4 Replacement Candidates If South Carolina Fires Shane Beamer

South Carolina will be a double-digit dog this weekend when the Gamecocks travel to Gainesville to play Florida. They’re likely to be an underdog in every game for the remainder of the season.

How much do South Carolina football odds matter? Your mileage may vary. But if the Gamecocks can’t win four more games this year, it’ll be the third time in four years that Shane Beamer’s South Carolina program fails to make a bowl game. And if they can’t win two more games, it’ll be the worst non-COVID season of his six-year tenure in Columbia.

South Carolina is a tough place to win in SEC country. Nevertheless, the administration may begin surveying their options if Beamer turns in another losing season. 

Here are some candidates that would likely be under consideration:

Jake Dickert

Like South Carolina, Wake Forest can be a difficult place to play winning football. But that hasn’t been a problem for Dickert, who won eight games at Washington State as the Pac-12 disintegrated before coming to Wake Forest and immediately winning nine games. 

Dickert already has a ranked road win (at Louisville) this season, and the Deacs now have a decent shot to win 10 games for just the third time in program history. 

Wouldn’t South Carolina like a proven head coach who can win at tough places and has experience in the Carolinas?

Chris Hampton

I personally think the idea of hiring “one of your guys” is terribly overrated. But middle-class P4 programs often like this concept, which leads us to Chris Hampton.

Hampton has worked as defensive coordinator under Dan Lanning at Oregon since 2023. He also played safety at South Carolina in the mid-2000s and would surely be given an interview if the head coaching job was available.

I think Hampton is a little green, but Lanning coordinators were a hot commodity for open head coaching jobs in 2025. You can probably expect Hampton to be a head coaching candidate in the next season or two no matter what. 

Tony Elliott

When UVA snagged Tony Elliott from Clemson at the end of the 2021 season, I didn’t love the hire. Virginia is a complicated program to win at with stricter academic standards than most other P4 schools. That felt like a serious challenge for a semi-young coordinator who’d never been a head coach before.

I think time has proven me wrong about Elliott. After a three-year rebuild, Elliott broke through with an 11-win season and a conference championship game appearance in 2025, and the Cavaliers look lively this season, too. 

Bringing Elliott back to the state of South Carolina to coach in the SEC would be a real coup for Gamecock fans. Elliott understands what it looks like to recruit the Carolinas, and he understands what it takes to build a championship culture. 

If I’m Jeremiah Donati, this is the first call I’m making. 

Buster Faulkner

Faulkner is a classic example of a hot coaching name that will be on all kinds of hire boards at the end of this year. 

No, Faulkner has never been a head coach. But he’s got 20 years of college football coaching experience, including as a member of Georgia’s national championship-winning staff in 2021 and 2022. He helped turn Georgia Tech’s offense into a shockingly effective unit with Haynes King last year. And right now, he’s running the Gators’ offense, which ranks third nationally in EPA/pass. 

Faulkner is going to give someone some offensive punch in the next couple of years. The only question left is whether South Carolina would be willing to source another head coach from the University of Florida. 

Replacement Candidates If South Carolina Fires Shane Beamer

• Tony Elliott
• Jake Dickert
• Buster Faulkner
• Chris Hampton