South Carolina at 0-3 in SEC After OT Loss; Six Candidates to Replace Beamer

An overtime home defeat against Kentucky dropped South Carolina to 0-3 in the SEC, and a report identifies six coaches who could replace Shane Beamer if the school moves on.

South Carolina let a 17-0 advantage slip away on Saturday and fell to Kentucky 35-34 in overtime at home. The result dropped the Gamecocks to 0-3 in SEC play and intensified the focus on Shane Beamer, who is in his sixth season leading the program.

Few expected much from South Carolina this fall. Media covering the league picked the Gamecocks 11th in the SEC at preseason Media Days, and they arrived off a 4-8 campaign that gave the program its second losing season over a three-year span. A strong opening stretch was viewed as vital for Beamer, and the opposite has unfolded.

The trouble has not been confined to the field. Defensive end Dylan Stewart, regarded as a potential Top 10 pick in the NFL Draft, is suspended indefinitely after striking an Alabama player last week. The report states Stewart also had run-ins with members of the South Carolina coaching staff and is away from the team, and Beamer indicated that he alone will decide when the defender returns.

Beamer's contract situation looms over any decision about his future. Yahoo Sports places his buyout near $24 million, and his deal extends through the 2030 season. His record in Columbia stands at 35-33 across five-plus years.

The Sporting News report identifies six possible replacements, starting with two offensive coordinators who have never held the top job. Buster Faulkner, 45, has drawn attention for sparking Florida's offense this season after coaching Georgia's quarterbacks from 2020 to 2022 and then running Georgia Tech's offense for three years. Shannon Dawson, a 49-year-old Louisiana native, has guided Miami's offense since 2023, with the Hurricanes finishing among the nation's top five in scoring twice over that four-year span, and he previously coordinated at Houston, West Virginia and Kentucky.

Memphis coach Charles Huff is off to a 4-1 start in his first season with the Tigers. He arrived from Southern Miss, where he lifted the Eagles from 1-11 to 7-5 in his lone year, and before that he led Marshall to a Sun Belt championship in his fourth season at the school. Marshall had hired him away from Nick Saban's Alabama staff, on which he held the assistant head coach title, and in his second season there the Herd beat Notre Dame 26-21.

New Mexico's Jason Eck is another sitting head coach on the list. He posted a 9-4 record in his first season with the Lobos last year, matching the school's best mark since 1982, after three seasons in charge at Idaho. A former Wisconsin offensive lineman, Eck is seen as a possible fit for the Big Ten, and the report suggests other programs would pursue him if New Mexico delivers another winning season.

The defensive option is Texas Tech coordinator Shiel Wood. He played at Wofford in South Carolina and stayed on there eight seasons as an assistant, and he is now in his second year with the Red Raiders after his unit ranked third nationally in 2025. His only other Power Five experience amounts to one season apiece at Georgia Tech and Houston.

Virginia coach Tony Elliott rounds out the group. A former Clemson player, he spent 12 seasons on Dabo Swinney's staff and was part of national title teams in 2016 and 2018, earning national assistant coach of the year honors after the first championship. Five seasons into his Virginia tenure, he is coming off an 11-3 season, the most wins in school history, and was praised for how he guided his first Cavaliers team through a mass shooting in which four of his players died. The report adds that Elliott would be a likely candidate if Clemson makes a coaching change.