Changes in coaching duties highlight plans for 2011
The USC coaching staff won’t undergo any offseason personnel changes, but there will be shifts in responsibility.
Coach Steve Spurrier announced Friday that special teams coordinator Shane Beamer, who had also been coaching spur linebackers and strong safeties, will only coach special teams in 2011. Additionally, tight ends coach Johnson “Jeep” Hunter will move over to defense and work with the secondary, while running backs coach Jay Graham will assume responsibility for tight ends.
In making the moves, Spurrier expressed a desire to lessen Beamer’s responsibilities and allow him to focus solely on special teams. Special teams were a weakness for the Gamecocks this season, as the team was second-to-last in the SEC in kickoff returns and dead last in punt returns, while punt and kick coverage units were middle-of-the-pack in the league.
Spurrier suggested one possible solution to the woes may be to place more offensive and defensive starters on the various teams.
“I really believe we’ve got to get more of our first-team players on special teams,” Spurrier said. “We didn’t make much happen this year.”
Spurrier said he feels the move will benefit Beamer, who had been handling two coaching responsibilities in addition to serving as the team’s recruiting coordinator. He will continue to lead recruiting efforts.
“We had him doing too much,” Spurrier said. “He volunteered for too much, and I wasn’t smart enough to see he had too much on his plate.”
The move of Hunter to defense gives USC four full-time defensive coaches. Hunter has defensive coaching experience at the college level in previous stops at North Carolina A&T State, UT-Chattanooga and Eastern Kentucky.
Good, but not great: Speaking about the 2010 season for the first time since USC lost to Florida State in the Chick-fil-A Bowl, Spurrier said the year was good — but not great.
“We thought it was a good year, but it wasn’t a great year,” Spurrier said. “A great year would’ve been to win the bowl game and get that 10th victory. We didn’t do it. We didn’t play very well in that game.”
The bowl loss was unlike the previous two, as the Gamecocks battled back after falling behind early. Spurrier lamented the ability to not complete the comeback.
“I was hoping and believing and thinking there for a moment that it was going to be a game where we really struggled early and hung in there and got it to 19-17 and would come back and win that game,”Spurrier said. “But it wasn’t to be.”
Schedule released: USC formally released its 2011 schedule last week. In SEC play, the Gamecocks will host Florida, Auburn, Vanderbilt and Kentucky while traveling to Georgia, Mississippi State, Tennessee and Arkansas. In non-conference play, USC will host Navy, The Citadel and Clemson in addition to the season opener against East Carolina in Charlotte, N.C. The opener will be USC’s first regular season game on a neutral field since 1959, when it played Wake Forest in Charlotte.
Halftime ceremony: Spurrier urged fans to attend Saturday’s men’s basketball game against Kentucky, where the football team will honor several players and display several trophies during halftime.