Why Shane Beamer Won’t Be Fired in 2025

Much was expected South Carolina football and head coach Shane Beamer in 2025, but not much else actually went straight for the Gamecocks.

Beamer, in his fifth season as South Carolina’s coach, enters 2025 after his best season in Columbia; in 2024, the Gamecocks were 9-4 overall and 5-3 in the SEC, both the best marks for the program since 2017. However, entering the final week of the year, South Carolina, which began as the 13th-ranked team in the country, begins a potential campaign at 4-8.

A disastrous season, which included five straight losses to end the conference, including a historic loss to Texas A&M in which The Gamecocks took a 30-3 lead into halftimeit would probably be more than enough for many universities to fire their head coach. But that’s not the case for South Carolina, as athletic director Jeremiah Donati confirmed to Columbia State on Tuesday that Beamer would be back for his sixth season as the head coach of the Gamecocks.

Why is Donati sticking with the Bimmer, you ask? According to The State’s Jordan Kay, the decision “makes a lot of sense” for two different reasons: recent success and lots of money.

“For one thing, he’s just one year away from leading the Gamecocks to the brink of the College Football Playoff,” Key wrote.

“And, well, it would be expensive to move on from Beamer. He got a contract extension in January that pays him over $8 million a year through the 2030 season.”

“If South Carolina were to move on from Beamer after the Clemson game, his buyout would be nearly $25 million. If you factor in the buyouts for his assistant coaches — including (fired offensive line coach Lonnie) Teasley and (offensive coordinator Mike) Shula — that number would rise to more than $39 million.”

With the growing importance of NIL-funded roster building, more and more college football programs and their boosters are showing a willingness to hang on to troubled head coaches, especially those with relatively high buyout figures, and redirect that money to recruiting and retaining players.

Going into the final game of this season, annual rivalry game against ClemsonBeamer is 33-29 overall and 16-24 in the South Carolina Conference. This will be his second losing season in five years after going 5-7 in 2023.