Arkansas football faces South Carolina this season. Shane Beamer is aware of the strain is on in Columbia, because the Post and Courier noted when it talked to him:
“Hot seat. What does Shane Beamer think about that term, and how it relates to his sixth season at South Carolina?
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“’I just think it’s the profession that I chose. You look at any coach in the country, especially in the SEC because of the intensity in this league, if you don’t have a good season the year before, you’re immediately on the hot seat the next year,’ he said. ‘It is what it is.’
“The Gamecocks had a glorious 2024 and a lousy 2025. A 9-4 season where Beamer set so many marks — a nine-win season for just the eighth time in program history, first time ever beating four Top-25 teams in the same year, first time ever winning all three “trophy games (Missouri, Texas A&M, Clemson),” probably the most wins in 4 years for any USC head coach (29) — devolved right into a 4-8 mess. In the age of concern being the most important and most handy promote, there was loads of venom being spat by the USC devoted regardless of what transpired only a 12 months earlier than. It was delusional to suppose Beamer can be fired after final season; it was one 12 months after 9 wins, and it’s USC football, the place greatness is relatively tough to come back by, particularly constantly.
“But the coach understood the frustration, and is aware of the way it carries into 2026. He said in November that USC can be firmly within the combine for a College Football Playoff berth in a 12 months’s time; he mentioned on Wednesday in an unique interview with The Post and Courier that he is aware of what’s coming in July and August, when ‘speaking season’ is in full swing earlier than the season begins on Sept. 5.
“At SEC Media Days, at USC’s Media Day, the barrage of local and national radio shows, podcasts and TV appearances … they’re all going to ask. He was relaxed when asked Wednesday and that didn’t change as he answered.
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“’I don’t think about that at all. Never have, never will. My efforts and thinking are to this team and y’all have heard me say, you’ve heard me say many times, it’s truly year to year,’ Beamer said. ‘So what do I have to be doing right now to make 2026 the best that it can be? But you understand that’s just what you sign up for.’
“Go again a 12 months, when everybody was throwing hosannas after 9-4. Even Beamer shrugged it off, saying at SEC Media Days that that’s what preseason prognosticators would do, contemplating USC gained a number of video games and was returning its quarterback. He identified that at SECMD in 2024, after a 5-7 season in 2023, no one thought USC can be value a crap and look what occurred.”
Things have modified for the higher when Beamer wasn’t anticipated to do something in South Carolina. Then, as quickly as expectations soared, Beamer flopped. Is this a 12 months wherein Beamer surprises everybody in a great way … or is that this the top?
A loss to Arkansas would definitely imply it is the latter.