How Kirby Smart's influence on Shane Beamer shows in South Carolina football ahead of Georgia game
COLUMBIA — South Carolina football coach Shane Beamer still has memories about the offsides call against Georgia's Tyler Simmons on a blocked punt in the 2018 College Football Playoff championship.
Beamer, who was then the Bulldogs' special teams coordinator, is haunted by the wrongful penalty that might have cost Georgia a national title. Instead, Alabama claimed the championship in a 26-23 overtime victory.
"We were going to get a free rusher we felt like, and we did it. Came completely clean, blocked the punt just like we had designed it, and unfortunately the officiating crew — not an SEC crew — absolutely blew the call," Beamer said Tuesday. "I've gotten past it, as you can tell ... but that was (coach) Kirby (Smart) putting in a whole bunch of work on it, and he was exactly right about what we needed to do."
Beamer will go head-to-head with former boss when the Gamecocks (1-1) travel to Athens to face the No. 1 Bulldogs (2-0) on Saturday (3:30 p.m., CBS). Beamer is 0-3 against Smart, including Oklahoma's 54-48 loss to Georgia in the 2018 Rose Bowl when he was the assistant head coach.
"From day one, (there was) the willingness and the ability to adapt ... (Smart) has just done a great job of continuing to evolve and stay ahead of things," Beamer said. "Maybe there's a scheme that, in one season, offenses attack and get some plays on. The very next season, the very next week, they're going to have it corrected and they're going to have an adjustment for it."
Beamer, 46, and Smart are only a year apart in age. Beamer said he learned a lot from the way Smart ran his program as a young first-time head coach. Beamer brought many of Smart's philosophies with him when he got his first opportunity at South Carolina.
"There's a certain urgency that you have to have every single day in coaching and recruiting, and when you stepped in that building (at Georgia), there wasn't going to be a wasted moment," Beamer said. "They way they do things in practice were very similar in a lot of ways to how we practice here ... Those two years were just extremely impactful for me growing as a coach."
Georgia has dominated South Carolina in both meetings under Beamer, including a 48-7 rout in 2022. However, the Gamecocks are just a few years removed from one of the biggest upsets in program history, a 20-17 road win in double overtime against the Bulldogs in 2019. After ending last season with stunning victories over Tennessee and Clemson, Beamer knows anything is possible.
"We know it'll be a big challenge. It was extremely difficult to communicate over there a couple of years ago, so we know how loud it will be," Beamer said. "But I want our guys to embrace it as well. We went to Clemson last year in a hostile environment and we played with poise ... It'll be the first time for a lot of these guys in an atmosphere like this ... but we need to worry about what we can control, and that's going and playing well."
This article originally appeared on Greenville News: South Carolina-Georgia football: Kirby Smart influence on Shane Beamer
