Tag: shane beamer

‘They’re certainly ready’: Shane Beamer on the Sooners’ move to the SEC

While Shane Beamer believe Oklahoma is ready for the move, he acknowledged the SEC is a different animal than the Big 12.

One of the many topics at SEC media days is if the Oklahoma Sooners are ready for their new conference when they make the move in 2024.

You heard from Nick Saban, Brian Kelly, and many others who love the new additions to their league.

Another coach who sees issues with the Sooners making the move is former Oklahoma assistant coach and current head coach of the South Carolina Gamecocks, Shane Beamer.

He believes they are “ready” for this move. He spoke about the six straight conference championships they won before winning 11 games in 2021.

But he acknowledged the SEC is a different animal than the Big 12.

“The line of scrimmages are different,” Beamer said. “Beyond the field, just the stadiums. It’s one thing I love about this conference, just the stadiums that you get to go into every single Saturday.”

Beamer relayed that the SEC led the nation in average attendance and that will be a far cry from what the Big 12 can put in the stands.

That will certainly be an adjustment period for the Sooners. The SEC has eight of the 12 largest stadiums in college football. Outside of Oklahoma and the Texas Longhorns, the Big 12 doesn’t have any in the top 25.

“Certainly feel like they’re ready,” the former OU assistant went on to say. “They’ve got great tradition at that place. Certainly excited about going back to Norman in 2024. We got a lot of football to play before then, but that’s a proud program with great leadership under (athletic director) Joe Castiglione. Excited to have OU and Texas in this awesome conference.

Because of last season, it seems like people have forgotten Oklahoma is one of the “blue bloods” of college football.

Typically those programs don’t get knocked down for long. We’ve seen it with recruiting. Oklahoma had a top-five class in 2023 and is on an absolute hot streak right now in the 2024 cycle.

Now, all that’s left is for Brent Venables to prove the Sooners can have as much success on the field as they’ve had off of it. That will determine how successful Oklahoma is in the SEC.

Historically, defensive-minded coaches take a little longer to get things going than head coaches. Go look at Nick Saban’s first season for the Alabama Crimson Tide and Kirby Smart’s first year for the Georgia Bulldogs.

Georgia was coming off two straight 10-3 seasons when Smart took over and they went 8-5. They could have easily gone 6-7. They beat Nichols State and a four-win Missouri Tigers team by a combined three points. They also beat a 7-6 Kentucky Wildcats team by three points as well.

But both Smart and Saban turned it around the next season. Smart went 13-2, and after a 7-6 campaign, Saban went 12-2. Venables and the Oklahoma fan base are hoping for similar progress to really show they are ready for success in the SEC.

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Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions. You can also follow Jaron on Twitter @JaronSpor.

Previewing day 4 of the 2023 SEC media days

Preview of the fourth and final day of the 2023 SEC media days!

Thursday will be the fourth and final day of the 2023 SEC media days from the Grand Hyatt in Nashville, Tennessee.

All but three teams have already completed their rounds with the media this week including the big names of Nick Saban and Alabama, Kirby Smart and Georiga, and  Brian Kelly and LSU. Rounding up this year’s event on Thursday will be Ole Miss, South Carolina, and Tennessee.

As we have done each day this week, we will now preview each team that is set to take to the podium and provide some quick nuggets about the upcoming season and what to expect.

First up..Lane Kiffin and Ole Miss…

Pages: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page 4

SEC Coaching Rankings: Saban stays at the top, Brian Kelly enters top 3

The SEC is loaded with talented football coaches ranging from decades of experience to first-year hires. Here’s how they rank, according to CBS Sports.

The SEC is loaded with talented individuals. Whether it be players, coaches, training staff or others, the conference is known for being the gold standard in college football. Today, we place the 14 head coaches under a microscope.

CBS Sports’ Barrett Sallee recently broke down every SEC head coach and ranked them from first to worst.

Below, Roll Tide Wire takes a look at the rankings and the reasoning behind them. There are some that are spot on, while others are just a bit off. At the end of the day, however, it’s all subjective.

Here are how Sallee ranked the 14 head coaches of the SEC.

Twitter reacts to Oklahoma Sooners’ SEC opponents for 2024

The Oklahoma Sooners learned who their 2024 SEC opponents would be and here’s how Twitter reacted.

The Oklahoma Sooners have a slate of SEC opponents for the 2024 season. Though still more than a year away, the conference move just got real.

Part of the move to the SEC was to see a schedule packed with marquee matchups. Greg Sankey and his schedule makers hit it out of the park.

There are no gimmes on the schedule. There are some incredible matchups coming to Norman, and Oklahoma’s road slate looks incredible.

The Sooners welcome Nick Saban, Josh Heupel and Shane Beamer to Norman. They’ll go on the road to Auburn, Baton Rouge, Columbia and Oxford.

Oklahoma renews a rivalry with Missouri that is 96 games strong. Though it may not be the Red River Showdown or Bedlam, it’s a game with history. On the flip side, the Sooners will break the ice with South Carolina, welcoming the Gamecocks to Norman for the first matchup between the two schools.

This is what the Oklahoma Sooners and Texas Longhorns were looking for when they opted to move to the SEC. Big-time matchups on a week-to-week basis that will keep the college football world buzzing.

Will it be easy? Absolutely not. But it’s going to be a lot of fun.

Twitter was buzzing with the announcement, and here are some of the best reactions.

First look at the Oklahoma Sooners SEC opponents in 2024

The Oklahoma Sooners received their opponents for their inaugural season in the SEC in 2024.

After anticipation so thick you could cut it with a knife, Oklahoma’s opponents have been revealed for their inaugural season in the SEC.

