South Carolina football is looking to get back on track with some real star power on the roster, including quarterback LaNorris Sellers. Ahead of the 2026 season, Gamecocks head coach Shane Beamer hit the podium at SEC Media Days to give his thoughts.
He was asked about Sellers, the state of the SEC, playing Tennessee and more. Here’s what he said.
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SHANE BEAMER: Thank you, Commissioner Sankey, for the introduction. Great to be back at SEC Media Day for year six for me. First time in Tampa. Very grateful for the position that I’m in as a head football coach in this conference.
So awesome coaching in the SEC, premier conference in the nation when it comes to the depth of quality teams in this league and the depth and the amount of talent on the field every single Saturday. You see that in the NFL Draft every April.
Players and coaches want to be in this league. The stat that Commissioner Sankey said yesterday to me says everything in that this league averaged 80,000 fans a game last season, which is the highest average of any sport of any league in the world.
Somebody asked me why the SEC is different, the answer is right there. Just the stadiums you go in every single Saturday. Last year the talk was about the Netflix special “Any Given Saturday.” Not much talk about it this year. I understand. We continue to see at the University of South Carolina the impact of that. I was at a wedding on Saturday, and somebody that’s a fan of another SEC team came up to me at the wedding and commented on that and what a fan of our program he is after seeing that.
My family and I were in Turks and Caicos back in February and was going through the TSA line down in Turks, and the guy that was doing everything in TSA looked at me and said, You look familiar. And then it hit him. He said, You’re an SEC football coach. I watched that Netflix special “Fantasia,” because he saw the episode where I sang “Fantasia” to my wife after the A&M game.
You never know worldwide, but most importantly it continues to make an impact in recruiting. We see that with the number of families that visit Columbia and comment on “Any Given Saturday” and the three episodes that we were featured in and how that made them feel about South Carolina.
Thankful for Commissioner Sankey and his leadership. My respect for him continues to grow year after year in this conference. I’m glad he’s leading us in this new era of college athletics. Appreciate all you guys that are in this room and everyone else that I’ve met with today in the media for all you do to promote our game and the sacrifices that you make throughout the year.
And I would be remiss if I didn’t say hello to Steve Fink. I know he’s watching on television, I’m sure, but this is my first SEC Media Day without Steve Fink, our former associate AD from media relations. Congratulations to him on his retirement after 21 years at the University of South Carolina and over 40 years of being in athletics.
He’s been a great resource and friend to me going back to when I was an assistant coach at South Carolina for Steve Spurrier all the way through the time that we’ve been together that I’ve been back as the head coach. Congrats on your retirement.
Also, I want everyone to continue to keep Stephen Garcia in their prayers. Just saw Stephen. He’s here today bouncing around. Lives in Tampa, so we’re in his hometown. Just got a chance to visit with him. As you guys know, he’s in a battle right now with cancer, but I know how tough and what a fighter Stephen is, and I know he’s going to attack this thing like he attacked SEC defenses during his time as a quarterback at South Carolina.
Got three players with me here today: Nyckoles Harbor, Peyton Williams, and LaNorris Sellers. Glad you guys are getting a chance to get to know those guys today and continue to. I think all three of them are great examples of what’s right about college athletics and what our program is about.
All three of them have had different journeys to Carolina, but all of them have made themselves into great players because of their work ethic and their humility. They’re leaders on our team. And all three of them, which I think is rare in college football nowadays, all three of them are going into at least their fourth season in our program.
Nyck Harbor is a Washington D.C. native. I’ve known him since I was an assistant coach at Oklahoma, and I went into his high school when I was an assistant at OU back in 2019, and his high school coach showed me video of this young kid that he had running track and started recruiting Nyck that day.
Didn’t know if he was going to be a tight end, a defensive end, a wide receiver, but it’s been pretty awesome to see his development and his humility that has allowed him to become a great receiver. He’ll graduate in December from Carolina.
Peyton Williams is a Texas native. He is actually the longest-tenured player on our team. He’s been on our team since 2022. He’s a guy that he’s always ready, and he’s always dependable.
For those of you that follow South Carolina football, you’ll remember back in 2022 we had a home game against Tennessee that we won. During that game, we had one of our players get ejected for a targeting penalty. We didn’t expect Peyton Williams to come in the game. He came in the game. First third down we call a man coverage where he’s one-on-one, didn’t even think he was going to be playing. Now he’s in the game. He makes a great PBU, pass breakup, in that game.
That’s just who he is. He’s been that player since day one. Leader on our team. He’s already graduated.
