12 13 24 We talk with Coach Shane Beamer

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, Kelly Dash. Hello, it's tomorrow show. Today Tomorrow will
be Monday. We will tell you how to win Keith
Urban tickets, but we promised we'll put this up first.
Here's our interview we had this morning with coach Shane
Bimber in its entirety.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Hey, guys, great to be back on with you.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
I want you to know, have very placed. My bet
you're going to be the coach of the year. You
got the Eddie Robinson nomination Coach of the Year from
the Football Writers' Association. Congratulations, well deserved.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Now thank you, very very humbling. And anytime you're up
for anyone and play your coach is up for a
major individual award, it's because you're part of a great team.
And that's what I am. I'm blessed to be the
head coach and the leader of the program here. But
any success we're having is because of the amazing people
around me. But that's a really cool honor and very

(00:45):
surreal and humbling.

Speaker 3 (00:47):
Coach Spurrier was the winningest coach in the first four
years of his career and I think you've now passed
him by one game. I think he was twenty eight
and twenty two you're twenty nine and twenty one.

Speaker 4 (00:57):
How does that feel surreal?

Speaker 2 (00:58):
As well? Just because of the career. I mean, every
time I go in that stadium, I look up and
I see his name on the ramp for being the
all time winning as coach and somebody that gave me
my opportunity here in Columbia. That's a legend of college football.
So we got a lot of work to do. We're
just getting started, but pretty cool to say that through
four years as well.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
You mentioned the great team you have with your coaches
in particular, but also obviously with the players involved. But
then you got the other team that you're the head
of the team, of your family. And previously we talked
about some of the harshest critics you face were at
the breakfast table. How are you feeling around the breakfast
table these days, coach?

Speaker 2 (01:33):
They're good. Now that the season's over, they're able to
look back and really ramp up the criticism of some
of the games that we lost, criticism towards me, some
of the games that we lost.

Speaker 4 (01:44):
Do you say, but it was the it was the refs.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
Man.

Speaker 2 (01:47):
Oh well, they've got other complaints as well. So there's that,
and you know, we weren't sure what the Bold destination
was going to look like. So I was getting all
kinds of criticism over the weekend when they had some
thing that it might not be Orlando. That was apparently
my fault as well. Oh so anytime you walk in

(02:08):
my house, you better be ready to take some criticism.
But they're great right now, excited to be going to
a great ball, excited about the way we finished the season,
and they've got to really work hard to find some complaints.

Speaker 3 (02:17):
Now, Well, coach, you got them into the Citrus Ball,
and so everybody's excited to go to Orlando. I know
you've talked a lot this year. It seems more than
I'm used to you hearing talking about that experience of
going into Williams Brice and how that has been an
advantage for the game Cocks.

Speaker 4 (02:33):
Is this something that you're I don't know.

Speaker 3 (02:35):
I know you're hopeful, but are you expecting the Gamecock
fans to show up and just kind of turn that
whole place garn it?

Speaker 2 (02:42):
I would hope. So they've done it all season here
in Columbia, and that's a huge part of our success,
the fact that we sold out every single home game
in Williams Brice Stadium this year, whether it be an
SEC game, whether it be a night kickoff, a noon kickoff,
whether it's against the Sun Belt team, an Old Dominion
Mid American Conference team, and Akron, a Southern Conference team

(03:04):
in Watford, it didn't matter the opponent. Our fans showed
up and sold it out and made it a rocking
environment and was a huge recruiting tool for us with
all the recruits that we had on campus for games
this season. So thanks to them for that. And we're
not finished as a team, and I don't think they're
finished as a fan base. And what better opportunity or
what better place to go to than to have a

(03:25):
chance to go to some warm weather down in Florida.
And you know, outside the playoff, this is the best
bowl game out there. You know, it's the best of
the best in the SEC. To be able to go
down to some warm weather driving distance to Columbia. If
you have kids, you know the theme parks down there
in Florida. I mean, there's just a lot of excitement
within our program about this game, and I know there

(03:45):
was a lot of excitement with game cognation about this game.
Two ranked teams going at it and an awesome environment
to be a part of. So yes, we absolutely need
to see tons of garnet and black all around Central
Florida here at the end of the month and in
the stadium on the thirty first.

