In December 2020, the South Carolina Gamecocks announced Shane Beamer as their next head football coach and the man who would be tasked with restoring a broken football program. Head Coach Shane Beamer had many tasks in his first few months to restore South Carolina’s football program, the first being hiring a new staff and almost cleaning out former Head Coach Will Muschamp’s staff, many being at Carolina for many seasons. Beamer’s hiring process saw many highs and lows, and took almost two months to complete, but that’s not something Carolina fans are complaining about. Shane Beamer took his time with his first hiring process as he focused on qualified company, coaches that wanted to be at and win at South Carolina, and coaches that haven’t been able to prove themselves yet and are hungry for that opportunity. Beamer’s first hire echoes all three of those entities.  

To start off the hiring process, Beamer hired current Hammond coach and former Gamecock quarterback Erik Kimrey as Tight-Ends Coach. Kimrey was head coach at Hammond for nearly ten years, winning multiple state championships there and being a recruiting pipeline to Clemson and South Carolina. Before being head coach at Hammond, Kimrey served as an assistant at many schools, including being a graduate assistant at South Carolina in the early 2000s where he coached Tight-Ends under Lou Holtz. Following Kimrey’s hire, Pete Lembo was hired as Special Teams Coordinator. Lembo is one of the best well known special teams’ coaches in the country and will also serve as South Carolina’s AHC, as Lembo has head coach experience in the past. Marcus Satterfield, Clayton White, Jimmy Lindsay, Greg Adkins, and Luke Day all are former Group of 5 coaches and are coaches that have excellent track records but just not a chance to prove themselves. Beamer also has veterans and coaches who have coached in power 5 on his staff as well, those including Des Kitchings, Torrian Gray, and Justin Stepp. Through the next months and weeks, the hiring process took many turns, including retained coaches leaving for Auburn and a stand off against former Offensive Coordinator Mike Bobo, who also departed to Auburn.

Here is Shane Beamer’s final staff as of January 27: 

• Assistant Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator Pete Lembo 
• Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks Marcus Satterfield 
• Defensive Coordinator/ILBs Clayton White 
• Running-Backs Coach Des Kitchings 
• Defensive-Backs Coach Torrian Gray 
• Wide-Receivers Coach Justin Stepp 
• Defensive-Line Coach Jimmy Lindsay  
• Tight-Ends Coach Erik Kimrey 
• Outside Linebackers/ Defensive Ends Coach Mike Peterson 
• Offensive-Line Coach Greg Adkins 
• Strength and Conditioning Coordinator Luke Day 

Shane Beamer has assembled his first team that he wants representing garnet and black and restoring the Gamecocks’ broken football program. While some coaches are looking for a power five opportunity and a chance to prove themselves, all the coaches also have one true mindset: the want and desire to win at South Carolina and win for South Carolina, something the old administration didn’t have. The foundation of that desire is Head Coach Shane Beamer, Tight-Ends Coach Erik Kimrey, and Wide-Receiver’s coach Justin Stepp. All three either coached and played at South Carolina and have wanted to be back at South Carolina for many years, and just now got the opportunity. Shane Beamer was an assistant and recruiting coordinator at South Carolina. He worked his way up the coaching ladder in the last ten years to get back to South Carolina, and now he has. TEs Coach Erik Kimrey played for South Carolina and was the main quarterback of the Lou Holtz Era. Kimrey resided in Columbia for ten years, waiting to get the call from the head coach of the Gamecocks, and finally Wide Receivers coach Justin Stepp, who grew up in Columbia and graduated from a local high school. Stepp would always attend South Carolina home games and always wanted to coach for South Carolina, and just now got the opportunity. 

Shane Beamer has a thought process for these hires, and you can see it on full display, proven winners who want to win at South Carolina and coaches that will get a first crack at showing what they can do in a power 5 setting.  

The ultimate question is will any of it work out? We’ll have to wait and see.