Why Beamer brings sky-high expectations to Gamecocks: ‘I don’t see a reason not to’
There will always be a discussion about the expectations around South Carolina football.
The Gamecocks themselves will always keep them high. The fans will have to wrestle with the realities of a schedule that usually sets up tough at the top against the resources and natural desire for a program to raise its station.
New coach Shane Beamer isn’t one to tamp it down. He was around for the first step of a run that included 42 wins in four years. He was there for the build that set it up. He saw it happen 10 years ago, and he took an optimistic attitude when asked about it in an interview on 107.5 The Game.
“I don’t see any reason why we can’t,” Beamer said. “(I don’t see) what South Carolina doesn’t have, why we can’t have those same expectations and then some because I don’t see a reason not to.”
There’s a little bit of battling history. There are two superpowers (Georgia and Clemson) on the schedule, plus three schools that usually outspend and on average out-recruit USC (Texas A&M, Florida, Tennessee). Not all those schools are up at the same time, but it makes for tough sledding, especially with Missouri and Kentucky consistently fielding solid outfits.
What Beamer did say was he has seen a good deal of growth in Columbia since he last lived in the city. The football program’s own resources have grown, with a gleaming operations building and weight room.
He praised the school’s growth academically, the administration, the city and the department being aligned together.
Things were fractured in certain ways when Steve Spurrier got the program bowling consistently with solid teams and then led them to the leap to a golden age. They’re different now, as is the SEC, and the whole sport will be coming out of the pandemic.
But with a roster to rebuild and a program to try to jump-start, he’s perhaps taking a measured approach, but looking toward the horizon, he’s not talking like a man who accepts a long-term cap to the program.
“I can’t wait to get out there and compete against the rest of the teams in the SEC and our state, and see if we can get it done,” Beamer said.
This story was originally published December 18, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Why Beamer brings sky-high expectations to Gamecocks: ‘I don’t see a reason not to’."