Speaker 1 (04:02):
It'd be great to see International Boulevard in Orlando completely
covered and garn it in black. And I know that
this game, as you mentioned, is the highest profile game
outside of the actual CFP, and we'll scratch our heads
all the way to Orlando trying to figure that one out.
But let's not look backwards in the rearview mirror. Let's
look forwards with that in mind. I know you're heavily
involved with the recruiting, but you have an entire staff
to take care of that as well. But this is

(04:23):
going to be an opportunity for use this momentum with
this playoff game in particular. Are there particular plans or
persons you have in mind when you're looking at the
new recruits or I know you always got to watch
the life towards the transfer portal.

Speaker 2 (04:35):
It's a little bit of everything, obviously, you know. Right
now for us, there's the signing class that we just
signed earlier this month, which It's different this year in
college football because normally the signing day was closer to
Christmas around December twentieth or so. It was earlier this year,
which I love. So those guys have already signed because
they've already signed if they're graduating high school early and

(04:56):
going to be here in January, which the majority of
the class is, if they're able to get their academic
work done in school this week and next, they can
actually be a part of bowl practices and actually participate
in practice. Where for example, Cutter Woods, who's a quarterback
from West Side High and Anderson, he's playing for the
state championship this weekend, but he could realistically be practicing

(05:18):
with the South Carolina game Cocks next week potentially, So
that's an opportunity to get around our incoming freshmen. They'll
all be here in January for the most part to
start school. And then there was a signing period earlier
this month, but not everyone signs, So there's actually some
high school guys that we're still recruiting that will sign
in February that could be a possibility for us. And
then right now, obviously we're in the middle of the

(05:40):
transfer portal. We lose a lot of really really good
players off this year's team. We have a really good
team coming back next season, but we don't want to
have to rely on true freshmen at every single position.
So there's certainly some positions that we need to bring
in some experience and some depth at and that's what
we're working on right now with the portal. So there's
a lot going on the season ends, and people think

(06:01):
it slows down the season ends, and to me, it
gets even busier because of all the balls you're juggling
in the air in the month of December.

Speaker 4 (06:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (06:08):
I remember one time coach Saban talking about how there
was like the day after he'd won the National Championship
and he was complaining about how much time he had
to give up to play the National Championship when it.

Speaker 4 (06:20):
Came to recruiting.

Speaker 2 (06:22):
Yeah, no, I get it.

Speaker 3 (06:24):
So you've got some incredible players that you mentioned are
going to be moving on, like Kyle Kinnard. Congratulations he
won some big awards, Nick m and Warri Are these
fellas do we know are they going to play in
the Bowl game or are they just going to save
themselves for NFL stuff.

Speaker 2 (06:40):
They haven't told me that they're not, so I'm hoping
that means they are. Certainly, we have some guys that
have some decisions to make, and you'll understand that all
these guys they want to go compete and they want
to go play, but there's also guys that make decisions
that they feel are best for them, and no one
has made a decision. We gave our guys time off

(07:00):
this week and last week as well, just to get
away from things. Been a long year, refresh themselves mentally
and physically. Exams are going on at Carolina this week
and then we'll get back together and start practice next week,
so we have some time until they have to make
that decision. And certainly you're right excited about Kyle. He
won then Girsky Award up in Charlotte on Monday night

(07:21):
for the National Defensive Player of the Year. He's a
finalist for the Lombardi Award in Houston, Texas Wednesday night.
And then then some other guys are going to be
high draft picks. So I know all of our guys
want to and be a part of the opportunity to
compete and go get a tenth win in Orlando, but
they all have some decisions to make as well, and
like I told them, we'll support them what they think

(07:42):
is best.

Speaker 1 (07:42):
You know, coach, we get excited whenever a South Carolina player,
and you mentioned Cutter Woods, the phenomenal quarterback coming out
of Westside High School up in the upstate. Maybe he
grew up as a game Cog fan. Maybe he just
wants to stay in the state, maybe wants to stay
close to family. But you know, with the nil on
the transfer portal and all these other things coming down,
they introduced a lot of different challenges for coaching staffs
having to do with getting players to buy in. If

(08:04):
they don't come from a tradition of being a game
Cock fan, or if they're not from our state, you've
got sometimes a lot of work, I would assume to
get a player to come in and be a part
of the program and then make a commitment and help
them stay in the program, because I know a lot
of programs like they claim that they don't have to
buy and trade their players. Well, so brand new world
in college football, we're going to have a lot of

(08:24):
that going on. What do you do to try to
create that atmosphere where it's like a family to the
extent where they don't want to give up on their brothers.

