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This was noted in our initial piece after Mike Peterson's departure, but it's worth reiterating that Shane Beamer does have flexibility when making his next hire.
Defensive coordinator/inside linebackers coach Clayton White has spent most of his career as a secondary coach by trade and current interior line assistant Jimmy Lindsey has experience coaching defensive ends/edge players as well as the entire defensive line. All that means is that, in theory, Beamer could bring in a defensive coach and slot him at any level. Because of the makeup of the staff as far as background, it seems most likely that Beamer would place a new hire either somewhere on the front four or as an inside linebackers coach.
On Tuesday night, we were clear that we were not yet at the level in the search for Peterson's replacement that we could identify clear-cut candidates in which there was confirmed mutual interest and involvement. In lieu of that, we did identify some coaches that have ties to South Carolina.
One of those we mentioned was Travian Robertson, a former four-star member of the 2007 recruiting class who was an excellent player in Columbia before playing 4 seasons in the NFL and moving into college coaching.
We previously noted that Georgia State's defense broke the school record for sacks in 2020. To build on that, GSU has 73 sacks over the past three seasons and allowed a program-record 3.86 yards per rush a season ago. The North Carolina native is also former Gamecock team captain (2011) who was also an SEC All-Academic team members.
As of Wednesday night, we've heard Robertson's name circulate a bit more than just a name that makes sense.
Another name that we have heard connected to the opening is SMU's Calvin Thibodeaux, who's an Oklahoma alumnus and spent six seasons from 2016 until this past season as an assistant in Norman.
Thibodeaux was hired to Rhett Lashlee's staff at SMU back in December and has almost exclusively been a midwest guy during his career with stops at Kansas, Tulsa, Navarro Junior College, and Houston; a stint at Dartmouth was the geographic outlier.
The fact that Thibodeaux was on staff at OU in the 2018-2020 time frame means, of course, that he had three seasons of carryover with Shane Beamer on Lincoln Riley's staff. There's plenty of familiarity there.
Thibodeaux was named by Rivals.com as one of the country's top 25 recruiters in 2018 and 2019; as a coach he's produced multiple all-conference selections.
Stick with GamecockCentral.com for more throughout the search.
This was noted in our initial piece after Mike Peterson's departure, but it's worth reiterating that Shane Beamer does have flexibility when making his next hire.
Defensive coordinator/inside linebackers coach Clayton White has spent most of his career as a secondary coach by trade and current interior line assistant Jimmy Lindsey has experience coaching defensive ends/edge players as well as the entire defensive line. All that means is that, in theory, Beamer could bring in a defensive coach and slot him at any level. Because of the makeup of the staff as far as background, it seems most likely that Beamer would place a new hire either somewhere on the front four or as an inside linebackers coach.
On Tuesday night, we were clear that we were not yet at the level in the search for Peterson's replacement that we could identify clear-cut candidates in which there was confirmed mutual interest and involvement. In lieu of that, we did identify some coaches that have ties to South Carolina.
One of those we mentioned was Travian Robertson, a former four-star member of the 2007 recruiting class who was an excellent player in Columbia before playing 4 seasons in the NFL and moving into college coaching.
We previously noted that Georgia State's defense broke the school record for sacks in 2020. To build on that, GSU has 73 sacks over the past three seasons and allowed a program-record 3.86 yards per rush a season ago. The North Carolina native is also former Gamecock team captain (2011) who was also an SEC All-Academic team members.
As of Wednesday night, we've heard Robertson's name circulate a bit more than just a name that makes sense.
Another name that we have heard connected to the opening is SMU's Calvin Thibodeaux, who's an Oklahoma alumnus and spent six seasons from 2016 until this past season as an assistant in Norman.
Thibodeaux was hired to Rhett Lashlee's staff at SMU back in December and has almost exclusively been a midwest guy during his career with stops at Kansas, Tulsa, Navarro Junior College, and Houston; a stint at Dartmouth was the geographic outlier.
The fact that Thibodeaux was on staff at OU in the 2018-2020 time frame means, of course, that he had three seasons of carryover with Shane Beamer on Lincoln Riley's staff. There's plenty of familiarity there.
Thibodeaux was named by Rivals.com as one of the country's top 25 recruiters in 2018 and 2019; as a coach he's produced multiple all-conference selections.
Stick with GamecockCentral.com for more throughout the search.
