What SEC coaches said of Shane Beamer at Media Days

Shane Beamer hasn’t been a head coach before, and hasn’t coached in the SEC in two of the last 10 years but still has a hefty amount of connections to the conference, primarily from that stint at Georgia from 2016 to 2017.

So, as SEC Media Days rolled on in Hoover, Alabama this week a few of his former co-workers and colleagues shared their thoughts on South Carolina’s newest hire.

“The preparation he puts into special teams, tight ends play, whatever he's in charge of, he spends a lot of time and takes a lot of pride in the performance,” Georgia head coach Kirby Smart said.

“That's what successful people do. They take a lot of pride in their performance. They want it to be right. I like to think it's a demanding place that we work at, and he did a tremendous job meeting those demands.”

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Smart hired Beamer away from Virginia Tech in 2016, and Beamer was in Athens for two years as the team’s tight ends and special teams coach.

He was part of a staff that, under Smart, won the SEC and played for a national championship in 2017.

One of his co-workers those two years at Georgia was Sam Pittman, the current head coach at Arkansas, where the two worked somewhat closely together as offensive staff members under Smart.

Beamer, obviously, coached the tight ends while Pittman was the Bulldogs’ offensive line coach. Spending two years together, Pittman saw what kind of coach and worker Beamer was and thinks Beamer will do well in Columbia.

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“He's going to do a great job at South Carolina. He's prepared. He's ready for that job. He's going to do a great job. He's going to do a fine job over there,” he said Thursday.

“We've spoken several different times. He doesn't really need my advice. We kicked a few things back and forth between the two of us, but he's going to do a good job. South Carolina is going to be happy they hired him.”

The other coach who weighed in was LSU head man Ed Orgeron, who hasn’t coached with Beamer but coached against him in the SEC as assistants once in 2009 with Orgeron at Tennessee and Beamer at South Carolina.

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“I'm excited for him. I think he's going to do a great job. When I was in Knoxville, I thought that in the Knoxville area you go to South Carolina, there's a tremendous amount of talent in South Carolina and North Carolina,” Orgeron said. “I think that he's going to do a tremendous job. He's a great coach. I wish him the very best.”

South Carolina will begin training camp in early August with the home opener against Eastern Illinois scheduled for Sept. 4 at 7 p.m.