Speaker 2 (08:31):
Yeah, great question. And that's the big challenge for all
of us as coaches right now. For me and for us,
it starts in the recruiting process, whether it be coming
out of high school or if they're a potential transfer
coming in, making sure that they fit what we're about
and that they're going to fit into this program. And

(08:52):
we had transfers on campus last December and January that
were great players that we were interested in and they
were interested in us, But after getting to know them
and being around them a little bit more, we just
felt like, you know what, they're not quite going to
fit what we're about, and we ended up not taking
them and they went other places and had good years
this year, and that's okay. You know, we had some

(09:14):
guys last year that wanted to come here that they
wanted to be promised the starting job at their position,
and I wouldn't do that. We were about competition in
this place. So for us, trying to find guys that
are good people that love football and love to compete,
and if you do that, you got a chance to
be successful. And then once they get here, if you've
brought the right people in once they get here. It's

(09:36):
really just you know, you rely on the leadership of
your team to make them understand this is how we
do things and this is what we're going to be
about here at Carolina. And we had great leadership on
this year's team. And it's different because every year is
a new team and every year it's starting over. So
to me, the great teams in college football or any
sport are the ones that can come together as a

(09:58):
team the quickest between in January and September when the
season starts, like who can jail and develop that chemistry
the quickest. And we try and be very intentional about
the things that we do inside our football building and
outside our football building as a team to facilitate that.

Speaker 3 (10:13):
I just saw a headline that says, Mike Shula with
Leonora Sellers equals Cam Newton. Is he gonna be as good,
if not better than Cam Newton? Is he going to
be our next Heisman Trophy winner?

Speaker 2 (10:25):
He's on the right track. I mean, he's a great
young man. He's an extremely talented player, and he works really,
really really hard. When I just describe get guys in
here that are great people that love football, and love
to compete. That's Lenora's sellers, and I think the sky's
the limit for him. And obviously he'll be the first
to tell you he's got a lot to improve on
and continue to get better at. And I know he's

(10:45):
got the work ethic to do that as well.

Speaker 3 (10:47):
He's the worth the price of admission for this ball game,
him by himself, plus Dylan Stewart plus the rest of
the crew. I'm so excited for what's going to happen
New Year's even Orlando.

Speaker 2 (10:56):
Yeah, I saw him. We've got a lot of work
between now and then, but can't wait to get down
And they're going to be a great experience for our
players and great experience for our fans, and really really
looking forward to the opportunity.

Speaker 1 (11:07):
I had some great seats for the Carolina Clemson game.
I literally was waiting on the guy to come by
to sell me popcorn. He was doing everything well. Coach.
I'm sad to hear that even when you're on a
win like you are, you got to show up in
your full pads because it gets a little crazy over
there with the family. But I'm glad to know you'll
be able to pack him up and taking to some sunshine,
especially this time of the year, down to Florida and
ready for you to come back. And oh, I'll go

(11:28):
ahead and tell you I'm going to be collecting my
money soon because I made that bet you'll be the
Eddie Robinson Coach of the year. I feel confident of it.

Speaker 2 (11:34):
Well, I appreciate you saying that. Honored to be even
mentioned with so many great coaches and a legend of
the game. And Eddie Robinson.

Speaker 4 (11:41):
We'll talk to you soon, coach. Happy holidays, Happy.

Speaker 2 (11:43):
Holidays do you guys? Thanks again?

Speaker 1 (11:44):
Are you gonna be going down to Orlando? No?

Speaker 4 (11:47):
Ok?

Speaker 1 (11:47):
All right, so now here's from Monday your opportunity to win.
What you talking about is the America's favorite radio game show,
Kelly with the question and the answer.

Speaker 4 (12:00):
It's so easy. Just read the answer back to us, right.