And then LaNorris Sellers and going into his fourth year in our program. A two-time captain as voted on by his teammates. He’s grown a lot as a player since he came to Carolina.
You think about October of 2024, we were 3-3. We had just lost to Alabama on the road. Not in our building, but outside the building I think there were questions about whether LaNorris Sellers is the answer at quarterback. I never felt that way.
But from that moment on, you think about it, we won six games in a row, and then the very next year I’m at SEC Media Day last year and all the questions are about LaNorris Sellers. He’s a Heisman Trophy candidate. He’s going to be the No. 1 pick in the draft. You talk about somebody’s whose world changed. His world changed.
But proud of him and his growth and development on and off the field. I believe he’s prepared and ready to go have the very best season of his college career this upcoming season. And he’ll graduate in December.
Overall with our team, I really like this team. I think they’ve been very intentional about their work and what they want to get done since they came back in January to start the spring semester. We got a lot of guys still on our team that were here in 2024 when we were two points away from being in the College Football Playoff.
Last year at this time most of you guys picked us very high because of the players that we had returning on our team — on the 2025 team. This year we won’t be picked very high. I get that, but we got the same players that you picked us high for last year. They’re back this year, and they’re a year older, which excites me.
I like the freshmen that we’ve brought in. It’s a very mature freshman class. I like the transfers that we’ve brought in. Winners. I’ve got seven new transfers that have either won a national championship or participated in the College Football Playoff at their previous school. We’ve got guys that are used to winning, and they’re very mature.
You look at us offensively, got a new offensive coordinator in Kendal Briles, new offensive line coach in Randy Clements, and a new running backs coach and associate head coach in Stan Drayton. Those guys are proven coaches and recruiters that have made us better already. A core group of returning players and some experienced transfers that have come in. We’ve obviously got to be more efficient and more consistent on offense than what we’ve been.
Defensively, it’s year six in this system with Clayton White, our defensive coordinator, who doesn’t get enough credit for how good he is at what he does. He’s one of the best defensive coordinators in the entire nation. Year six with him.
We’ve got to continue to be opportunistic. Since 2021, when we got to Columbia, we lead the SEC in takeaways defensively. We’ve got to continue to be that aggressive opportunistic group. We’ve got a good mix of returners and youth in the back seven, and then we’ve certainly added to our depth along the defensive line.
New special teams coordinator in Matthew Smiley, who has been a good addition to our program. We’ll continue to be aggressive there. We lead the SEC in blocked kicks since I’ve been the head coach at South Carolina.
So defensively and special teams, we’ve got to continue to be aggressive, and we will be in all facets of special teams.
Like where things are not just on the field, but off the field with our team right now. Academically we just will have — we have 12 graduates on our team right now. We’ve got 14 more that will be graduating in December. We currently have the No. 2 graduation success rate in the SEC for football teams. So our guys are coming to school, they’re playing winning football, and they’re graduating.
We had five players on our team last semester with a 4.0 GPA. 25 guys made the dean’s list last semester. And then overall, the last four semesters are the highest grade point averages in the history of the football program at South Carolina.
So the culture is in place. Our guys are doing great things. Recruiting is going well, will continue to go well. It was a great summer of visits in the month of June, and July has been a really good month of commitments for us. But we are far from done. Darren Usher and Jessica Jackson are doing a great job heading up their departments of on-campus and off-campus recruiting.
Last year for us even coming off a disappointing season to say the least, last year’s signing class, the one that just got here, was the highest-rated class ever in the history of South Carolina football, if you just take the average ranking of each player. We didn’t have a very big class, but if you take the average ranking of each player, we were the No. 5 class in the nation, and that’s the best class ever at Carolina.
That’s coming off a down year. We were 1 of 10 programs that had a top-20 portal class and a top-20 high school signing class, which is when you’re at South Carolina, it’s an easy place to recruit to when you talk about elite academics at our place, capital city, a great state to live in, the support that we have from our administration: our president, Michael Amiridis; our chairman of the board, Thad Westbrook; and our new athletics director, Jeremiah Donati; and our deputy AD for football, Jeff Crane.
We have great leadership. Great alignment. It’s an easy place to recruit to because we have the greatest fans in all of the world. I know every coach in the SEC feels that way, but I am so driven to bring a championship to Columbia because of our fans.
