For Shane Beamer and Gamecocks, transfer portal recruiting moves at different pace

South Carolina coach Shane Beamer still has the 2-year-old picture of himself and Mike Tyler on his phone.

The Hammond School tight end had dropped by Gator Bowl practice in 2022. The Gamecocks went on to watch Tyler commit to LSU, kept in contact and eventually flipped him to South Carolina. More than a few recruitments have that kind of long, drawn-out relationship-building.

But not the kind the Gamecocks have to undertake this time of year.

Portal recruiting season requires a different kind of discovery process and relationship-building.

“The portal guy, you have about 24 hours, maybe, to figure out what kind of guy he is,” Beamer recently told reporters. “Does he fit what you want?”

The coach admitted his staff has seen both good and bad on that front.

The Missouri game Nov. 16 showed the highs of what that discovery process can bring. Transfer tailback Rocket Sanders wrapped the game by fighting through multiple tackles for the game-winning score. Transfer wide receiver Dalevon Campbell showed a different kind of fight, sticking with things after struggling to get snaps much of the season, improving his practice work and then delivering two crucial big plays late in that game.

In an era where kids are often described as free agents, they were the sort of players who seemed to give their all for a new team. (Beamer noted that some transfers added last year didn’t even stay on the roster through the season.)

The coach explained that when a player enters the portal, the recruiting department gets the initial look. Next, they’re shown to the position coach and then the coordinator. If the film passes muster, the staff starts working toward a visit.

The staff starts working contacts and references, and going directly to the player to learn even more.

“You get on the phone with him, find out more about him. ‘Are you interested?’ ” Beamer said. “And talk to the people around him. Maybe it’s calling the coach of the college he’s coming from. Maybe it’s a coach that you had a relationship with. Or calling the high school coach or whoever may have been around them.”

Last offseason, Beamer called former coworker Geoff Collins to learn more about one of Collins’ former Georgia Tech players, Demetrius Knight Jr. The coach raved about his quarterback-turned-linebacker who was coming off a good year at Charlotte. Knight signed with the Gamecocks and has been a star and high-end play-maker for a resurgent defense.

After getting a better sense of a portal player, the campus visit becomes an interview of sorts.

“I think those portal visits ... are really like NFL free agent-type visits. Both sides are really trying to figure out each other,” Beamer said. “And we had guys in on portal visits last season we brought in because we liked them as a player. And when he got here, we were like, ‘Ehhh, I don’t know if he’s going to be what we’re about.’ ”

Like anything else, it’s an inexact process. Last year’s portal class produced 20 roster additions and more good than bad, including Sanders, All-SEC end Kyle Kennard, multiple starting offensive linemen and several key pass catchers. The previous transfer group included ace tight end Joshua Simon.

This year’s South Carolina portal class is at eight members and growing. More additions are anticipated before USC classes resume in January.

In that endless challenge of knowing a bit more about potential transfers, the high school process once again slips in. A staff might know a bit more about a portal player simply because he once was a high-school recruit the coaches couldn’t initially land. Even if there’s no commitment or hat picked up, those relationships stay, and the picture on a coach’s phone might be a few years older when a player finally suits up for him.

“You never know how things are going to turn out,” Beamer said. “A guy may be in the portal a year later. You already know those answers.”