South Carolina Football: New Gamecock assistant coach expected to leave for SEC rival

The coaching carousel has been going round and round and round this offseason. For a team that did not experience any change at head coach, offensive coordinator, or defensive coordinator since the end of the season, the South Carolina football program has experienced a lot of turnover with the rest of the staff.

At the running backs coach position, Marquel Blackwell replaced the fired Montario Hardesty, Joe DeCamillis replaced Pete Lembo as special teams coordinator after the latter took the head coach job at Buffalo, and then there has been a saga at the tight ends and wide receivers spots.

South Carolina football coach Shane Beamer looked to upgrade his coaching staff at the wide receiver position this offseason. To do so, he moved Justin Stepp to the tight ends job and hired veteran SEC assistant coach James Coley to lead the receiver room with the Gamecocks.

Since then, Stepp left for the University of Illinois so that he could continue coaching wide receivers. Now, the man hired to replace him is also gone.

According to a report from 247Sports' Matt Zenitz, James Coley is expected to be hired as the wide receivers coach for the Georgia Bulldogs. With the 'Dawgs, Coley is replacing former Gamecock assistant Bryan McClendon who left UGA for a job in the NFL. He previously worked for Kirby Smart on the Georgia staff from 2016-2019.

After seeming to finish his coaching staff a couple of weeks ago by hiring former Carolina assistant Shawn Elliott to the tight ends job, Shane Beamer is hunting for a coach once again.

For now, it is too early to speculate who Coach Beamer may target to fill the James Coley-sized gap in his coaching staff. However, there were rumors circulating for a couple of days leading up to his departure that Georgia would target him for their wide receivers opening, so there is a chance that the Gamecocks had a bit of a head start on the search.