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Shane Beamer's first ever job interview was with Nick Saban

wesby:Wes Mitchell•05/28/23•

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South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer smiles at spring practice
Shane Beamer (Collyn Taylor/Gamecock Central)

South Carolina football coach Shane Beamer has worked for college coaching greats like Steve Spurrier, Kirby Smart, Lincoln Riley, Sylvester Croom, and his father Frank Beamer.

But the Gamecocks’ third-year head coach also nearly added another legendary coach to that list — or at least was close enough to have interviewed for the chance.

In an appearance last week on the Next Up With Adam Breneman podcast, Beamer shared that 15 years ago a young Shane Beamer actually interviewed for an opening on Nick Saban’s first staff at Alabama.

“The very first time I had probably like a real interview for a job was 2007 when Nick Saban got the Alabama job and he interviewed me for a position on his staff,” Beamer said. “I guess it would have been tight ends and special teams. And, you know, at that point, I really hadn’t been on an interview.”

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At the time, Beamer was an assistant at Mississippi State.

While he “interviewed” to get that job, Croom, Mississippi State’s head coach at the time, had already received recommendations to hire Beamer from both his offensive coordinator Woody McCorvey and then-defensive coordinator Ellis Johnson, who would, of course, go on to take the same role at South Carolina.

So it wasn’t so much a formal interview as much as it was just double-checking that Beamer would fit with Croom’s staff.

But sitting down with Saban to possibly join his Alabama staff — at 29 years old — that was something entirely different.

“So the first real, real, real interview I ever went on was: Nick Saban gets hired at Alabama as the head coach. And I’m one of the first guys that he interviews for a job. … And it wasn’t so much intense as it was — this is a big deal. This is Nick Saban coming back to the SEC, being the head coach at Alabama and one of the initial interviews is me,” Beamer continued.

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Saban ultimately went in a different direction for that opening.

But if Beamer had landed that Alabama job he might not have been open to his next move…

“We went back to Mississippi State and then got offered the South Carolina (assistant) job about a month later as well,” Beamer said. “So it’s funny how things work out for sure. But yeah, that was one that you look back on. You’re like, OK, you interview with Nick Saban, your first real interview. You can handle anything.”

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