Speaker 1 (12:03):
I don't know how it can make it easier. I
thought about it. The word fatuous, fatuous, fac.

Speaker 4 (12:09):
T okay f A t u O U S. I'll
tell you this.

Speaker 3 (12:14):
I'll give you a little clue there, Jay Rush, if
you want to take a guess at it. It's where
we get the word infatuated from.

Speaker 1 (12:20):
Oh, fatuous something of something you desire.

Speaker 3 (12:26):
Inane silly, foolish what yes, Because when you're infatuated, you
are a moron. Basically, IQ drops rapidly when you're infatuated.

Speaker 1 (12:39):
I just thought about a couple of relationships that proves
that out.

Speaker 3 (12:42):
So fatuous, so they call somebody fatuous who are insulting them?

Speaker 1 (12:48):
Okay, all right, know that Monday, and you can actually
read it word for word to ensure that you win
your Kei thrup and tickets. You know, he just announced
the show in Greenville as well, did he. That's going
to be in October. This show is going to be
to kick off the long time summer Memorial Day weekend
of Daniel Island.

Speaker 3 (13:02):
So he gets the summer and the fall. If it's
an October ZO, that's kind of kicking off the fall
for us in October. I mean I almost states in
the country say September is when you kick off fall.
Not around here, we're in the eighties.

Speaker 1 (13:14):
In October, he will in fact kick off a long
hot summer and then wrap it up in South Carolina,
kicks it off in Daniel Island, wraps it up in Greenble.

Speaker 4 (13:22):
You're not coming to Columbia though, huh.

Speaker 1 (13:24):
No, that we're back to before the Colonial Life Arena.
In that incredible year we had the opening year when
it was a news item and everybody wanted to go.
Every and even Elton John came. Who else was here
that inaugural year? It was great. I mean Elvis almost
came back for that.

Speaker 4 (13:41):
Let me get up, let me get up on a
good foot.

Speaker 1 (13:45):
But now we're back to you know, if you live
in Columbia, they figure you get the drive to Charleston.
Who's drive to Greenville? So we get skipped over and
they go to the Bond Secure Center and then go
to a venue in Charleston.

Speaker 3 (13:56):
Yeah, well here we go. I'm just looking at his
tour dates right now. When I put Keith Urban Tour
and it said Keith Urban near you, May twenty fourth, Charleston,
South Carolina Credit One Stadium. That's what we're giving you
tickets to May thirtieth. So the next week Friday, May thirtieth,
PNC Music Pavilion, Charlotte.

Speaker 1 (14:15):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (14:16):
October sixteenth, Thursday, Bond Secures. Well, in this arena, why
isn't he supposed to play North Augusta. Just to completely
rub it in our face, he doesn't want to come
to Columbia anymore.

Speaker 1 (14:26):
Hey, there's a tractor pull coming up in Saluta.

Speaker 4 (14:28):
You're gonna get him out there getting the Newberry. That'd
be great.

Speaker 1 (14:33):
You know, it's already the end, well almost the end
of twenty twenty four. But I don't know if you
know this, but the family planners are twenty twenty five
and now arriving at wherever you buy your calendars. Had
to run out by sally a calendar because we're already
scheduling stuff for twenty twenty five. So you got to
get it on the calendar.

Speaker 3 (14:49):
So I guess you've read the story that I posted
earlier about twenty twenty five has some unique opportunities for
people who want to extend days off. USA Today pointed
this out in an article this morning, and I've put
it all up on the Morning Rust blog. The headline

(15:10):
is the twenty twenty five plan to turn sixteen days
of paid time off into fifty five days of vacation
well planned.

Speaker 4 (15:20):
So there's a lot.

Speaker 3 (15:21):
Of you know, like Martin Luther King's birthday is on Monday,
January twentieth, you want to request Friday, January seventeenth off,
and so then you would get the seventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth,
and twentieth off. By getting taking that one day, you
get a four day weekend.

Speaker 1 (15:39):
Yeah, we really didn't get to maximize that this year.
In twenty twenty four, we're having to do a Christmas
in New Year's because it's falling on a Wednesday. Like
we're coming back to work on Thursday. That's right, January second. Correct,
Typically we would have done the same thing, but there's
no way to get around it this year.

