COLUMBIA, S.C. — When Shane Beamer took over as South Carolina's head football coach, he brought with him more than 20 years of experience as an assistant.
His very first full-time coaching position brought him to Starkville as he joined the Mississippi State staff in 2004 as cornerbacks coach and recruiting coordinator. His third season there saw him keep the recruiting coordinator title but he made the move to running backs coach in the spring of 2006.
Beamer would join the Steve Spurrier staff at USC the following year and spent four years in Columbia from 2007-2010 before returning in December of 2020 to take over the big chair in the football operations building.
"Many of you know, I got my first full-time job in coaching at Mississippi State back in 2004. The first time I was ever not a grad assistant and was actually getting paid to coach was at Mississippi State," Beamer said.
"Met my awesome wife there. She is born and raised in Starkville. Mississippi State grad. Her parents still live in Starkville. Big contingent of people from Mississippi that will be in my house this weekend from what I have been told. Place that will always be special to me because of the three years I spent there working for coach Croom and the many great people and friends that I have there. Now, at Mississippi State, getting to play them. Played them when I was an assistant coach here in my first at Carolina here in Columbia. That was a fun Saturday afternoon and then even more ties. Their athletic director is one of my best friends in the world, Zac Selmon. We worked together at Oklahoma and our families are extremely close. It will be fun seeing him as well. It will be Mississippi State's first away game this season. Will also be my good friend Zac's first away game as an athletic director in the SEC. We certainly want to show him and all of Mississippi State what a SEC road game is like. We need that to be an advantage for us this Saturday night."