South Carolina Football: Shane Beamer was on list for Tennessee job
By Kevin Miller
![South Carolina football Head Coach Shane Beamer and his team continue to be doubted despite improving every season. [Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union]](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_fill,w_1080,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/shape%2Fcover%2Fsport%2F1de6675713d7ede3758bd41631575942384d69798469e4e1e26e7fc76e0e12da.jpg "South Carolina football Head Coach Shane Beamer and his team continue to be doubted despite improving every season. [Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union]")
Over the weekend, some interesting news came out of Knoxville. South Carolina football coach Shane Beamer was, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel, one of 16 candidates proposed by former University of Tennessee athletic director (and former head football coach) Phil Fulmer to others inside the Tennessee athletic department.
Fulmer did not want to fire Jeremy Pruitt in light of allegations of recruiting infractions (infractions that, since then, have come out and are numbered at over 200 violations). However, when it became apparent that UT had no choice but to relieve Pruitt of his duties and find a replacement, Fulmer presented his list of candidates.
The Knoxville New Sentinel reported that that list of candidates included Hugh Freeze, Matt Campbell, Billy Napier, Tee Martin, Bill O’Brien, Luke Fickell, Jeff Monken, Will Healy, Justin Wilcox, Blake Anderson, Jamey Chadwell, Tony Elliot, Mike Elko, Joe Brady, Alex French (probably Alex Grinch), and Shane Beamer. The eventual hire Josh Heupel was not on Fulmer’s list.
Fulmer resigned as Pruitt was fired, and the legendary Volunteer head coach was replaced by Danny White. White hired Heupel instead of any of the candidates on Fulmer’s list (some of whom were hired to new jobs by the time Heupel was brought in), and Tennessee fans have to be happy with the choice as the Vols won 11 games in 2023 for the first time since 2001.
South Carolina football fans are also happy that the Vols did not try to hire Shane Beamer. Beamer was hired too early to be a real candidate at Tennessee as Pruitt had not yet been fired, but, regardless of the reason, Gamecock Nation is happy with the way their favorite team’s coaching search played out at the end of the 2020 season.
Coach Beamer might have been a candidate for the Tennessee job, but he was the right man for the Carolina job. As the South Carolina football program is still building after a disastrous end to the Will Muschamp experiment, Beamer’s unique style and culture have been at the forefront of the turnaround.