Breaking Down Shane Beamer as the Potential Next Virginia Tech Head Coach

Beamer's coaching career began as a graduate assistant at Georgia Tech. He spent just one year with the Yellow Jackets before moving on to the Tennessee Volunteers, where he held the same position for the next three seasons.

After three years in Knoxville, Beamer moved to Starkville, Mississippi to join the Mississippi State coaching staff as their cornerbacks coach and recruiting coordinator. While there, three of his corners received Freshman All-SEC honors, but after two years as the cornerbacks coach, he was offered the position of running backs coach, which he took.

One year later, Beamer moved to South Carolina to join the Gamecocks' coaching staff for the first time as their outside linebacker and special teams coach in 2007. The next season, he received the cornerbacks coach job before once again changing positions in 2009 and taking over as the safeties coach.

In 2011, Beamer came to Blacksburg to join his father's coaching staff as the Hokies' associate head coach and running backs coach. He'd hold that position for five years, until his father retired in 2015.

Beamer then made two more stops in the SEC before getting his first head coaching gig. He joined the Georgia Bulldogs' staff in 2016 as their tight ends and special teams coach, a position he'd hold for two years before moving to Oklahoma as their assistant head coach in 2018. After three seasons with the Sooners, Beamer finally got a head coach job with the Gamecocks.

Beamer inherited a 2-8 team and turned them into a 7-6 team the following season. He's completely turned the Gamecocks' program around, but South Carolina is off to a bit of a slow start to 2025. The Gamecocks, who were ranked in the preseason, are 3-2 with losses to Vanderbilt and Missouri. They're 1-2 in SEC play, and have a daunting schedule ahead of them.

Despite that, Beamer has proven he can take a program at rock bottom and turn them into a contender. Obviously, it would take a large amount of money to steal him away from South Carolina, but Beamer may realize he's hit the ceiling at South Carolina, and if he wants to really contend for a conference championship and a College Football Playoff berth, Columbia may not be the place.

Pluses:

Beamer is a proven program builder. He took South Carolina from one of the laughing stocks of the SEC and turned them into a legitimate threat. He's also proven to be a great recruiter during his time in Columbia, and with the new influx of money entering Tech's program, he should be able to contend with the rest of the ACC in that department. He's also the son of Virginia Tech royalty, so there's that, too.

Minuses:

Beamer may have hit his ceiling. In 2024, the Gamecocks went 9-4 and finished the season as the No. 19 team in the country. All offseason, we heard about LaNorris Sellers and the Gamecocks, but they haven't lived up to the hype. Is he really capable of getting Virginia Tech back to being a serious contender? Or would he just be able to get them afloat?

Is he a realistic candidate?

In my opinion, it would take a lot for Virginia Tech to sway Beamer away from South Carolina. Beamer has rebuilt the program and has a plethora of ties to Columbia, but never say never. He also has deep ties to Virginia Tech, and if the Gamecocks keep losing this year, I don't think it's completely out of the realm of possibility that he could be up for a move to Blacksburg to try to rebuild his father's former team. It would cost Virginia Tech a plethora of money and may be a long shot, but stranger things have happened in college football, so I'm not counting him out.