We had a heartbreaking loss last year against Texas A&M on the road where we blew a significant lead. Any other program — we had Coastal Carolina coming to town the next week. At that point I think we were 3-7. Any program probably in the world, 99% of them, they’re going to come back to a quiet, probably half-empty stadium. We came back the very next week against Coastal Carolina, had another sell-out at Williams-Brice Stadium, and they were loud and rocking.
So we have sold out every game the last two seasons, and we’ve got a school record currently for consecutive sell-outs. Thank you to our fans because there’s nobody like them. I’m so blessed to be their head football coach and want nothing more than to bring a championship to them.
In closing, there’s a lot of excitement for us going into 2026 on and off the field. The SEC, I’m sure you are going to ask me about going to nine games. I’m excited. We get to compete against the best in this league. It’s a tough schedule.
I saw where every team in this league has one of the 20 toughest schedules in the country. I think 9 of the top 10 toughest schedules in the country going into the season are in the SEC. We’re now a Nike school. Nothing against our — we had a great partnership, I should say, with Under Armour for a long time, but as of July 1st we are now with Nike. That’s made a huge impact with recruits, our fan base, our players, our coaches, our staff.
We have a stadium project. If you haven’t been to Columbia lately, I’m looking forward to you getting there this upcoming season. We have a three-year stadium project going on that’s going to make Williams-Brice Stadium even better than what it already is. Thanks to those guys that are working on that stadium. They are out there literally seven days a week.
I come in early every morning, and they are out there early every morning, that construction crew, working on that stadium to have it ready to go in September when we kick things off.
I stood up here in 2020 when I got hired, or 2021, 2020 at the press conference, and I talked about two things: There was no ceiling on the football program at South Carolina, and nothing has changed. I said that this was my dream job when I got hired back then, and nothing has changed. I’m more convicted about that than ever.
Certainly last season was a difficult season, to say the least. There were high expectations, and we fell woefully short, and that’s on me.
We had six losses last season that were one-score games going into the fourth quarter. We certainly have to play better in the fourth quarter, but we don’t seek comfort from that with how close we were.
I’m accountable for everything that goes on in our program. Made changes that I felt like we needed to make. We’ve gotten better because of it. I’m a big believer that in life that you have to go through some uncomfortable moments in order to grow, and we went through some really uncomfortable moments last season, but we have absolutely grown from that.
The expectation always has been since I’ve been the head coach and always will be at South Carolina to compete for championships and to compete for a spot in the 12-team playoff. That’s what we are still working towards each and every day.
I think where we are right now as a team and the personnel in our program is a testament to the culture because when you have a disappointing season like we had last season, the easy thing for all the players on our team — and we’ve got some really talented players — is to pack up and go somewhere else in the portal.
Make no mistake about it, our guys had plenty of opportunities to go other places, even though they weren’t in the portal, but so many of our players — there are three of them that were here today — that could play anywhere in the country. They chose to stay.
We have coaches on our staff that had opportunities to take other jobs in college football and in the NFL, and they chose to stay. The coaches that came to us — we have new coaches on our staff — they chose to come along with the high school recruits that I just referenced and the transfer portal guys that came in to us. They chose to come because they believe in what we’re about. They believe in what we’ve done, what we’re doing, but more importantly, where we’re going as a program. I can’t wait to start practice in August.
Questions.
Q. Speaking of that Texas A&M game, Shane, evidently —
SHANE BEAMER: Can we not (smiling)?
Q. Evidently you did immediately flush it and forget it, but have you come back and maybe used that since you do play A&M again as a learning experience?
SHANE BEAMER: Yeah, I think that was one of three games last season that we led going into the fourth quarter. So for me, I look at it, why did we not play better in the fourth quarter? Because we, in previous years, we won a lot of close games in the fourth quarter in 2024. So I look at it, what happened in ’25 that we didn’t play better in the fourth quarter? That’s obviously the case study because of the lead that we had and how we finished.
We’ll really dive into that game specifically more. We do a summer scouting report on every opponent, so we’ve already done our summer scouting report on A&M, and you look at that. Then when we get to that game later in the season, certainly we’ll really dive into that more strategically.
But immediately after that game, yeah, you look at, you know, what happened? You give them credit. I mean, so much respect for Coach Elko and their team to be able to come back from that in the second half. You give them credit, but then for me as a head coach, you look at our place and you say, you know, why did we not make those plays in the second half that we made in the first half? Why did we make those mental errors in the second half that we didn’t make in the first half?
That’s what I do, and that was a tough day. You give them credit, but got another opportunity against them this upcoming season.
