COLUMBIA, S.C. — The South Carolina Gamecocks appear to have picked Shane Beamer to be their new head football coach.
The Athletic's Bruce Feldman reported Saturday night that Beamer is expected to become USC's next head coach, citing sources. That was followed up by ESPN's Mark Schlabach a short time later.
The school itself said nothing about the reports, but a formal announcement likely will happen in the coming days.
USC ended its regular season Saturday night with a 41-18 loss to Kentucky. They finished the year at 2-8.
Beamer, who's currently an assistant coach at Oklahoma, is the son of legendary Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer. But Gamecock fans will remember the younger Beamer's time as a member of Steve Spurrier's coaching staff from 2007 to 2010.
During part of his stint with the Gamecocks, Beamer was in charge of recruiting, and helped reel in some of the biggest recruits in program history. Some of those blue-chip prospects eventually went on to help USC to their greatest stretch in program history, where they won an SEC Eastern Division title followed by three straight seasons of 11 wins.
In recent days, several of those former players have expressed support for Beamer as he became a leading candidate for the job, including current L.A. Chargers defensive lineman Melvin Ingram.
After his time at South Carolina, he went back to join his father's staff at Virginia Tech before moving on to Georgia for two years, and finally to Oklahoma.
Beamer would replace Will Muschamp, who was fired last month with three games to go in the season.
The news comes as two other reported top candidates for the job announced they were staying put. Louisville's Scott Satterfield said he would remain there after reportedly speaking to USC on Friday. And late Saturday night, around the same time as Feldman's report, Louisiana's Billy Napier released a statement, acknowledging that he'd been pursued by another school, but didn't mention USC by name.
"It's humbling to be considered a worthy candidate for any job opening, but it's also important to realize this is a direct reflection of our entire organization from top to bottom," his statement read.