sguilfoyle
Member
Some thoughts on South Carolina's coaching hire.
First off, I have gobbled up a lot of what has been in the South Carolina newspapers about Shane Beamer.
Sad to say as a newspaperman, I wonder what for? I listened to his introductory press conference, and everything that was in those stories was basically what was asked and answered at the p.c.
That's not to say that newspapers and sports reporting aren't needed and important.
Just that they need to dig deeper. Give us something that we aren't being handed.
My thoughts on Shane Beamer actually don't rise and fall with his prior time here under Steve Spurrier, though that is important.
No, I actually spent a lot of time thinking about my favorite University of South Carolina football coach, and about Shane's dad.
Joe Morrison and Frank Beamer.
Shane mentioned his longtime love of the South Carolina program, one he started developing when he came to SC with his father, and Virginia Tech was playing the Gamecocks.
Anything that puts me back into the halcyon days of the Man in Black gets an automatic uptick.
Every sports reporter covering that press conference was told that South Carolina played Virginia Tech back in the day. No one followed up.
Shane Beamer mentioned that Frank had sat down with former Athletics Director Mike McGee and had a chat about Beamer becoming the head coach at South Carolina.
THAT was something that piqued my curiosity and I wish someone would go after that. It had to be during the disastrous coaching debacle that was Brad Scott's tenure at South Carolina.
If it had worked out, we might have had Frank Beamer as our head coach instead of Lou Holtz. That might have been an upgrade. Might not.
But no, like I said, I was thinking back to Joe Morrison, actually.
Beamer was named head coach of Virginia Tech on Dec. 22, 1986, replacing Bill Dooley, who had been forced to resign because of numerous NCAA violations.
Joe Morrison was in his fourth year at the University of South Carolina.
He'd gone 5-6, a glorious 10-2 in his second, my first as a student. 5-6. then 3-6-1. 23-20-1 after those four years. A great season and a mixed bag or marbles the rest of the time.
As a result of the violations uncovered under Dooley's watch, the Hokies were hampered the Hokies, and Beamer went a combined 5–17 in 1987 and 1988. Beamer's record in his first six seasons was 24-40-2, a win percentage of .385.
South Carolina was playing Virginia Tech in those years.
In Dooley's final year. USC and VPU tied, 27-27.
In 1987, South Carolina won 40-10.
In 1988, another USC win, 26-24.
In 1989, another tie, 17-17.
In 1990, another USC win, 35-24,
And the last time South Carolina player Virginia Tech, we beat the Hokies in 1991, 28-21.
There are different coaches thrown in on both sides of the rivalry. Overall, We have an 11-7-2 advantage. But we took the lead in the series during the Morrison years based on him going 2-0-1.
It isn't a brag about the results. Hardly.
Look at those scores. Two ties, the second coming when Sparky Woods was head coach. A two-point win. A touchdown win. Just one blowout win.
Both South Carolina and Virginia Tech were football independents back in the day. But they were in the same conference, the old Metro, for basketball and some other sports. We had a bigger stadium, but their fans rocked their stadium, from what I was told by fellow students who visited Blacksburg, Va. They were nestled in the mountains, we were stuck in a heat sink. But the programs were similar. There colors were a some kind of maroon. Might as well have been garnet.
So we have another football coach bracketing the end of the series. It was Joe Morrison and Sparky Woods, because of Morrison's death. But the truth was, Morrison was under fire and might have been fired. Or he might have bolted for the NFL if the right job had presented itself.
Morrison died in 1988, with a 39-28-2 at USC and 100 wins to his career coaching total.
In the years since, we have had six other head coaches, with a mixed bag of results. Some spectacular flops — Woods and Brad Scott have almost identical records, Scott does have the dubious distinction of breaking the supposed "bowl curse."
We had the legendary Holtz and even more legendary Steve Spurrier.
In the same time, what did Virginia Tech do?
The team continued to struggle, and even went 2–8–1 in 1992.
But Frank Beamer's boss thought he could win and that he deserved more time.
And the Hokies never had another losing season under Beamer.
He ended up in the Hall of Fame. More than 200 career wins and a streak of going to 23 straight bowls.
Outstanding.
Here's my takeaway. We could have had Beamer at some point.
But we also could have had a Frank Beamer of our own.
The Athletics Directors who hired our string of coaches all thought they had found the right person for the program. They all believed in their guy. As a matter of fact, the only time we had consistent success was when we stuck with a guy past the fifth year.
That would have been Steve Spurrier. The head bowl coach.
We were 35-28 in his first five years. We never won more than eight, but never sunk below 6-6.
During our games when we were beating up on Virginia Tech, they gave us a run for our money most years. We had to fight for all the wins and escaped with a couple of ties.
Putting an exciting product on the field is the thing that can tide you over in the lean years. I have never wanted my Gamecocks to be losers. But I don't mind an L if it's hard fought and an exciting game.
In his leaner years, we still had some pretty good plays drawn up by the Head Ball Coach. And that made it real easy for fans to stick with it. And it led to our one division title in the SEC, and three successive 11-2 seasons. It led to a streak of five wins over Clemson. Glorious times.
The Beamer connection to me is two-fold. I remember back to when we were regular opponents with Virginia Tech. And we were competitive football teams. The run-and-shoot offense that was mostly shoot. The Fire Ants and later the Black Death "50" defense of Joe Lee Dunn.
And what South Carolina didn't have, but Virginia Tech did have, is patience. Patience from the fanbase and patience from the powers-that-be.
I do not know if Shane Beamer is "the guy."
Hiring someone who has never been a coordinator is, to me, a bit derivative. Can we also capture the same magic in a bottle that the circus monkey up in the Upstate has somehow become?
I do not know.
Here's what we need from Coach Beamer. An exciting product on the field. Win or lose. As long as you are competitive in every game, as long as there is no quit in the players, that will keep the fans satisfied past a "five-year plan."
Build something.
I sense Frank Beamer, who has said he will be a presence in the South Carolina program as much as is allowed, standing on an ice fortress, looking down like Jor-El, talking to Shane. His son.
"They can be a great people, Kal-El, they wish to be. They only lack the light to show the way. For this reason above all, their capacity for good, I have sent them you… my only son.”
(Took a lot of the specifics of Frank Beamer's coaching career from Wikipedia. Pulled some records from the 2018 media guide for Gamecock football.
Some of the math on total records is my own, so it is very suspect.)
