Shane Beamer: He'll finish at OU because of his 'deep relationships' with Sooner players

During his introductory press conference on Monday, the first branch of Lincoln Riley's coaching tree talked about 'loyalty' and the influence his time at OU had on him

Shane Beamer in the indoor practice facility / University of South Carolina Athletics

The first branch on Lincoln Riley’s coaching tree made an impressive debut on Monday.

Shane Beamer became Riley’s first assistant coach to take a head coaching job when he was hired over the weekend at South Carolina. He talked about several aspects of his time at Oklahoma, including why he made a lateral move from Georgia to OU three years ago.

“There’s not a program in all of college football that I would have left (Georgia) to be an assistant coach at other than Oklahoma,” he said.

Beamer, 43, said he was thrilled to be a head coach, but acknowledged it wasn’t the easiest decision to leave OU, where he was assistant head coach and tight ends/H-backs coach.

“As excited as I am to come to South Carolina,” he said, “having to leave those guys is tough.”

Shane Beamer in Williams-Brice Stadium / University of South Carolina Athletics

Riley said during the Big 12 coaches teleconference on Monday morning that Beamer would return to OU Monday to finish out the Sooners’ regular season this week at West Virginia and next week against Iowa State in the Big 12 Championship Game.

During his 90-minute introductory press conference in Columbia, Beamer explained why.

“That’s very important to me,” Beamer said. “I have deep relationships with those guys and I want to be loyal to those guys as well. I don’t want to sweep the rug out from under them and leave them high and drive with two weeks left in our regular season with another opportunity to win a Big 12 championship. I don’t think that’s the right thing to do.

“I talked the (USC) players on our team yesterday about trust, about communication, about loyalty, and I didn’t think it’s fair to me to have that conversation with those guys and then leave these guys high and dry out in Oklahoma. So I’m gonna do two jobs here for a couple of weeks.”

He said with South Carolina players finishing their academic semester and then heading home for the holidays, he wouldn’t actually miss any face time with them while he finished up the season at OU.

“That was very well received by the players on our team yesterday,” Beamer said. “When I told them that, I could tell their reaction was positive.”

Shane Beamer speaks to the team / University of South Carolina Athletics

Riley said Beamer won’t continue to recruit players for OU ahead of next Wednesday’s National Signing Day. Beamer addressed how he intends to split his attention in coaching the Sooners and recruiting the Gamecocks.

“It’s a little bit easier in today’s time because we’re not able to get out on the road recruiting,” Beamer said. “Obviously everything is shut down. Everything we need to do from a recruiting standpoint, I can do from my phone. That’s what I will continue to do and finish out the season with those guys and then looking forward to getting back here as soon as possible here in less than two weeks.”

He said his conversations with Riley and South Carolina athletic director Ray Tanner were strictly about the next two weeks and didn’t include his possible prep for a bowl game.

Beamer said Riley told him to “compartmentalize everything” as a head coach, but another thing he picked up in his time at OU as Riley tutored three different quarterbacks was to be flexible.

“One thing I’ve learned from Lincoln is that your system has got to be flexible enough that you can adjust it to the strengths of the players you have,” Beamer said. “Our offensive system at Oklahoma is a lot different right now with Spencer Rattler, our quarterback, than it was last year with Jalen Hurts, and it’s different than it was the year before with Kyler Murray. So you’ve got to have a system that’s flexible enough to accentuate the positives that you have to work with.

“The name of the game is scoring points. I’ve seen that the last three years in Norman, and we’ll do that here for sure.”

Beamer coached at South Carolina from 2007-10 as an assistant coach for Steve Spurrier, and said it was a special place — special enough to lure him away from Norman.

“I wasn’t gonna leave (OU),” he said, “just so I could check a box that I was a head coach.”

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