It almost felt like history repeating itself.
Back in 2015, South Carolina athletics director Ray Tanner sat in Kirby Smart’s kitchen, envisioning the next chapter of Gamecock football. Just hours later, Georgia dismissed Mark Richt and pulled Smart back to Athens, leaving Tanner to start over.
Fast forward to 2020, and Tanner finally landed his top choice.
Shane Beamer, then 43 years old and in his third season coaching tight ends at Oklahoma, was widely seen as a rising star destined to become a head coach. With previous ties to USC as an assistant on Steve Spurrier’s staff from 2007–10, Beamer was an obvious candidate to take over the program.
Meanwhile, Virginia Tech—the school synonymous with his family’s name—was facing its own uncertainty. Head coach Justin Fuente was coming off a disappointing 5-6 season, and speculation swirled that athletics director Whit Babcock might look for a new direction.
And if a change came, who better to take the reins than a Beamer?
Shane’s father, Frank Beamer, was already a legend in Blacksburg, building Virginia Tech into a national power across nearly three decades. Shane had played for his dad, then coached on his staff from 2011–15.
Naturally, rumors surfaced. But according to Beamer, the interest wasn’t coming directly from Virginia Tech itself.
“I had some people reach out who were affiliated with Virginia Tech,” Beamer told The State in May. “I’ll leave it at that.”
A 2023 ESPN report backed that up, noting that intermediaries told Beamer they’d be willing to lobby Babcock on his behalf—if he wanted the job.
But Beamer wasn’t interested.
“I was gung-ho on South Carolina,” he said. “That was the only place I wanted to be.”
Even Frank Beamer admitted he never really thought his son would end up in Blacksburg.
“No,” the retired coach said with a chuckle. “I mean, I didn’t know. But you know, he’s always loved South Carolina. … I think it’s a school that he really had dreamed of going back to. And so, you know, everything has a way of working out.”
Everything did work out. In December 2020, Shane Beamer became South Carolina’s head coach, and now enters his fifth season at the helm. His 2025 campaign fittingly kicks off Aug. 31 against Virginia Tech.
As for the Hokies, they didn’t part ways with Fuente until midway through a lackluster 2021 campaign. His successor, Brent Pry, has yet to recapture the program’s glory days, winning just 16 games in three seasons.
Now, with Pry leading the Hokies into battle against Beamer’s Gamecocks, fans can’t help but wonder: what if Shane Beamer had gone home instead of heading to Columbia?
