We wrote late on Saturday night that South Carolina is closing in on hiring Shane Beamer, who's been the frontrunner for the Gamecocks' head coaching job for some time.
A few additional things here...
*** To reiterate something mentioned briefly in that story, two candidates who today publicly took their names out of consideration - Louisville's Scott Satterfield and Louisiana's Billy Napier - did not have an offer from South Carolina, nor was either expected to be offered the job. This is a fact, but a few additional reinforcers...
- Notice the initial report saying Beamer was definitely expected to be the guy dropped from Bruce Feldman at 11:16 p.m., right after South Carolina's final regular season game wrapped. SI's Ross Dellenger reported at 10:52 p.m. that Billy Napier was staying at Louisiana and Napier himself released a statement on social media at 11:00 p.m.
Things have been moving toward Beamer for a while, and certainly that remained the case today. In other words, university officials didn't just double back to Beamer after Napier indicated he was staying. The wheels were in motion by that point and Napier was not going to be the choice in Columbia.
- Furthermore, we have reported multiple times in recent days that Beamer was the front runner. There was a reason for that; neither Napier nor anyone else rose to the same level during the decision-making process.
- The university hit the timeline it preferred in getting something done right after the regular season ended. This was always hoped, but at the outset of the process it wasn't a sure thing it would happen based on candidate timelines and other factors. USC did not appear to want to finish the process before the end of the regular season so as not to create another distraction after Will Muschamp's dismissal, but did want to do it quickly after.
Stay tuned to GamecockCentral.com for more background on the search + more on the Beamer hire and what's next.
A few additional things here...
*** To reiterate something mentioned briefly in that story, two candidates who today publicly took their names out of consideration - Louisville's Scott Satterfield and Louisiana's Billy Napier - did not have an offer from South Carolina, nor was either expected to be offered the job. This is a fact, but a few additional reinforcers...
- Notice the initial report saying Beamer was definitely expected to be the guy dropped from Bruce Feldman at 11:16 p.m., right after South Carolina's final regular season game wrapped. SI's Ross Dellenger reported at 10:52 p.m. that Billy Napier was staying at Louisiana and Napier himself released a statement on social media at 11:00 p.m.
Things have been moving toward Beamer for a while, and certainly that remained the case today. In other words, university officials didn't just double back to Beamer after Napier indicated he was staying. The wheels were in motion by that point and Napier was not going to be the choice in Columbia.
- Furthermore, we have reported multiple times in recent days that Beamer was the front runner. There was a reason for that; neither Napier nor anyone else rose to the same level during the decision-making process.
- The university hit the timeline it preferred in getting something done right after the regular season ended. This was always hoped, but at the outset of the process it wasn't a sure thing it would happen based on candidate timelines and other factors. USC did not appear to want to finish the process before the end of the regular season so as not to create another distraction after Will Muschamp's dismissal, but did want to do it quickly after.
Stay tuned to GamecockCentral.com for more background on the search + more on the Beamer hire and what's next.
