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South Carolinahead coach Shane Beamer realizes that there has been a lot of criticism of him after his team struggled in 2025. While appearing on The Paul Finebaum Show on Tuesday, Finebaum asked Beamer if he pays attention to the critics.
“I think it’s my job, honestly,” Beamer said. “Am I on my phone all day long? No. Am I typing my name on a Tuesday morning to see what people are saying about me? No. But I’m also not naive. We only have our players four hours a day during the season. We practice in the mornings at South Carolina. So our players are done and out of the building every day by noon. So there’s 20 other hours throughout the day where they’re going to class, and they’re on their phones, and they’re listening to people.”
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“Beamer continued: “I think just a general tenor of what is being said and what the narrative is out there… Our players are on their phones, and I can pretend like they are not listening to it, but they’re hearing it, and just being able to kind of understand of what the narrative is part of what I do. The narrative doesn’t matter, but at the same time, we’re talking about 18,19, 20-year-old guys that it does influence them in so many ways.”
In 2025, South Carolina went 4-8 and 1-7 in SEC play. That’s a significant drop-off after the team went 9-4 and 5-3 in the conference in 2024.
Shane Beamer says ‘everybody thinks we suck’
Beamer has been with the Gamecocks since the 2021 season, and it’s been a mixed bag. In five seasons, Beamer has gone 33-30 and 16-24 in the SEC. South Carolina has appeared in three bowl games, and its best finish in the polls was in 2024 (No. 19 in the AP and Coaches).
It’s clear the pressure is on Beamer and South Carolina to win in 2026. While speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Beamer talked about not putting too much stock in media predictions.
“All you guys picked us high last year, and the same reason you picked us high last year, like those same players are back this year, which just blows my mind,” he said. “Like last year, y’all thought we were going to be pretty good because we had a good season, and we had guys like the three three here today, and Dylan Stewart and whoever else returning; we picked aside. All those guys are back, and they’re a year older. But everybody thinks we suck, so you know it is what it is. We don’t pay a whole lot of attention to that.”
