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South Carolina became the first major program to fire its head coach during the virus stricken season after parting ways with Will Muschamp following its loss to Ole Miss on November 14. Many thought that most schools would hang onto their head coaches for the full 2020 season due to the pandemic hurting programs in a number of ways, but the Gamecocks had enough of Muschamp, who left Columbia with a 28-30 record.
South Carolina is an attractive job. Yes, they’ve been the little brother to Georgia and Florida in the SEC East for a number of years now and have to battle (lose out to) Clemson for in-state recruiting nowadays, but there’s no denying it’s among the bottom half of the top tier jobs in all of college football.
Hugh Freeze, former Ole Miss head coach now Liberty head coach, has been a name floated out there from the moment Muschamp was fired, but a new report suggests that Shane Beamer could be the favorite to land the head coaching job in Columbia.
According to The Post and Courier, Beamer officially interviewed for the job on Friday, but no official offer has been made. ESPN’s Chris Low said that Beamer is considered “the leader in the clubhouse” for the job as it stands right now.
"I think Shane Beamer is the leader in the clubhouse for South Carolina….and he should be"
– @ClowESPN on #SECThisMorning on @SIRIUSXM
— Peter Burns (@PeterBurnsESPN) December 1, 2020
Shane, 43, is the son of the legendary Frank Beamer who coached 28 seasons at Virginia Tech. Shane is currently the assistant head coach under Lincoln Riley at Oklahoma and was actually an assistant for the Gamecocks from 2007-10, so he has some history with South Carolina.
According to the report, South Carolina was hoping to interview other coaches, but the virus kept them from doing so. Having said that, it sounds like Beamer made quite the impression and could become the 35th head coach in South Carolina program history.