Why South Carolina AD Jeremiah Donati couldn't say no to contract extensions for Shane Beamer and Dawn Staley
This week, the University of South Carolina’s new athletic director Jeremiah Donati sat down with 107.5 The Game’s Jay Philips and Elijah Campbell. During his time on “The Postgame Show,” Donati spoke about all things Gamecocks. One of the major topics of conversation was the school’s recent athletics contract extensions. Both South Carolina football coach Shane Beamer and South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley signed new deals this month.
Donati spoke on other topics, as well. Potential upgrades to Williams-Brice Stadium and his support of men’s basketball coach Lamont Paris were major talking points. So, too, was a discussion about money in the world of NIL, revenue-sharing, and high-dollar television deals. However, he spent a lot of time talking about his newly-paid coaches.
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If it weren’t for Beamer and Staley, Donati might never have left TCU to come to USC. He told Phillips and Campbell, “…you want to go to places that they’re on a good trajectory. Candidly, I don’t know that I would have been as interested if the programs weren’t going in a good direction. And I really felt like they were.”
He also revealed that he did his homework on South Carolina’s coaches before accepting the job. “[I] heard a lot of great things about [Beamer] from other coaches, he said.” He continued, “Obviously, women’s basketball and the success [Staley has] had speaks for itself.”
When asked about the new big-money deals, Donati joked that he “had the ability to say ‘no'” but quickly made it clear he never had any intention of doing so. After crediting his predecessor Ray Tanner for getting the ball rolling in negotiations, Donati heaped praise on his coaches.
“…first things first, there are two great coaches, we want them to be here for a long, long time,” he said. Donati added that he wanted to lock in the Beamer and Staley deals quickly and expressed relief and excitement at finalizing both contracts. “I’m really happy we have those secured and we’ve got the future to look forward to with both of them.”
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In speaking about Coach Beamer, Donati explained that the new deal backs up his belief that the Gamecocks have “the right man for the job.”
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Said Donati, “One of the things that really impressed me about [Beamer]…I spent some time with him talking about, ‘What did you learn from the 5-7 year last year?'”
Now heading into year five, Beamer impressed his new boss with his answer. Donati told 107.5, “And [Beamer] said, ‘…We had lost kind of that core culture. So, we got back to basics…we wanted to make sure that you understood what it means to be part of the Gamecock football program.’ So, I was really impressed with how they kind of started over, if you will. And I think we saw last year, there was obviously great team chemistry.”
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The South Carolina AD spoke glowingly of Coach Staley, as well.
“Dawn, on her for a moment, she’s a once-in-a-generation talent…The city of Columbia and USC have benefited greatly by us being blessed with having her as a coach. You’ve got to kind of look at the holistic part of it when you take that all into account. It was such a no-brainer to do what we could to really show commitment to her.”
“Dawn just continues to elevate the program to new heights,” Donati said. “Dawn deserves the raise and the extension because she kicks a lot of tail and wins a lot of championships, cuts down a lot of nets.”
