South Carolina Gamecocks: Shane Beamer Seals Contract Extension After 4 Seasons of Leading the Gamecocks
The South Carolina Gamecocks have extended their Head Coach, Shane Beamer, through the 2030 season. The announcement came this past Friday, Jan. 24. This is the second extension for Beamer as head coach of South Carolina Football. Beamer’s new extension will bring his salary up to $8.15 million a year from $6.125 million a year following a 9-4 record for the 2024 season.
Beamer’s contract extension will also grant a salary increase of $100,000 at the start of every year while also featuring a buyout of five million dollars before December 31, 2025. Beamer’s buyout will decrease by a million dollars every year following 2025.
Beamer was hired in December 2020 shortly after the Gamecocks fired Will Muschamp mid-season in 2020.
Donati Credits An Upward Trajectory Established by Beamer
The extension follows a respectable season for the Gamecocks as they concluded the regular season with a winning record. The game cocks ended the post-season, however, with a loss to Illinois 21-17 at the 2024 Cheez-IT Citrus Bowl.
In comparison to the 2023 football season, the Gamecocks made a significant improvement this past year overall. The Gamecocks were not bowl-eligible in 2023 and ended the season with an overall 5-7 record.
South Carolina’s Athletic Director, Jeremiah Donati, credited the upward trajectory this past year as reason enough to justify Beamer’s contract extension.
In a statement from Jan. 24, 2025, Donatti voiced his opinion of Beamer’s performance so far as head coach, “The culture and commitment to excellence that Coach Beamer has built in our football program shows that we are headed in the right direction and on a strong upward trajectory”.
A quick evaluation of South Carolina’s past season does certainly confirm this notion. The Gamecocks were victorious overall (5-3) in the SEC, which should be a baseline for the program should they want to continue improving.
The Gamecocks also had some impressive wins this past season that are indicative of a competitive program. The victory over Texas A&M when they were ranked #10 was certainly convincing as the Aggies went down 44-20. Their win over Clemson (17-14) does look quite good in hindsight as Clemson was a Conference Champion and playoff qualifier.
Room For Improvement
Despite their notable wins, the Gamecocks were a bit short of a potentially great season. As South Carolina was behind by one game to Tennessee in the final SEC conference rankings, one could suggest that the Gamecocks were potentially one win away from a CFP playoff berth.
When looking into their three most notable losses this season against LSU, Ole Miss, and Alabama, the common outcome appears to be that the Gamecocks could not put on a solid defensive performance when facing ranked SEC opponents.
For the 2024 season, the Gamecocks averaged 18.1 points per game defensively but only won two games when their opponent scored more than 18 points (A&M and Missouri).
As noted before, the Gamecocks were not particularly successful against ranked SEC opponents. South Carolina only won two out of the five times their opponent was a ranked SEC team. Their three losses to ranked SEC opponents all featured games where the opposing SEC team put more than 18 points up.
Furthermore, in 2024 the Gamecocks were quite average in the SEC when it comes to defensive passing yards allowed per game.