Q. Shane, we’re two years into Oklahoma and Texas being in the league. What are the pros and cons of the expanded SEC?
SHANE BEAMER: Yeah, I think for the fans it’s awesome. I know when we went out to Norman a couple of years ago, Barry, how many of our fans went out there and just had an amazing experience. They got to visit a place that they hadn’t been to.
We haven’t played Texas yet in Columbia or Austin, but when we do, I know that will be a great trip for the Texas fans to come to Columbia, and it will be a great trip for the South Carolina fans that go to Austin. That’s one thing is just for the fans, the opportunities it presents.
Two, the geographic footprint that I think it opens up for schools. Peyton Williams for us is from Rockwall, Texas, but we really didn’t have a reason to go to Texas. Texas is not going to be a primary recruiting area for us, but it allows us the opportunity to maybe get in some doors and some schools that maybe we didn’t before because Oklahoma and Texas were in the Big 12.
We’ve got somebody committed from the state of Texas right now. We have a couple of other guys on our team from the state of Texas. So I think it opens up more geographic opportunities — or opens up more of a geographic footprint for all schools in the SEC, but then it also does a great job — it’s a great opportunity for the fans to be able to experience new places.
Then those are two premier athletic programs. Not just football, but you look at what Oklahoma just did in baseball. You look at what Texas did in softball. It’s just bringing more championship pedigree teams to this league, which I think is awesome.
Q. In 2024 you had a mediocre start, and the team really came alive down the stretch. 2025, different story. What are you doing to proactively prevent the same story as last year, and what did you think caused that?
SHANE BEAMER: Yeah, good question. I think for us we’ve got to start better, period. You mentioned that start in ’24. You’re right. I mean, we were I think 3-3 at one point. We didn’t play great. We had two close losses, but then we had a lopsided loss to Ole Miss as one of those three. So we’ve got to play better in September and October. Particularly September and early October, getting started.
We look at that every season, how do we start better? That’s always the case. Then we’ve always been a team — last year we weren’t, but we’ve typically always been a team that has gotten better as the year went on, that we’re a better team week 12 than what we were week 1.
You are always looking, after a good season, after a bad season, after every season. I, as the head coach, and the people in our building were always looking at how do we be better next year? What do we need to tweak and change and adjust to better fit kind of where we are right now?
This year is no different with some of the tweaks and changes that we’ve made going all the way back to January.
Q. You talked about accountability and being intentional. Two close games, close losses, particularly to playoff teams. I know you’ve brought us some coaches on the staff, and that’s going to make a huge difference. When you look at yourself in the mirror, what’s something you told yourself this offseason that you could kind of change to improve this roster in 2026?
SHANE BEAMER: Yeah, we needed to get older. If you look back at that ’24 team, we had a lot of older guys on that team. We had a lot of seniors that had played a lot of football for us.
If you look back at last year’s team, I think we only had four seniors that started for us total on last year’s team. So for me, as the head coach, it was making sure that we got older. We brought in some transfers that have played a lot of football at a lot of places, so we increased the experience. That was one thing that I, as a head coach, can control.
We tweaked some things with how we do things in the offseason, practice, things like that. But you do that after every season. You’re introspective and look at how you can be better. But we’ve been very intentional about getting better.
We’ve gotten older, like I said. Certainly when you have the season that we had, that’s on me. I did not do a good enough job last year to say the least. You’re always looking at every game, how can you be better the next week, every season how can you be better the next year. Last year to this year was no different.
Q. Tennessee back on the schedule. Last time they came to Williams-Brice, you scored so many points, you literally ran out of fireworks. Are you excited they’re back on the schedule, for one? But more importantly, did we up the budget for fireworks this year?
SHANE BEAMER: I saw the question that Kirby got about Tennessee. Was that from you too? He said, “You said that, not me.” You said that, not me.
That was a great night back in 2022. There’s no doubt about it. We know it will be a huge challenge when they come to town this year. Another one, I got asked about playing Georgia again. It’s been weird not playing Tennessee the last couple of years, so it will be great having Tennessee back on the schedule this season too along with Florida. Three old SEC East opponents and rivals for South Carolina.
Got a ton of respect for Coach Heupel and the way he does things. We know he’s going to have a really good team coming to town. I was so impressed just watching SEC Media Day yesterday, the three players that he brought. I mean, so impressed with those three guys just as people and some of their comments for sure.
No, that will be a big one when we get to that one, and hopefully we can have the offensive output that we had the last time they were in town.
