After a disappointing third season in Columbia, South Carolina coach Shane Beamer is mixing up his coaching staff and it includes dismissing a former Tennessee standout.
Beamer is parting ways with running backs coach Monterio Hardesty, Football Scoop’s John Brice first reported on Wednesday afternoon.
Hardesty, who was an All-SEC running back at Tennessee, spent the last three seasons as South Carolina’s running backs coach and had been with Beamer for the entirety of his tenure in Columbia.
South Carolina is 20-18 (10-14 SEC) in Beamer’s three seasons as head coach with Hardesty on his coaching staff. After two solid years to begin Beamer’s tenure, the wheels fell off during the 2023 season as South Carolina posted just a 5-7 record and entered November with just two wins.
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Coming off a disappointing season, South Carolina is in a critical offseason as Beamer looks to turn things around ahead of his fourth season. It won’t be an easy task with the Gamecocks facing an extremely difficult schedule in the first year of the expanded SEC.
Hardesty played at Tennessee from 2005-09, spending his first four years as a rotational running back before breaking out as a top SEC back in his senior season. In Lane Kiffin’s offense, Hardesty rushed for 1,345 yards and 13 touchdowns.
The North Carolina native spent two seasons in the NFL before starting his coaching career. The Tennessee alum spent a year as a quality control assistant on Jeremy Pruitt’s Tennessee staff and also has coaching experience at FAU and Charlotte.
2 Responses
Beamer had to blame someone! Hardesty was a good running back for the VOL’S. Five wins Seven losses! Could it have something to do with your coaching ability? Just asking!!
He needs to make more changes than just the RB coach. Our most glaring problem, by a long shot, is our offensive line play. Our OL didn’t know who to block at times. They haven’t known their protections in the 3 years Beamer has been HC. Greg Adkins has been a terrible OL coach, and while I realize that Lonnie Teasley has been at SC just one season, he doesn’t have the experience to be an OL coach at the power 5 level. They BOTH need to be fired and replaced by a real OL coach.
A change has also got to be made at DC. Our defense has been dominated by more than half of the teams in the SEC since Clayton White has been coordinator. Until Beamer gets these coaching holes filled with GOOD coaches we will continue on the downward spiral that started in 2023.