South Carolina Football: Welcome Back Home; Familiar face leaving head coaching job to return home to Gamecocks

South Carolina football just got a little more intense.

After former wide receivers coach Justin Stepp (who had been moved to the tight ends job) left to coach receivers at Illinois, Gamecock fans wondered who head coach Shane Beamer would bring on to fill the void.

According to a report from Gamecock Central's Chris Clark, Shawn Elliott is leaving his post as the head coach of the Georgia State Panthers to return home to South Carolina as the team's tight ends coach and run game coordinator.

Elliott, who spent seven seasons coaching the offensive line in Columbia (with two of those years as run game coordinator, four as co-offensive coordinator, and part of one as interim head coach), will be back in garnet and black next fall.

The ever-intense Shawn Elliott will coach tight ends (something he did for two years at Appalachian State) but will have a much bigger impact than just coaching a position.

As run game coordinator, one of Elliott's top duties will be "Never let 2023 happen again." The Gamecocks had their worst-ever rushing season (based on yards per game), and his experience as a long-time offensive line coach will help second-year OL coach Lonnie Teasley.

Elliott's head coaching experience will also allow him to work in close conjunction with associate head coach and special teams coordinator Joe Camillis as advisors to Shane Beamer, a role that former special teams coordinator and associate head coach Pete Lembo played during his time as an assistant with the South Carolina football program.

When Elliott worked at Appalachian State, the Mountaineers had a vicious and multi-faceted rushing attack, and the zone and option concepts he learned there helped take Steve Spurrier's offense to a new level with the Gamecocks. Fans should be excited that Elliott is joining the staff at the same time as the athletic LaNorris Sellers and Robby Ashford are the top-2 quarterbacks on the roster and the Gamecocks brought in 3 highly-regarded ball-carriers from the transfer portal.

If the offensive line issues from last year are improved, Shane Beamer's team will be much better on the ground in 2024. Offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains' job would become much easier if his unit is capable of being more balanced than they were last year.

Elliott is one of a growing list of active head coaches leaving for assistant coaching jobs as the new world of the transfer portal and NIL has made head coaching responsibilities much different than they were five years ago.

The Shawn Elliott move is a home run hire for Coach Beamer and the South Carolina football program, and the team should be better from it immediately.