Shane Beamer laughed when the question came up at his Tuesday press conference. After Clemson coach Dabo Swinney shared a story about Beamer’s son, Hunter, asking for Clemson gear years ago, the issue is especially top of mind this week since the teams will play in Williams-Brice Stadium on Saturday night.

Asked whether Hunter still has the Clemson gear, Beamer replied, “He better not.”

Beamer later explained that Hunter preferred Clemson years ago because he figured Alabama beat Oklahoma when Beamer was on the Sooners’ staff, and Hunter liked Trevor Lawrence.

“He likes a winner, so obviously when Clemson was ranked No. 1 a lot of those years, he jumps on the bandwagon,” Beamer said. “He liked watching Clemson, I don’t want to go so far as to calling him a Clemson fan.”

Before Beamer landed the South Carolina job, he sent a video of a big game Hunter had for his flag football team, and he shared a video of the game with Swinney after Hunter said he wanted to play for the Clemson coach.

Beamer shared that he and Swinney have talked several times in the last year, starting with when Beamer’s name was first mentioned for the South Carolina job, and Swinney said he hoped Beamer got the job. And more recently, they talked during the commercial break of Swinney’s radio show when Beamer didn’t realize the show was on Mondays.

“Through this process, Dabo has been awesome to me. I think a lot of him,” Beamer said.