Nick Coleman was likely somewhere in Mississippi when Shane Beamer called him, and wasn’t in Mississippi soon after the call ended.

The then offensive coordinator for Northeast Mississippi Community college spent a few years tied at the hip to Marcus Satterfield, and when Satterfield landed the Gamecocks offensive coordinator job he told Beamer Coleman was someone he needed to bring on staff.

So, Beamer picked up the phone to offer Coleman an analyst role, and no sooner did he start talking about it did Coleman accept, and he’s turned into what Satterfield called “one of the most important people on our staff.”

“Typical Nick he’s like, ‘I don’t care.’ (Beamer) was like, ‘Well we’ll pay you—‘ and Nick was like, ‘I don’t care. I’m on my way,’” Satterfield said. “I think it’s a great opportunity for him to be in the SEC and grow from there and sure as heck an unbelievable resource for us.”

Nick Coleman was 23 years old—the same time most young adults are figuring out how to pay their taxes and transition off Ramen noodles—when he got his first coaching gig.

After spending a year under Rick Stockstill at Middle Tennessee—Coleman’s alma mater— he spent time at NAIA Faulkner ascending from quarterbacks coach and recruiting coordinator to offensive coordinator in one year.

From there he went to Itawamba Community College as coordinator—where his offense led the conference in total offense, passing offense and passing touchdowns in 2016—and then he met Satterfield.

The two linked up when Satterfield hired him as offensive coordinator at Tennessee Tech, where a lifelong relationship was forged.

“Coaching with Satt is like football steroids,” Coleman said. “If you love football, man, Satt’s the guy to be around. That guy right there lives and breathes football. It’s fun.”

It was there when Satterfield realized the kind of offensive mind Coleman was, even relinquishing some play calling duties to him, allowing him to make third down decisions.

“I had an at peace moment where he was one of the first people I could let him take it and go,” Satterfield said. “That was the moment. I had all the confidence in the world. If I disintegrated from earth right now, he could do exactly what I do.”

But all those jobs include on-field coaching duties his analyst role at South Carolina doesn’t.

So why would someone who’s been an on-field coach—calling plays since he was fresh out of college—opt to come to South Carolina and give up most of that? The chance to be at an SEC school under Beamer and Satterfield.

“I couldn’t even draw it up in my career to be any better. To be able to come in and learn from coach Satt and learn from coach Beamer and be able to be a part of special and get this thing rolling back to what it was when he was here before.”

Now, Coleman serves as a sounding board for an offensive staff tasked with improving what was at times last year listless offense.

He’s already proved useful for Satterfield, who’s able to use Coleman as a resource into building the Gamecocks’ offense.

“The biggest thing I learned schematically is find what your guys are good at and put them in opportunities to be successful. As a coach that’s what our job is: figure out what they’re good at, put them in opportunities to be successful and don’t try to put a square peg in a round hole,” Coleman said.

“It may look different one year and as you recruit and build your culture you can build it to what your overall culture is but the biggest thing is scoring one more point than your opponent. That’s the best offense.”

His daily duties include making sure installations are ready, communicating with the rest of the offensive staff about a given day’s plan and assisting Satterfield with whatever he or the team’s quarterbacks need.

One thing Coleman spent a lot of time doing over the summer was getting Zeb Noland—then a graduate assistant, now the team’s starting quarterback—up to speed on what the offense can be.

“Sometimes I have to ask him, ‘What the hell do I call that in the spring?’ He’s a gym rat, a hard worker and a consistent leader. He’s been a coordinator. He’s been in the business a while and he relates well with the kids,” Satterfield said. “It’s good to have a personality like that to be around me so I can be insane sometimes and him be the calming anchor, calming wind.”

What his role looks like as the season goes on will vary depending on the day—something Coleman loves—but regardless of what it is he’s happy to do it.

This is the same man who would, when he was coaching junior college and NAIA ball would set up recruiting visits, put out the food and do that before coaching in a game only to have to wash road jerseys after getting home from away games.

So he’s happy to be in Columbia and trying to help get the Gamecocks back to what they were in the early 2010s, right as he was getting into coaching.

“I’ll do whatever. I’ll literally do whatever coach Satt or coach Beamer needs,” he said. “If it’s going to help us win football games I’m going to do whatever.”