COLUMBIA, S.C. — On paper it was a gamble.
Shane Beamer had never been an offensive or defensive coordinator but in December of 2020, he was named the new head football coach at South Carolina.
Hiring an up-and-coming assistant was a departure of the previous hires of Muschamp, Spurrier and Holtz as all three men had held high profile jobs before coming to Columbia to take over the Gamecock program.
Holtz won a national championship at Notre Dame, while Spurrier did likewise at Florida. Muschamp had been an assistant on an LSU team which won a national championship and he had four years as Florida’s head coach.
But as a former Gamecock assistant under Spurrier, Beamer had intimate knowledge of the landscape in Columbia. Combine that with his stops as an assistant which included working under his dad at Virginia Tech along with his stints at Georgia under Kirby Smart and at Oklahoma under Lincoln Riley, the preparation and experience as a high level assistant was there. The next step was to see if he could sit in the big office and run a Power 5 program.
When Beamer was hired, the reaction from a few national pundits was lukewarm with one analyst giving the hire a C-minus, the lowest grade for the new head coaching hires following the the 2020 season.
But two seasons into his tenure and Beamer is making himself and his boss look good. A combined 15 wins plus back-to-back wins over top 10 teams Tennessee and Clemson capped off the 2022 regular season. A week after a tough loss to Notre Dame in the Gator Bowl, the USC Board of Trustees approved a massive escalation in Beamer’s contract and salary. A two-year extension will keep Beamer at USC through 2027 and his salary has increased by nearly than $4 million.
Beamer’s salary will increase to $6.125 million in 2023, a raise of more than double his previous salary of $2.75 million annually. Beamer’s base salary under the extension will increase by $250,000 annually. His original contract at South Carolina, was for five years with a $2.75 million annual base salary.
Tanner gambled than Beamer was the right person for the job and Beamer gambled by taking a lower salary to come lead the Gamecock program knowing that early success would lead to a new contract.
It’s a gamble which has paid off for both men and at least two years into the Shane Beamer era, the coach is exceeding the low expectations placed on the program by at least one prominent pundit who rated the Beamer hire a C-minus.