As Shane Beamer continues to build out his program and what he hopes will be a long-lasting legacy at South Carolina, the Gamecocks head coach believes there is a critical element to the rebuild in Columbia:
Coaching continuity.
When Beamer’s father, the legendary Frank Beamer, took over as Virginia Tech head coach in 1987, he hired Bud Foster to his first coaching staff. The same was true at Beamer’s first head-coaching stint.
Beamer was head coach of Murray State from 1981-86, and he hired Foster as a graduate assistant in 1981 before eventually keeping him on staff as a linebackers and special teams coach. When Beamer made the shift over to the Hokies, he brought Foster with him, and Foster stayed loyal.
Instead of jumping for another job, Foster stayed put and stayed patient. After serving in various linebacker assistant roles for eight years, Foster finally grabbed the title of defensive coordinator from Beamer. From there, the rest is history as Foster built a reputation as one of college football’s great defensive minds and never left Beamer’s program in his entire career.
Bryan Stinespring was a GA for the elder Beamer’s staff in 1990 and was eventually promoted to tight ends and assistant offensive line coach in 1993. And Stinespring made a career out of that opportunity, spending the next 12 years of his career with the Hokies before Beamer retired in 2015.
Shane Beamer spoke about those two coaches specifically and a bit extensively this week. After seeing pops be able to retain and sustain a coaching staff like that, he made it one of his chief goals to create and keep that foundation for as long as possible in Columbia.
“It’s huge. It’s something that’s always gonna be really important to me,” Beamer said on Tuesday.
For one, Beamer knows how critical that continuity is in the short term in regards to having just one voice (aside from his own) for each of his position groups to hear in meeting rooms, film sessions and practices.
Thus far, as the Gamecocks come off a better-than-anticipated 7-6 season in Beamer’s first season, that philosophy has paid good dividends in the spring. It’s giving his team more confidence and comfortability at all three phases of the game and the ability to take the next step and continue building on it.
“I’ve been really pleased with what our guys have been able to retain because they’re not having to learn a new system,” Beamer said. “That was important for us on offense, defense and special teams. Offensively, specifically, it was great to be able to learn to build on the good things we did last year and continue to find ways to improve on what we didn’t do well.”
The Gamecocks have been turning up the heat in spring practice thus far. Their last two sessions have each been padded practices, and Beamer said that Tuesday’s session was the most “intense” and “energetic” that he has seen thus far.
While spring ball ratchets up, South Carolina is simultaneously turning up the heat on the recruiting trail. There is some good momentum right now for the Gamecocks as they look to close on a few priority targets.
And what is one of the biggest factors in their surging momentum?
Yep … continuity.
“It’s great for the continuity within your program and outside your program in recruiting because your same coaches are going into those high schools year after year after year after year, and they know everyone in the school,” Beamer said. “They know who the eighth-, ninth- or 10th-grader is coming up so you don’t have to relearn that or re-educate yourself on that with an area recruiter.”
We will soon find out if that continuity will continue to lead to counting more wins.
