What Shane Beamer said at Florence Welcome Home Tour event
South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer spoke at the Florence Gamecock Club Meeting Monday night as the Welcome Home Tour continues to hit various areas in the Palmetto State.
GamecockCentral was on hand and below is what the Gamecocks’ fourth-year head coach had to say.
Beamer on South Carolina quarterbacks…
No, I mean, I’ll tell you guys what I told LaNorris and all the quarterbacks coming out of spring practice. I said, coming out of spring practice, LaNorris is our starting quarterback. But, just like all of our positions, that we will continue to compete at all positions.
So I told Robby Ashford, the moment I say that at a Gamecock Club event, the headline is going to be, “Beamer names LaNorris Sellers starting quarterback.” LaNorris is the starting quarterback coming out of spring. And now, like I told LaNorris, and like I told Robby, Robby did a great job during spring practice along with our other quarterbacks. LaNorris did a great job, and I expect LaNorris to continue to compete and continue to earn that position as well.
You guys know from being here, I mean, going into 2022, nobody thought that Nick Emmanwori and D.Q. Smith were going to be starting safeties because we had two seniors that they were behind. And we got into week two, and they became starters. So it’s the same thing. We don’t all of a sudden name someone — Debo Williams as our starting linebacker coming out of spring but he needs to have a great summer to continue to be the starting linebacker. So that’s where we are. And I had those conversations with those guys the Monday after the spring game.
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Tentative preseason camp start date…
August 1st is a Thursday. August 2nd would be the first practice at this point. So the first Friday in August is practice, Thursday’s when they report. And then Saturday is soccer from what I understand.
On addressing needs with recent transfers…
Yeah, I feel good. Coming out of spring practice, I think I talked about it publicly. There were some positions that depth-wise, we weren’t where we wanted to be just from a scholarship number standpoint. Offensive line was one of them. Not saying that we were not good on the offensive line, but just to be able to practice, having a certain number of guys on scholarship. We weren’t there from a lineman standpoint.
At receiver, we had some areas to address as well. And that was what we went into the portal. Those two positions were essentially primary needs or portal targets for us. I feel like we’ve addressed it well, you know, still not done.
Obviously, the portal’s closed, but if you’re in the portal, you can still take visits as well. So that’s still going on with us and other colleges as well. So we’ll see how it finishes in the end. But I like where we are right now and like where we’re headed also.
On Intensity leading up to portal closing…
It was intense, but it wasn’t like I was… We had all these conversations going up until 11:59 p.m. You know, I told my wife over that weekend. I’m like, it’s just like it’s eerily quiet, like too quiet in some ways. But it was great.
And actually, when everything closed, during the last couple of days was when I was in Georgia for that golf event with some other head coaches from across the country. So I think we were all in the same boat. We’re all sitting here in a hotel ballroom raising money for charity, but we’re all worried about the same things. And even some of that, I wonder if he’s trying to take one of my guys and all that as well. But so we were all together. A lot of us were on that trip and it was good.
A lot of that I think was done. Credit our players. A lot of that I want to say was done, but we had some great healthy conversations back in January when guys decided to come back for another year. We had, you guys know, I told you when I saw some of y’all in Columbia, and I talked about it after the game, the number of individual meetings I had. So I had some healthy conversations with 100, however many players, 10 players after spring practice. And we addressed some things, but it was great. It’s credit to the players in our program and what we’re doing as a program.
It wasn’t like I had hard conversations where guys were making demands and things like that. Like always, we were honest with people about where they stood and our guys believe in what we’re doing. And they’ve been overall, the team’s been a really hungry, driven group since January. And spring practice was just the culmination of one part of it. Now they’re eager to attack the summer. And I see that with a lot of guys that are still in Columbia right now and they don’t have to be. They’re just, you know, they’re in the building and working out and eager to get going for summer school next month.
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On how many guys are staying in town in May…
Right now, a significant portion of our offensive linemen are present. Vershon Lee had his wisdom teeth removed today and likely went back to Virginia for the procedure and recovery. However, the majority of our offensive line is here. I also noticed Luke Doty in the weight room this morning.
Overall, if we’re looking at having around 120 players on the team, approximately one-fifth of the team is currently here. However, I also want them to have the opportunity to take some time off in May. It’s crucial for them to mentally and physically recharge, considering the long summer and season ahead.
While some players may be at home, many are still working out regularly. Some are even gathering in different locales across the country to train together and stay in shape during May. So, they’re still putting in the work, but I also want them to have some time to step away from Columbia if possible.
On Recruiting high school players in the portal era…
I always want to start with high school recruiting, always. I believe that’s how you build your roster. And to me, the best teams are the ones that you’ve brought players in as freshmen. You develop them and then they’re there for their third, fourth, fifth year in the program. You look at those, some of those guys you’re referring to, Vershon Lee, Jakai Moore, Luke Doty, Tonka Hemingway, Boogie Huntley, you know, TJ Sanders is going into his fourth year in the program. Nick Emmanwori, DQ, their third, O’Donnell Fortune, I guess his fourth.
