Shane Beamer recalls time together with James Coley at Georgia, shares Rose Bowl memory
Normally with six seconds left and trailing by multiple scores at halftime, most teams take a knee on the next play. Go back to the locker room and get ready for the second half.
But in a game where the opposing offense was clicking, something had to be done. In the 2018 Rose Bowl, Oklahoma squib kicked to Georgia’s Tae Crowder, who dove on the ball around the 47-yard line. This gave the Bulldogs a chance to run one play and kick a field goal.
“Coach (Jim) Chaney was our offensive coordinator, he had already come down from the press box when Oklahoma scored. So there’s nobody there to call the play,” Shane Beamer said. “So James (Coley), he’s kind of the next guy up because he’s been a coordinator. He called the play, which was a little sprint out over on our sideline to Terry Godwin to get out bounds.”
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Because of Coley’s in-the-moment thinking, Georgia ran the play and had one second left on the clock to kick a field goal. Rodrigo Blankenship lined up and drilled a 55-yarder to make it a two-score deficit at halftime.
As legend has it, the game would continue to go back and forth. The Bulldogs would go onto win 54-48 in double overtime to advance to the national championship. But if it weren’t for Coley, things might have looked different by the end of the game.
“He’s been a coordinator, called plays, called a big one there. Kind of in an emergency type of situation,” Beamer said.
Now six years after that moment, Coley and Beamer, former colleagues at Georgia, will be reunited. Coley will join Beamer’s staff at South Carolina as the wide receivers coach.
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“We worked, I feel, closely together,” Beamer said. “I was special teams coordinator and he was very involved with our special teams as well. So we worked closely together that way. Our offices were right next to each other. Spent a lot of time with him just because we were the two guys that were kind of down at the end of the hallway away from everybody.”
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There’s a lot to like about Coley and what he can bring to the table. Sure, he’s coming in as a positions coach, but he also has experience as a coordinator and even coached in the NFL. But from their time at Georgia, Beamer knew this was a guy to bring in if made available.
“He had a room with some really good players at Georgia. Mecole Hardman was in there, Riley Ridley and Javon Wims and Terry Godwin and Tyler Simmons. Guys that were on that team when we won the Rose Bowl and went to the national championship. He did a great job with those receivers — young, old, different skillsets,” Beamer said.
“Probably the thing that stood out to me the most was the amount of the time that he invested in them, whether it be them individually, getting them ready for a wide receiver meeting. I mean, he spent a lot of time preparing for that meeting, it was a production. On the field, just the energy that he coached with. And just managing that room. Those are the things that stood out.”
