South Carolina football: Shane Beamer to hire new running backs coach
By Jacob Elsey
Shane Beamer has filled out the South Carolina football staff.
Shane Beamer though he’d completed the South Carolina coaching staff last month with the hire of offensive line coach Greg Adkins. But a few days following the hire, the Gamecocks lost yet another staffer, this time running backs coach Des Kitchings.
Kitchings was only with South Carolina for a season, where he helped lead one of the SEC’s top position groups. Sophomore tailback Kevin Harris won the conference’s regular season rushing crown, topping the 1,100 yard mark and finding the endzone 15 times.
Under Kitchings’ tutelage, Harris became the Gamecocks’ first 1,000 yard rusher in nearly a decade, despite the face that the team played a shortened, all-league slate in 2020.
Beamer appeared to have swayed Kitchings to stay in Columbia, but news broke in late January that he’d be taking a position with the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons for the 2021 season. Kitchings became the second straight running backs coach to leave the Gamecocks for an NFL opportunity after just one year with the program.
Now, though, it appears that Beamer has locked in on his next target, with Football Scoop speculating that the trigger has been pulled on the next candidate. According to the site, former Tennessee standout Montario Hardesty will be the next running backs coach in Columbia.
Hardesty was an all-conference performer for the Volunteers between 2005-2009. After redshirting as a freshman, the talented tailback racked up 2,373 yards and 26 touchdowns in Knoxville. He led the SEC in rushing attempts as a senior, and totaled more than 1,600 yards from scrimmage that final season before being selected in the second round of the NFL Draft by the Cleveland Browns.
After bouncing out of the NFL, Hardesty opted to get into coaching. He’s been on staff with Charlotte for the last two seasons, while also previously working with Florida Atlantic and Norfolk State.
Hardesty is from North Carolina, and will hope to help with recruiting in the Tar Heel State, as well as in Tennessee, Georgia, and the DMV area. He’ll also take over a very talented position group that includes Harris, MarShawn Lloyd, Rashad Amos, and ZaQuandre White.