Shawn Elliott excited to return home and face South Carolina

No matter where he goes, South Carolina will always be home for Shawn Elliott.

Elliott, a Camden native, received the Order of the Palmetto—the highest civilian honor in South Carolina—on Aug. 26 from Gov. Henry McMaster. He also coached at South Carolina in multiple roles from 2010-16. He most notably stepped up as the team’s interim head coach after Steve Spurrier resigned on Oct. 12, 2015.

After his time with the Gamecocks, Elliott moved on to Georgia State, where he’s been the head coach since 2017. In that time, he’s an even 30-30 and has led the Panthers to winning seasons in four of five years.

Come Saturday night, Elliott will return to Williams-Brice Stadium for the first time in six years when the Panthers take on the Gamecocks.

“Going back in there to play the University of South Carolina—grew up 25 miles away—a lot of games that I watched there, a lot of games that I’ve won there, won a state championship there,” Elliott said at his Monday media availability. “And now we’re taking our team the Georgia State Panthers back there to open up our season. That’s going to be, hopefully, a great night, but it’s going to be an exciting one.”

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Elliott has a lot of ties to South Carolina, including a close friendship with Gamecock head coach Shane Beamer. The two only worked together during the 2010 season. Elliott was the running game coordinator and Beamer was the special teams coordinator.

“Shawn’s a heck of a football coach, knew that then,” Beamer said at his Tuesday media availability. “He was a good friend and we vacationed together during that time. Took a couple of trips to the beach, we were feeding his family; our kids are about the same age. He’s done a great job at Georgia State and that relationship is still good.”

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While he wants nothing but the best for his longtime friend, Beamer will not root for him to do well this weekend. While the Gamecocks are a 12.5-point favorite, they will not be taking Georgia State lightly.

“This is a team that 17 of their 22 starters are juniors or seniors, so they’ve played a lot of football together,” Beamer said. “It’s a very confident team that has gone on the road in the SEC and performed very well.”

In Elliott’s tenure, Georgia State has caused problems for SEC teams in the past. In 2019, the Panthers upset Tennessee at Neyland Stadium and took Auburn down to the wire last year.

After losing four of its first five games last season, the Panthers went 7-1 the rest of the way. Beamer credited the team’s resiliency back to its head coach.

“On game days when Shawn was here, I used to think you’d have to get him an IV after pregame warmups,” Beamer said. “He’s out there sweating and bleeding and just drenched in sweat, we haven’t even kicked off, and that was as the o-line coach. So now as the head coach, the team kind of takes on that personality as well and he’s done a really good job there.”

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As the season opener approaches, Elliott said he will have his team ready to face the Gamecocks.

“We’re just ready to get started, looking forward to what we hope and certainly it can be if we’ve got the right mindset to go out and play well to a great 2022 season,” Elliott said. “But we all understand what it takes to good and what has to happen in order to continue success. I think we have the mindset and players. We have to go out and execute it.”

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