Shane Beamer details his plan for ‘that program in the Upstate’
By Keith Farner
Published:
When Shane Beamer was last on the South Carolina staff, the Gamecocks had a firm grip on the rivalry with Clemson. In the decade since he left, Clemson has flipped the script, and the Tigers are currently on a six-game winning streak in the rivalry.
At his introductory press conference, Beamer, the new head coach, addressed how he would handle what a reporter called, “the Clemson problem.”
“You mentioned that program in the Upstate,” Beamer said, “they’re certainly on a pretty good run right now, but when I was here before, we were on a pretty dang good run ourselves against those guys as well. It’s a big challenge and we’re going to work every single day in recruiting, in this facility to have a team that we can be proud of on the field, and that will result with the way we play on the field. Certainly great respect for those guys, but looking forward to getting in there and competing, I know that for a fact.”
South Carolina, to Beamer’s point, won every game from 2009 to 2014.
The game was called off this season because of the pandemic, something that Clemson coach Dabo Swinney noted at the start of the season.
“It’s kind of crazy to be honest with you to think that we’re going to go all the way to Notre Dame or they’re going to go to Texas or Mississippi or wherever to play but we can’t meet each other,” Swinney said, and noted at the time that it was out of he and Will Muschamp’s hands.
A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.
