is only just beginning.
“People are talking about us nationally, which is what we want. We have high expectations at South Carolina,” Beamer said.
[Win a Jaheim Bell-autographed football]
The new head ball coach joked that the most noise they made last year was when they recreated the infamous Steve Spurrier Arby’s picture.
The expectations continue to grow along with the national intrigue as to what the Gamecocks are going to do this fall. The ceiling is the highest a South Carolina football team has seen since the days of Steve Spurrier. The only thing left to do now is play ball.
