Yahoo Sports 5 key questions South Carolina’s Shane Beamer will be asked at SEC Media Days
The Super Bowl of talking season will take place next week in Dallas. For the league’s 16 coaches, the SEC Media Days event is about playing a game: Saying a lot without saying much of anything. It’s a true art.
South Carolina and football coach Shane Beamer are up first when the event begins Monday. Beamer might get asked 20 times if he thinks he’s on the hot seat going into his fourth season. And every time, most likely, he will tout the program’s eight wins just two seasons ago in 2022 and mention how this is one of the most fun, hardest-working teams around.
He will get asked about the brutal SEC schedule and say, and say as he has all offseason: “We get to play that schedule. That’s what playing the SEC is. If you don’t like it, go play in the ACC or another conference.”
The Gamecocks are coming off a 5-7 finish in 2023 and will have a new starting quarterback. Here are five key questions that will be fascinating to hear Beamer answer in Dallas on Monday:
1. Is LaNorris Sellers capable of replacing Spencer Rattler?
In a way, Beamer is all in on Sellers.
The Gamecocks did not go out and replace Spencer Rattler with another proven, veteran quarterback. They did not grab KJ Jefferson from Arkansas or Grayson McCall from Coastal Carolina.
They seemed fine riding with Sellers and grabbing Auburn transfer Robby Ashford to provide some competition and depth.
The question becomes: Can Sellers be the guy? Is he the type of talent not only capable of revitalizing an offense, but a program? Can he dazzle Gamecock fans into a frenzy, to the point Williams-Brice Stadium is full of 70,000 goggle-wearing fans? Can he be talked about as one of the best QBs in the SEC?
Sellers, the 6-foot-3, 242-pound redshirt freshman from Florence can throw a football a mile. He can shake off linebackers and bolt past safeties. But can he play quarterback in the SEC? No one knows yet.
Perhaps Beamer has an inclination. Sellers has passed every test thus far. He is talented. He is poised. And he should have better offensive line protection than Rattler had a year ago. What South Carolina is counting on is that Sellers is special.
To win a lot of games this year, he might have to be.
2. What’s the state of the program in Beamer’s fourth year?
The criticism of Beamer after two years was hardly criticism: He won too fast. He set the bar too high, too quickly.
He won seven games and a bowl in 2021. Then eight in 2022. If he won nine games last year (something that USC has done seven times in program history), his contract might have doubled.
Instead, South Carolina went 5-7. The Gamecocks lost to Clemson and missed out on a bowl for the first time in Beamer’s tenure. There should be no talk about a hot seat. Winning at South Carolina has been historically hard. Winning consistently has proven nearly impossible.
Beamer should not be expected to win eight games annually. Or to beat Tennessee and Clemson every year.
But what should fans expect? Beamer has said success for South Carolina is “maximizing the potential of this year’s team.”
As he enters his fourth season, it will be interesting to hear Beamer assess where he thinks the program stands. Are the coaching, recruiting, resources and NIL efforts all to his standards, or do improvements still need to be made?
3. Can South Carolina compete in a 16-team SEC?
Half the coaches in the league will hear this question ad nauseam. You can probably take a guess as to which ones.
Hint: Beamer will be one of them.
South Carolina was already one of the lower-tier teams in the SEC. Adding Oklahoma and Texas to the conference seemingly keeps the Gamecocks down on the proverbial depth chart while making the climb to the top that much harder.
Which is true. But it will be interesting to hear if Beamer leans into the positives.
There are positives?
A few. Aside from the SEC just being the undoubted top dog in college football, there is now a 12-team playoff. So the goal for South Carolina does not need to be winning the SEC. Simply finishing in the top four of the league most years could earn you a ticket to the playoff.
And, secondly, adding Texas and Oklahoma might have actually made South Carolina’s schedule easier. Think about it: The Gamecocks don’t play Georgia or Tennessee this year. Granted, they play at Oklahoma and at Alabama, but one could argue that’s a more-favorable draw.
Beamer surely will find a spin. It will likely involve saying the SEC is the best conference in America and South Carolina wants to play the best teams in America.
4. Are Nyck Harbor and Dylan Stewart USC’s next big things?
Three of the Top 10 highest-rated South Carolina signees in the internet age will be playing together this year. Beamer should take a victory lap for that.
He’ll likely also have to acknowledge that if South Carolina is going to be successful this season, it will have to get production from some of its youngsters.
It’s possible that five-star Dillon product Josiah Thompson will be South Carolina’s starting left tackle Week 1 as a true freshman. That would be massive for the Gamecocks. But, sadly, offensive linemen are rarely seen as stars — which brings us to the other two.
Harbor, the sophomore receiver, and Stewart, a freshman edge rusher, have the potential to be the two most exciting players on South Carolina’s roster.
Last season, Harbor did not provide the impact most expected from the five-star. He caught 12 passes and the speed that had been so touted didn’t show much in games. Now, after a spring of slimming down and qualifying for the Olympic Trials, Harbor might be South Carolina’s top wide receiver.
Stewart, meanwhile, drew rave reviews out of spring practices. He’s as advertised, his teammates and coaches say. A quiet kid, Stewart showed during the spring game that his 6-6, 248-pound frame can cause havoc for SEC offenses this season.
5. How different will running game look with Rocket Sanders?
The transfer portal victory of the offseason for Beamer was landing Raheim “Rocket” Sanders, the former Arkansas tailback who rushed for almost 1,500 yards two years ago.
Not as flashy, but quite helpful for depth: The Gamecocks also brought in North Texas transfer Oscar Adaway and South Carolina State transfer Jawarn Howell.
Sanders and the Gamecocks’ offensive line will be responsible for giving USC some semblance of a running game. Last season was rough. Heck, George Rogers at 65 might have produced more yardage.
South Carolina finished dead last in the SEC in rushing last season, gaining just 85 yards a game on the ground. Only four teams in America ran the ball with less success.
Does Beamer think that was all because the offensive line had catastrophic injuries last season? Does he think Sanders fixes the issue by himself? Does offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains have to get more creative?
We’ll find out in Dallas.
SEC Media Days team schedule
Monday: LSU, South Carolina, Ole Miss and Vanderbilt
Tuesday: Georgia, Tennessee, Oklahoma and Missouri
Wednesday: Alabama, Mississippi State, Florida and Texas
Thursday: Arkansas, Texas A&M, Auburn and Kentucky
Want to watch Shane Beamer speak?
South Carolina football coach Shane Beamer is scheduled to appear Monday in the main media room at the Omni hotel in Dallas at 12:35 p.m. Eastern. That interview will air live on the SEC Network. Beamer is also set to appear on set on the SEC Network at 1:45 p.m.
