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South Carolina has hitched it future on Shane Beamer. The first time head coach was officially announced Sunday by the school  LINK: Questions abound with Beamer hire As mentioned yesterday, this hire leaves a lot of questions. While special teams is an affinity that comes with the Beamer name, the new coach has never been an offensive or defensive coordinator. Expect the school to open the pocket book and pay both coordinators between $800,000 and $1 million salaries. That puts extra emphasis on Beamer getting these hires right. News broke late Sunday that South Carolina defensive coordinator Travaris Robinson was not being retained.  Here are some names to keep an eye on for defensive coordinator. Jay Bateman, DC, North Carolina Bateman is in his second year with Mack Brown in Chapel Hill. In his first year he engineered a major  turnaround for the unit, going from allowing 34.5 points per game to 23.7. That number has increased to roughly 28 this year, but in this era of football, h

South Carolina has its next football coach, and its Shane Beamer. Reports began trickling in late Saturday of the hire and the move was confirmed by multiple news outlets Sunday morning. The news has yet to be made official with a press conference by the school.  Beamer takes over for Will Muschamp, who was fired mid-November after a 59-42 loss to Ole Miss. The loss marked a third straight poor performance for the defense, which gave up 159 points in that stretch.  Muschamp finished with a 28-30 career mark in Columbia, but went 8-13 the final two years. He finished tied ninth, with Warren Giese, in wins among coaches but 12th in win percentage at 48.3 percent.  LINK: Will Muschamp fired at South Carolina. Who should Gamecocks look to replace him? LINK: Gamecock coach records  LINK: College coaches must win now, or else The hiring marks a return to Columbia for Beamer, 43, who was an assistant coach from 2007-2010 under Steve Spurrier. Since leaving Columbia he made assistant coaching

 Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney is in the news again. The previous weekend Swinney's Tigers were scheduled to travel to Talahassee to play Florida State. On the day of the game, it was called off.  According to an ESPN report , Clemson traveled with a player who had tested positive for COVID 19. In short, testing was conducted Friday on both teams, per policy, but Clemson did not get the results back until they were already en route.  The player, an unnamed offensive lineman, was reportedly quarantined and had arrangements to be sent home. That Saturday morning, the teams were informed of the postponement after Florida State reportedly was not comfortable going forward. Clemson-FSU was not the only game affected.  "The ACC also announced a number of schedule changes on Saturday. The Louisville at Boston College game that was moved to Dec. 12 will now be played Nov. 28 and Wake Forest at Louisville has been moved to Dec. 19. The Wake Forest at Duke game will not be rescheduled

Will Muschamp is no longer the head football coach at South Carolina. The move, announced Sunday, closes the book on a four-and-a-half season run, where South Carolina went 28-30, and had been trending down after a 9-4 campaign in 2017.  Fox affiliate WACH's Mike Uva first broke the news on Twitter. Breaking: Will Muschamp has been relieved from his head coaching duties at the University of South Carolina, a source tells me. Mike Bobo will be the team’s interim head coach @wachfox https://t.co/2uDzHN1crD — Mike Uva (@Mike_Uva) November 16, 2020 Much like his four-year run at Florida, Muschamp was unable to put a viable offensive product on the field. Much like his time in Gainesville, things dropped off after year two, where after going 11-2, Muschamp went a combined 10-13 before being shown the door there. Including 2020, South Carolina's offense has ranked no higher than 57th out of 130 nationally in scoring, and that came in 2018. The other years, the offense has been ran

July 4th in the United States has passed, and the usual pomp and circumstance of cookouts, get-togethers and overall admiration for the founding of the country cappedy by fireworks the following days after went relatively fine. But in the SC high school sports Twitterverse (because that is a thing) a major discussion attempted to take place between Jim Baxter, who runs SC Varsity, and Coby Cornelius, a rising senior football player at Spring Valley in Columbia, SC.  In short, what could have been was a generational-crossing discussion between two people with two very different perspectives and life experiences, and how it helped shape their views, and, possibly, lead to personal growth for both, and those witnessing it. What happened was one man resorting to simplistic talking points, and an excercise in the freedom of speech and how it relates to consequence-free speech ensued.  In short, Baxter posted a harmless, love the founders type post typical on the day. Cornelius then posted t

Is it safe to come out? Are things back to normal? Yesterday I popped my head out to do my best  Punxsutawney Phil impersonation to see if the world had stopped burning. It had not.  So six more weeks of pandemic? What? It has been five months!?! Back in March I opined on how the Coronavirus had drastically effected the sports world. You can read it in the link below if you like (please). LINK: Coronavirus ends sports as we know it Back then, many sports leagues postponed or cancelled their seasons.  To be honest my initial thought was by the time fall rolled around things would be calmed down, people would have taken the proactive, recommended advice by doctors and scientists and things would be over by July. Apparently I highly underestimated many's goals of achieiving the coveted Darwin awards. With the school restart date looming, it is uncertain at this point if students will be able to go back at all in South Carolina.  And the first domino has fallen for that to become a rea

