Growing up, Montario Hardesty never really thought about coaching much.

It wasn’t until he got into college and was voted captain when he thought he might have a future with a headset and not a helmet.

After an early injury in his professional career ended his playing days sooner than Hardesty would have liked, Hardesty began his coaching career and has skyrocketed up the ranks to where he is now at South Carolina.

“So many coaches I talked to when I was doing research on Montario, more than one coach and administrator used the word star,” Shane Beamer said. “They’d say this guy is a future star and you may not hire him this time but you’ll be competing against him in the SEC very soon. People who I have a lot of respect for speak very highly of him. That resonated with me.”

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Hardesty started at a small Division II school in Chowan before heading to Norfolk State then Tennessee for quality control. He’d get back on the field for a couple years at Charlotte as receivers coach before coming to South Carolina.

The former Tennessee Volunteer had options, being courted by his alma mater to join Josh Heupel’s staff according to Football Scoop, but chose to come and coach with Beamer and offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield.

“The familiarity with the guys here. When I finally got on the call when coach Beamer and coach Satterfield I felt like it was a really good spot they were building,” Hardesty said. “I like the roster here. I think this place has a lot of potential to be a great football place.”

There’s familiarity with Beamer and Satterfield—who both spent time as grad assistants in Knoxville—and offensive line coach Greg Adkins was the offensive line coach during his time there as well.

Justin Stepp, the Gamecocks’ receivers coach, was one of Hardesty’s favorite follows on Twitter when he was coaching wide outs at Charlotte.

Now he gets to coach with all of those guys and Erik Kimrey, the team’s tight ends coach and gets to fulfill a lifelong dream of coaching the position he played in the conference he played in during his career.

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“Literally I’ve been a running back since I was seven years old. That’s always been near and dear to my heart. To coach really good running backs and to be in the SEC coaching them is a dream of mine,” Hardesty said.

“I always say running backs are the energy starters. The one thing I want to see from my guys when we start spring ball is to see those guys bring passion and energy to the field. We’re going to bring energy for the team.”