After a record of 28-30 under Will Muschamp since 2016, South Carolina students believe the new football head coach, Shane Beamer, will make a beneficial change.
The Daily Gamecock interviewed 38 students and all of them approved of Beamer's hire.
Beamer built an impressive resume since he started his coaching career in 2000. He has worked under some of college football's most notable head coaches, like the Oklahoma Sooners' Lincoln Riley and the Georgia Bulldogs' Kirby Smart. However, USC students said they were more interested in his years working for former South Carolina head coach, Steve Spurrier.
For first-year exercise science major Charlie King, Beamer's work under Spurrier played a major role in influencing his optimism for the upcoming season.
"Spurrier was by far one of my favorite people growing up," King said. "Having Beamer being one of [Spurrier's] old coaches ... is fantastic because it'll bring a lot of fans back who were huge Gamecock supporters back in the Spurrier era."
Many of Beamer's former players at USC were happy about the hire and believe that he's the right man for the job. Beamer received support from Marcus Lattimore, Stephen Garcia and Tori Gurley, to name a few.
Their enthusiasm about the hire is very important to South Carolina students.
"It seems like all the players who were with Spurrier and sort of knew him, all really support the hire and really liked it," Mark Vaughn, a first-year sport and entertainment management student, said.
Shane Beamer learned a lot of his coaching tactics from his father Frank Beamer, a College Football Hall of Fame coach. Frank Beamer was a head coach at Virginia Tech for 29 seasons, making the Hokies a dominant program.
Students are excited to see how Beamer will channel his father's success and add his own knowledge to make the Gamecocks a fierce competitor in the SEC once again.
"Success runs in his family, [his] dad coached at VT, Virginia Tech, so I think that he'll bring that same success here," first-year sport and entertainment management student Norris Bennett said.
Beamer has already had an impact on the culture at Carolina by hiring a new staff to accompany him for the 2021 season. It sounds like a risky move, but students approve of the changes.
"His staff is new, they've never been tested before, so they're going to be out to prove themselves. They're here to win," first-year computer information systems student Walker Stewart said.
Born in Charleston, Beamer is excited to be back in his home state. He’s expressed his eagerness about bringing success back to South Carolina. Beamer’s excitement is contagious throughout the USC campus.
“For Shane Beamer, when you see him in press conferences and talking to reporters, this feels like his dream job,” fourth-year liberal studies student Jared Imholz said.
Students can't wait to see what the new coaching staff can do for Gamecock football in the coming years — it's the beginning of a new era.
Correction (Jan. 29, 2021, at 12:17 a.m.): A previous version of this article misstated Muschamp's record at South Carolina and what year he started. His record was 28-30 and he started in 2016.