Per report, South Carolina football set to hire Pete Lembo replacement from NFL ranks

South Carolina football special teams coordinator Pete Lembo left the program last weekend to take the head coaching position at the University of Buffalo. The loss of Lembo left the Gamecocks in a state of limbo as head coach Shane Beamer had to decide how he would structure his coaching staff.

Beamer had previously stated that he would coach the special teams if he could not have landed an elite coordinator like Lembo, so some South Carolina football fans wondered if the Gamecock headman would take over the third phase of the game and hire an additional assistant to help out with a position group (likely linebacker).

The answer came just under a week later as Beamer elected to keep his staff structure the same and hire a special teams coordinator to fill the void left by Lembo's departure.

According to a report from NFL Network's Tom Pelissero, the Gamecocks are hiring long-time NFL special teams coordinator Joe DeCamillis to work the same job in Columbia.

DeCamillis, who won Super Bowl L with the Denver Broncos and Super Bowl LVI with the Los Angeles Rams, had coached as an assistant (always with special teams) since 1991 until taking an off-field role with the Texas Longhorns in 2023.

Now returning to on-field coaching duties, DeCamillis will look to fill the big shoes of Pete Lembo. Lembo was a finalist for the Broyles Award in 2022 as college football's top assistant and won the same honor from college football pundit Phil Steele that season as his special teams units were the best in the country. Lembo was also the team's associate head coach, but it is unclear if DeCamillis will fill that same role with USC.

In his 30 years as a well-respected assistant in the NFL, DeCamillis had stints with the Denver Broncos (under South Carolina football legend Dan Reeves), the New York Giants (also under Reeves), the Atlanta Falcons (still under Reeves), the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Dallas Cowboys, the Chicago Bears, the Broncos again, the Jaguars again, and the Los Angeles Rams.