South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer
Special To The State
South Carolina is already in the middle of a busy offseason, less than a week after finishing the 2025 football season Nov. 29 with a 28-14 loss to Clemson.
USC signed most of its 2026 freshman class Wednesday. Over the course of the next month, the Gamecocks will navigate both recruiting from and losing players to the transfer portal.
The biggest task on head coach Shane Beamer’s to-do list is finding his fourth offensive coordinator in six seasons at USC.
Beamer fired former OC Mike Shula on Nov. 2 with three games left in the season. Now that USC’s 4-8 season is over, and with other OC jobs open at programs around the country, the Gamecocks’ head coach gave an update on the search timeline for his new offensive playcaller.
“I think it was already there was a sense of urgency. I’m not going to rush it, though, just to say that I hired an offensive coordinator. I’m gonna make sure I get this thing right. I realize it’s a critical hire,” Beamer said. “I’ve had some really good conversations with people, going back for a couple weeks. … I know we’re kind of coming down the stretch on that.”
He added that the overlap of some programs’ seasons, signing day and the portal opening create some hiccups in the process.
“There’s factors at play. All these offensive coordinators that are interested in potentially coming to South Carolina, they have a signing day today, too,” Beamer said. “So they had their focus on signing day and their own teams, and certainly want to be respectful of that.”
Beamer also said that the future statuses of LaNorris Sellers and Nyck Harbor with the Gamecocks could be a factor for potential candidates’ interests in USC.
“In regards to hiring offensive coaches, they want to know, ‘Nyckoles Harbor and LaNorris Sellers, am I going to be coaching them if I come to South Carolina?’” Beamer said. “So the quicker I can tell them yes, the better that is for all of us.”
Beamer reemphasized he won’t rush the hire for the sake of having an OC, but remained confident in USC’s ability to bring in the best option.
“We’ve had some really good conversations with guys, a lot of interest in this position and hopefully we can get down the stretch and finalize this thing here soon,” Beamer said. “We’re going to get the best guy in here, whether that’s within this staff, or whether that’s from the outside.”
Jackson Castellano
The State
Jackson Castellano is The State’s college sports intern covering South Carolina men’s basketball. A Cape Coral, Florida, native, he is an alum of the University of Florida.
