COLUMBIA, S.C. — He was hired in December and nine months later, Shane Beamer will finally run out of the tunnel as the head football coach at South Carolina.
The former South Carolina assistant has longed for this job and admitted in his first news conference that even after he left Columbia in 2010, he would keep up with the program by watching the Sunday coaches' show.
No doubt when Beamer wakes up Saturday, it will have a different feel than in his previous season-opening Saturdays. Beamer has told his players to keep their emotions from becoming a liability and that is the advice he knows he must also take.
“I'd love to sit up here and give you coach speak about how I am so focused on the game and I don't think about other stuff, but that's a bunch of crap," Beamer said earlier this week.
"I'm fired up, excited," he added. "Can't wait."
The Gamecocks and Eastern Illinois kick-off at 7 p.m. in what is the first game since 2019 that will be at full capacity.