Speaker 3 (15:57):
Well, Juneteenth is going to be on a Thursday this
year year, and I know that's the newest holiday that
we've got as a nation. So June teenth is Thursday.
So he asks for Friday, June twentieth off, and then
you get yourself another four day weekend.

Speaker 4 (16:13):
Do you like you?

Speaker 3 (16:14):
And I This is behind the scenes stuff for people
who may not even know this, but we get a
lot of vacation time off, but we're never not on
the radio that I almost wish sometimes that we just worked,
because it's such a pain in the butt to pre.

Speaker 1 (16:32):
Record, especially the week between Christmas and New Year's there's
nobody here.

Speaker 3 (16:37):
Yes, it's a big pain in the butt to put
that stuff together. Voice They call it voice tracking, but
we do typically try to strategicize, as George Bush would
have said, the vacation planning. I don't know if that's
such a good plan though. Maybe we ought to just
go for like less popular days off, like just take

(17:01):
a week off before Memorial Day. Just say we're going
to just take that week off before Memorial Day. You know,
I know there's really no place to go, there's nothing happening, but.

Speaker 1 (17:10):
I like it quiet, right, I got.

Speaker 4 (17:12):
We always take the fourth of July off. We always,
you know, we always go to the beach or whatever.

Speaker 1 (17:17):
If you're if you're getting your twenty twenty five and
you have to do it too at work, Not any
more so much, but it used to be Kelly and
I would always make sure we get our vacations in
for the year, like on January the second, because that
way nobody could could preempt you, because.

Speaker 4 (17:33):
There's nobody left to preempty.

Speaker 3 (17:35):
That's right, So surprise nobody had to be here anyway,
I guess.

Speaker 1 (17:42):
And then there was this line about you couldn't take
two weeks in a row.

Speaker 4 (17:46):
What was that about?

Speaker 1 (17:48):
So anyway, nonetheless, I don't know if you're strategicizing strategery,
if you're strategizing. Where's George Where's George W. Bush these days?
See painting Texas?

Speaker 4 (18:01):
Hey, he's a big pain.

Speaker 1 (18:02):
Is painting something in Texas? Anyway, we'll talk about your
scheduling for twenty twenty five. You got to make sure
you get it on the books early. You get it
on the books, nobody can preempt you.

Speaker 3 (18:11):
And what do you think of that idea of maybe,
like you know, we're looking at Veterans Day, Labor Day,
like those ones in the summer, Memorial Day juneteenth, fourth
of July. I mean, there's basically the beaches will be
insane during those weeks because everybody's going to be doing this.

(18:34):
So you have maximized your times off. But is it
worth it? You know, wouldn't it be better to go
maybe the week after Labor Day weekend?

Speaker 1 (18:45):
I actually looked it up. July fourth this year falls
on a Friday, Yeah, so you can maximize that one
as well.

Speaker 3 (18:51):
That's why they're saying take that Monday July seventh off
and you're going to get another four day weekend.

Speaker 1 (18:56):
Or if you only want to burn four days of vacation,
you could do Monday the thirtieth, the g through the
fourth of July.

Speaker 3 (19:02):
Yeah, well again, these people have figured out a way
to take sixteen days off. So basically, what is that
five ten, fifteen, three weeks of vacation and a day.
If you take three weeks of vacation in a day,
you can get a month and a half off.

Speaker 1 (19:17):
That's right, Okay, we can u fifty five days twenty
twenty five.

Speaker 3 (19:22):
That is incredible that you can get fifty five paid
days off.

Speaker 1 (19:26):
All right, what's happening in your neighborhood we should be
talking about? You know how to reach out to us
on social media. You can also email us I am
Rush at ninety seven five WCS dot com.

Speaker 3 (19:34):
And Nash at ninety seven five w SOS dot com.

Speaker 1 (19:36):
And we give you a chance to win Monday. It's
the same number. You call it a chit chat, you
know't talk about twenty twenty five. You want to call
it Winny Keith Urban Tickets. We're going to do that
at at oh three nine seven eight ninet two six
seven A three ninth seven eight w COS on the
Morning Rush