I don't usually foray completely out of the sports world, but there are some occassions I cannot resist.  That catalyst usually occurs when film comes up. While I like sports, I love film. It was recently reported by National Public Radio , and other outlets, the streaming service of Home Box Office (HBO), known as HBO Max, announced it was pulling "Gone with the Wind" from its catalog, for the time being.  The decision comes after an upswing in support and protests for racial equality and police accountability across the country after the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis law enforcement.  LINK: Clemson's Dabo Swinney's remarks on race fall short   HBO's reason is below: " Gone with the Wind  is a product of its time and depicts some of the ethnic and racial prejudices that have, unfortunately, been commonplace in American society." "These racist depictions were wrong then and are wrong today, and we felt that to keep this title

Sports has alwasy been a distraction from upheavel occurring in the world, and at times unifier. Going back to Preston Eagleson breaking college football's color barrier at Indiana in 1890, or when Jackie Robinson was finally allowed to play in Major League Baseball back in April of 1947, sports has at times been the proving ground for social progress, especially in America. LINK: Profiles in courage from sports While the Coronavirus has put sports on hold, sports figures and leaders have been looked on to put the murder of George Floyd, and overall race relations in the country, and give a nuanced perspective.  National Basketball Association coaches Steve Kerr and Greg Popovich, of Golden State and San Antonio respectively, each praised the the 2016 kneeling protests of former NFL quarterback Colin Kapernich , when he attempted to bring attention to police accountability as it related to the African-American community.  The college ranks have also seen coaches come out in support

The National Football League has seen a major free agent domino fall. Tom Brady, now formerly of the New England Patriots, has found his new team. A March 18 news confirmed the six-time Super Bowl champ will join the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for the 2020 season (assuming the Coronavirus allows for the season). This move adds to the excitment level growing in the Bay. A new, Hall of Fame level QB and new uniforms (that will look more like the Super Bowl winning team) all feels like a fresh start. CBS Sports writer John Breech penned a strong case of the positives of why Brady should go to Tampa, which you can read here. In short: lots of salary cap space, weapons at wide out and tight end, a coach looking to win now and a front office needing a face to put on the franchise that can sell merchandise without much effort. I'd add in Brady gives some stability to a position that has been mediocre at worst and inconsistent at best since, well, its inception in 1976. Yes, Vinn

It is no secret America, the world really, is sports crazy. But that crazy has been outplayed by the hysteria that is the Corona virus, known as COVID-19. Originating in Wuhan, China, the virus has seemingly spread all over the world, and does not appear to be stopping soon. Click here for a full background on COVID Though it started in 2019, effects weren't really felt on a widespread level in the United States until March of this year. It began slowly, but on the week of March 9, things seemingly exploded with confirmed cases across the country. What has followed has been a mix of misinformation, hysteria and general confusion. Since this is a blog focusing on sports, I'm straying away from the political side of things, but just for clarity, this situation has been woefully mishandled. It is a tough scenario, without question, but leadership is lacking at multiple levels. I believe John Oliver said it best. "Don't be complacent, but don't be an idio

It is nearly one of my favorite times of the year: Opening Day in college baseball. The day in my opinion can only be topped by Opening Day in Major League Baseball.  Why? For one, MLB starts in much warmer weather, and you try getting a flat beer and a lukewarm hot dog at a college ballpark for $15. This year team's will look to unseat Vanderbilt from atop the college baseball landscape.  All that hope, all that promise, all at its highest with that first pitch. One thing that makes baseball opening day interesting from a non-sport perspective is the walk up music. Sure, hip-hop and EDM have seen a rise, but not much can send shivers up a batter's spine than a reliever coming in while rock music blares over the speakers.  In truth, rock bands can teach us a little bit about baseball. No, not just the factor chemistry plays a big role, or finding people who have a common vision or sound of how things need to be. Also, the roles and importance of players

Jordan Burch signed with South Carolina, after an extended hysteria caused by the media. Photo Courtesy Rivals.com National Signing Day has come and gone. One of the biggest media-made events saw the usual major prospect signings, prospects switching at the last minute and the usual "class rankings" to decide who won and lost signing day. I can't hold my nose too high to it. During my time as a high school beat reporter I covered a slew of signing events, where athletes signed to places such as Alabama, Clemson, South Carolina and Wake Forest to little known Divison II programs. It was and remains a huge coverage day on the local level. On the national level, it has helped fuel the creation of the recruiting industry, for better or worse. For South Carolina, the focus fell quickly to Jordan Burch, a national-level recruit out of Hammond, a private, independent school in Columbia who signed with the Gamecocks on February 6. But the story behind that signing too