So I talk about it at these events. We’ve got, I think, 12 players that have been here since 2020, which is really pretty cool, you know, in the portal era. I would always love, always want to start with high school recruiting. I’d love to be able to sign 25 guys a year. You keep them for four years and you develop your roster that way. Those guys get to be juniors and seniors. They’re older guys and they’ve been around your program for a while.
I don’t know if that’s as sustainable here as maybe it is at other schools because of, frankly, the size of the state. There’s not as many SEC football players coming out of South Carolina every single year than there are Texas, California, Florida, those type places. So you’ve got to be creative. I don’t ever want to say, okay, we’re going to sign 20 portal guys a year and that’s how we’re going to build our roster. I just think it’s hard to build a team year to year and sustain it year to year doing that.
But we certainly want to be able to have the bulk of our class come from the high school ranks and then being able to supplement it year to year from the portal, whether it be with a Spencer Rattler or the guys like Nick Gargiulo and some of the great guys that we’ve brought in that we’ve had success with that we’ve brought in from the transfer portal. So we’ll always utilize it. It’s when those guys fit what we’re about on and off the field and they’re looking for what we’re offering from an opportunity standpoint. But high school recruiting, we haven’t put any less importance on that. Our coaches are out recruiting right now and are attacking it harder than we ever have.
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On upcoming SEC Spring Meetings and conference scheduling…
Those meetings will be interesting because it seems like every time we meet in person, every however many months, the last time we had an in-person meeting was February. So from February until May, and then from May until February, it’s like so much changes between those months. In our last meeting in February in Birmingham, we weren’t discussing revenue sharing in college athletics. And I know there’s a lot of chatter about that.
So, I mean, it’s just amazing how much changes from meeting to meeting. Honestly, from a schedule standpoint, I’m not trying to dodge the question, David. It’s probably a better question for Coach Tanner. We don’t have a whole lot of say in it.
Now, I have my conversations with Coach Tanner, where he knows how I feel and we talk about stuff and things like that, where he can voice that, but really for us, in the head coach’s meetings, most of the discussions are about officiating, rule changes, recruiting calendar. That’s where we really have a voice is the recruiting calendar, things that we want to see done from year to year. Those are probably the bulk of our conversations. Very little from a scheduling standpoint.
Somebody may voice an opinion, but there’s not a, okay, let’s take a vote as far as whether you want eight or nine games. That’s more the presidents and the ADs, but Dr. Amiridis and Coach Tanner talking to me, maybe prior to their meetings. They get more of the work done in the AD and presidents meetings. The coaches are more recruiting calendar and camps and things like that that we deal with on a day-to-day basis.
On whether transfer portal recruits from the same school sometimes commit as a package deal…
Great question. I wouldn’t say necessarily more, but maybe more immediate. I mean, you look at high school prospects that we’ve brought in, whether it be, but somebody that, the Kilgores… Jalon Kilgore comes in and has a really good first year experience with us. His brother, Gerald, because of what Jalon has told him, because of what Jalon’s parents experienced, now want Gerald to be a part of that program. Absolutely.
But then you also, that happens, and I hope it’s happening with the high school recruitment as well, where when LaNorris Sellers comes back here to Florence for the month of May, and he’s around the high school working out, he’s telling the other players at South Florence High School, what a great experience he’s having in Columbia, that these guys are who they say they are. They’re real, they’re genuine. They don’t give you a bunch of BS in recruiting and how much fun he’s having. So I would hope that’s happening.
And I think it is, but certainly in the portal, without a doubt. I don’t know whether I can comment on him or not. Hypothetically, there may be a Florida State receiver that would be joining our program. Well, Gilber Edmond told him about, here’s the experience you had in Tallahassee, good or bad, but here’s what it’s like in Columbia. He and Gilber are from the same area in Florida, so that certainly helps.
We have four players on our team that came from Pittsburgh last season. It wasn’t like we went and said, let’s get all four of these guys. It all kind of just happened. Two of them were from the state of South Carolina. And at least from my dealings with them during the process, it was really, they were all individual situations. It wasn’t, hey, we’re going to get DeAndre Jules, and he’s really good buddies with Bangally Kamara, and we’re going to get them both. It really kind of just happened. But I would imagine that whoever came first on a visit, Jules told Bangally what a good experience was and things like that. So I think so.
I think you hear that more and I get it, guys, that players on our own team, somebody goes in the portal and immediately I’ll get a link to their 247 or Rivals or On3 profile or whatever it is or a screenshot of who they are. Hey, coach, this is my boy. Just went in the portal. He’s a dog. He can play. We need to get him, that type stuff. So they’re like our best recruiters.
So, yeah, to answer your question, I would say so. It happens. I don’t know if it’s more than high school recruiting, but hopefully with the transfer portal, a guy comes in in January, has an awesome experience and or has a great first week, whatever it might be, and is telling other guys of his. Yeah, come on. So I’m all for it if it means they want to join our program.