Q. Quick question about recruiting the portal. At the ACC last week, a couple of the coaches were talking about one of the challenges there, and it’s that since the players don’t — it’s not like a real estate listing where they have a price. They just don’t know what other people are bidding on them, and they know what they can spend, but they’re just not sure what the marketplace is doing. At South Carolina how do you guys approach the portal? Are you involved? Is there an usher involved? Is he the one handling a lot of that? There seems to be a lot of dynamics that are much different these days recruiting the portal.
SHANE BEAMER: Yeah, no, I’m absolutely involved. There’s not a player that we recruit that I’m not aware of who we’re recruiting, why we’re recruiting him, or what they may be getting from a rev share standpoint. I’m aware of all of that.
Darren Usher is certainly heading that up for us, and he’s really passionate about South Carolina and does a great job of that along with the other people in our personnel department.
I would agree with those — I think you said ACC — other coaches. It’s a challenge because there is no transparency. So all you can go on is, well, an agent tells you that his client is getting X amount from this school.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I, along with a lot of coaches, got great relationships with other coaches. So I’ve been known to pick up the phone and call coach so-and-so and say, Are you really paying so-and-so this amount of money?
I’ve gotten those calls from other coaches too. That happens regularly. We’re all talking in some ways, but then if you’re at, whatever — you’re at — where did you say you were from, Memphis? If you’re at Ole Miss and I’m at South Carolina, and I know I’m competing with for a kid from Ole Miss, I’m not going to call up Pete Golding and ask what he’s paying. But in other instances I’ve been known or we’ve been known to do that.
It’s tough, the lack of transparency. There’s no doubt about it. But to answer your question, for us, it’s — like every school, we have a budget. We have this amount available to give from a rev share standpoint.
And then you’ve got to make hard decisions, and you’ve got to say that here’s what we’re going to spend at the running back position and here’s what we’re willing to spend on the offensive line, and you’ve got to be able to stick to that and make some hard decisions and be able to — I don’t ever want a player to choose South Carolina because of money.
Because if the only reason they come to South Carolina is money, they’re going to be in my office every January threatening to go in the portal because of money.
Is money an aspect of it? Yes. I’m not naive. It better not be the only reason; otherwise, I’m going to have the same conversations with guys every year.
We’re going to be competitive. There’s no question about it. But we’ve got to be able to make tough decisions and, frankly, let a guy go somewhere else if that’s going to be the deciding factor, somebody else is giving him a lot more money, if it doesn’t quite fit with where we are from an evaluation standpoint or from a budget standpoint.
Q. Last year LaNorris Sellers’ running ability not really as impactful as a lot of people thought. Is it a point of emphasis to include that part of his game more in the offense this year?
SHANE BEAMER: Yeah, I think we would be crazy not to utilize LaNorris’s legs. He’s a load to bring down. Do we want him running the ball 40 times a game? No, but what I think what makes LaNorris great is his ability to throw the ball and run the ball.
So will there be some designed runs for LaNorris? Absolutely. Will there be some plays that break down from a protection standpoint that he needs to improvise and make plays with his feet? I’m sure there will be.
But, yeah, that’s a weapon. We’d be remiss, in my opinion, if we don’t utilize what makes LaNorris Sellers great, and his legs are a big part of it.
Q. You touched on this in your opening comment about the global appeal of college football. You’ve got an Irish player on the roster now, and I’m just wondering what your thoughts about more people outside the U.S. watching college football and specifically how it impacts recruiting?
SHANE BEAMER: Yeah, great question. One, kind of go back to what I said about the whole Netflix special. When we agreed to be one of the teams to participate on the Netflix “Any Given Saturday” documentary, that was one of the things that I thought about, was just the amount of people that would see that and they’d be exposed to SEC football and say, Man, South Carolina looks like a place that I would love to go to school.
And being in Turks and Caicos and the guy in TSA, who probably hadn’t watched much college football, he watched that, and he knew about the South Carolina Gamecocks.
I think you’re going to continue to see that grow.
Then with Neff on our team right now, who has never played a snap of football, but all you have to do is turn on the tape and seeing a guy with his size and physicality and athleticism on the rugby field — is that what you call it? — on the rugby field — wasn’t sure — and it tells you right away that this is a guy that we’ll figure out something for him to do.
But not just him. Justin Okoronkwo from Germany, one of our linebackers. There’s a lot of really good athletes across the world that want to come and play at the highest level, get a great education, and play in front of 90,000-, 100,000-seat stadiums every Saturday. If that’s the case, they’re not going to find anywhere better than this league right here.
