What’s he selling? Shane Beamer offers his recruiting pitch for South Carolina
By Keith Farner
Published:
Shane Beamer is familiar with the recruiting landscape at South Carolina having been on the staff there under Steve Spurrier. He also kept that recruiting region when he went on to other schools like Georgia and Oklahoma and recruited several of the players on the current Gamecocks roster.
But at his introductory press conference on Monday, Beamer explained his recruiting pitch. He compared being at Oklahoma, which produces a relative few Power 5 prospects, to the Palmetto State, and the surrounding recruiting footprint.
“Because of that, we had to recruit nationally at Oklahoma, so I was able to develop ties really anywhere throughout the country,” Beamer said. “It never stopped here in this area. We’re always going to start here in South Carolina. We saw the foundation was laid here 10 years ago with great players from this state.”
Beamer said there are so many great players within a three to four-hour radius of Columbia.
“There’s absolutely no reason why a guy would not want to come play football here at the University of South Carolina,” Beamer said. “If you’re a guy in this state, if you’re a young man in this state, understand that you can accomplish all of your goals on and off the field right here in Columbia. You don’t have to go anywhere else to do that.”
Beamer then recalled recruiting Alshon Jeffery, Marcus Lattimore, Stephon Gilmore, and Devonte Holloman, who all were in-state players during the Spurrier years.
“That hasn’t changed and if anything it’s only increased that opportunity and the possibility to do that because of what’s been built around here and the way this program’s been advanced,” Beamer said.
A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.