Oklahoma completes its move to the SEC next summer, but that will not stop fans of the Crimson and Cream from salivating at the matchups the Sooners will face in their first season as SEC members.

In a schedule reveal show, Oklahoma and Texas were the first to know their opponents — fitting that the new kids on the block were thrown into the fire early.

We have taken the liberty of mapping Oklahoma’s 2024 schedule with the scheduled nonconference games locked in.

In case anyone needed a reminder, along with eight conference games, each SEC team is required to play one opponent from the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 or a major independent during the 2024 season when the SEC becomes a 16-team conference.

As it stands, Oklahoma doesn’t have a Power Five team on the 2024 schedule. So, that will be the final piece to make its first year in the SEC complete.

Here’s a look at Oklahoma’s SEC opponents in their first season in the SEC.

South Carolina HC dishes on new Dolphins CB Cam Smith

There was a lot of focus on competition.

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The Miami Dolphins were without a first-round draft pick in April’s annual selection process, so their opening selection wasn’t made until pick No. 51 overall.

With that pick, the Dolphins drafted South Carolina cornerback Cam Smith, which was a bit of a shock to fans, as Miami seemed to be rather deep at the position entering the event.

Smith will have an opportunity to compete for the third cornerback spot behind former All-Pros Jalen Ramsey and Xavien Howard. He’ll be fighting against Nik Needham, who’s returning from a torn Achilles, and Kader Kohou, who showed out as an undrafted rookie in 2022.

Last month, Dolphins podcaster and writer Travis Wingfield spoke to South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer regarding the cornerback, and competition was one of his main takeaways from coaching him.

“I think the biggest thing with him, and you guys will see it, is just what a competitor he is,” Beamer said. “Cam didn’t really have to say anything. He did it with his actions on the field, and I know that’s cliche, but we talk about competition here all the time, and one of the things about Cam is that he loves to compete. No matter what was going on, when he stepped foot on the football field, whether it be a game or a practice, he turned it on. He’s a fierce competitor, and that’s the biggest thing. Competition’s a core value in the program, and he displayed that every time he competed.”

Competition is a great attribute for an NFL cornerback, especially one that will have to beat out veterans to earn more opportunities as a first-year player. However, it might be his mind that led to him being targeted by Miami.

“One thing about Cam that I don’t think he gets enough credit for is just how football smart he is,” Beamer said. “Some of my best memories of him are just being on the practice field, and he would come up and just ask me questions that make you think as a head coach as well. He really studies the game, and I think (he) does a really good job of that.”

If Smith can correct his penalty issue that plagued him during his collegiate career, he could be a great addition to this defense that really solidifies the unit.

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Notre Dame wins thrilling Gator Bowl over South Carolina: Instant Takeaways

What was your favorite part of the thrilling win?

Notre Dame finished their first season under head coach Marcus Freeman with an incredibly memorable Gator Bowl victory over South Carolina.  45-38 sounds absurd enough to type out but the reality is the game featured a little bit of everything – good and bad.

Most importantly for the Irish, they finish the year with a win and 9-4 overall mark.  In a sense it was fitting how this game went, as it was somewhat symbolic of Notre Dame football over the past 13 months.

We’ll have plenty of post-game reaction following the thrilling victory here at Fighting Irish Wire.  Let’s start with a few instant takeaways from the 45-38 victory.

Hidden plays that helped Notre Dame comeback against South Carolina

The Irish didn’t just use big plays to get a Gator Bowl win

That was fun, wasn’t it? Now that the Irish have their bowl victory in hand, we can all breathe a sigh of relief and celebrate into New Year’s Eve tomorrow night.

Notre Dame didn’t make it easy on themselves early, but hung in there and eventually secured a 45-38 victory over South Carolina in the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl. It game Marcus Freeman his first bowl win and a 9-4 record this season.

The Irish used plenty of big plays to get back into this game, but here were some plays that helped dictate the outcome that weren’t huge and these are those plays.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Mike on Twitter: @MikeFChen

Watch: The grossest tradition of all the Bowl Game’s

Eww

It’s hard to pinpoint exactly when coaches started getting the Gatorade shower when winning big games, but it has become a tradition across most major sporting events.

What about the grossest tradition, one that Dukes Mayo Bowl can put a claim to. This year’s matchup was a battle of the Carolina’s, North against South, with the Gamecock’s coming out on top this afternoon, 38-21.

The win would lead South Carolina’s head coach Shane Beamer to a room, covered with plastic for what none of us want, a Mayo shower to commemorate the win. Take a look at Beamer “enjoying” himself as a large vat of mayo is dumped over his head.

Notre Dame-South Carolina: Non-traditional Gator Bowl preview

For a game that has more questions than known answers, I thought I’d ask a few more questions.

Notre Dame wraps their 2022 football season on Friday as they take on South Carolina in the Gator Bowl.  The annual contest, played in Jacksonville, Florida, hasn’t featured the Irish since Tyrone Willingham’s first year concluded with a disappointing loss to North Carolina State.

I’ve decided to try something different in previewing this game.  Sure, we have all the stat comparisons available for you at Fighting Irish Wire as Geoffrey Clark does those before each game, and Michael Chen gives his pregame thoughts in a variety of ways, too.  FIW’s 2022 Freshman of the Year John Kennedy gave his confidences and concerns for the game, too.

However, the way my mind tends to work is that I find myself asking a bunch of questions before a game.  Those lead to other thoughts or more questions.  Instead of keeping those to myself I decided to put them into words as we await kickoff for the final time in 2022.

With that in mind, here is my stream of consciousness preview for the Gator Bowl between Notre Dame and South Carolina.