South Carolina has officially added a former player to the support staff and updated the absence of one of the Gamecocks' quarterbacks on day one of spring ball.

Beamer announced the addition of Patrick DiMarco, who will be a football analyst and serve under Connor Shaw as the Assistant Director of Football Relations.

"Obviously, what he did as a player speaks for itself," Beamer said. "We told our team this: here's a guy who was somewhat under recruited coming into Carolina, to have the career that he had here, and then to have a 10 or 11-year career in the NFL, make two Pro Bowls, play in a Super Bowl. He's got a fantastic story. He'll be a great resource for us as a staff. He'll be here to help our offense and special teams as an analyst and assist Connor Shaw and Derrick Moore in their roles. He can't coach on the field, but he will be a great resource for us.

He also said quarterback Jason Brown missed practice Saturday due to an illness. Nick Barrett changed his number to 93 this spring as the Gamecocks began spring practice early Saturday morning.

"First of all, the energy was great," Beamer said. "It was awesome being out here. Having a chance to get back out on the field with the guys and doing what we love was awesome. And honestly, I was really impressed with—and it's a credit to our staff—the efficiency and organization. It didn't look like we didn't know what we were doing. It was really crisp and the effort was good. Obviously, there's a lot to clean up, but we're excited to be back out here."

It's the unofficial start to the Shane Beamer era with the Gamecocks beginning the first of 15 practices this spring. Beamer's family was in attendance for the practice as well.

"Surreal," Beamer said of the practice. "I could hardly sleep last night. I was excited this morning. To walk out here as the head coach at my dream job was really awesome. Obviously, there was a task to be done, so I was certainly focused on that, but a lot of emotions. Having my family out here was pretty cool as well."

South Carolina is off Sunday and returns to practice Tuesday.