In defense of Beamer

18IsTheMan said:

It is. This spell sucks, but maybe we just have to ride it out. I had previously advocated for giving Beamer a 10-year contract (@KingWard has advodated for a lifetime contract....maybe he's walked that back lol).

My rationale is that we've largely been doing the same thing over and over and over and expecting a different result. We change a coach after 5 or 6 years and start all over and end up getting the same result.

Our history is rock solid. We're never going to be great. But we're also never going to be awful for a prolonged period. We are consistently mediocre (or slightly worse) with the occasional really bad year or two and the rare good year. It's who we are. It's been proved over decades and decades of coaching and player changes. Let's face it, we had two HOF football coaches back-to-back for nearly a 20-year span and never built a consistent winner. It just ain't happening. Our Cignetti moment will never come.

I'm willing to bet if we gave Beamer a 10-year contract, after 10 years, we'd be about the same as we historically have been. On the other hand, if we fired Beamer and burned through 2 other coaches, after 10 years, we'd be about the same as we always have been.

Maybe we just embrace a guy who loves being here, has a good culture in the program, family loves the area, a guy and family who are well-liked by everyone. Maybe we say "Hey, we want to keep here a long time, but we can't pay you $8 million/yr for these results" and reach some agreement. Who knows, maybe the continuity would end up in him building a consistent 7-8 win team. Probably not, but I also don't think it would run the program into the ground.

Click to expand...

fwm said:

"Our facilities and resources are middle of the pack in the SEC."

Based on your "middle of the pack"
logic we should be able to win 50%
of SEC gamed every year.

Click to expand...

18IsTheMan said:

It is. This spell sucks, but maybe we just have to ride it out. I had previously advocated for giving Beamer a 10-year contract (@KingWard has advodated for a lifetime contract....maybe he's walked that back lol).

My rationale is that we've largely been doing the same thing over and over and over and expecting a different result. We change a coach after 5 or 6 years and start all over and end up getting the same result.

Our history is rock solid. We're never going to be great. But we're also never going to be awful for a prolonged period. We are consistently mediocre (or slightly worse) with the occasional really bad year or two and the rare good year. It's who we are. It's been proved over decades and decades of coaching and player changes. Let's face it, we had two HOF football coaches back-to-back for nearly a 20-year span and never built a consistent winner. It just ain't happening. Our Cignetti moment will never come.

I'm willing to bet if we gave Beamer a 10-year contract, after 10 years, we'd be about the same as we historically have been. On the other hand, if we fired Beamer and burned through 2 other coaches, after 10 years, we'd be about the same as we always have been.

Maybe we just embrace a guy who loves being here, has a good culture in the program, family loves the area, a guy and family who are well-liked by everyone. Maybe we say "Hey, we want to keep here a long time, but we can't pay you $8 million/yr for these results" and reach some agreement. Who knows, maybe the continuity would end up in him building a consistent 7-8 win team. Probably not, but I also don't think it would run the program into the ground.

Click to expand...

Deadwood said:

Rex Enright was HC for 15 seasons and his record was 64 wins,69 losses & 7 ties . His name is still prominent in Gamecock history. So maybe it is not wins and losses but how you play the game.

Click to expand...

Piscis said:

If we won 50% of SEC games every year, we would be doing better than our history suggests we would.

Click to expand...

18IsTheMan said:

We have 10 (or 11) top 25 finishes in our entire history (that statistic is sad enough to warrant its own post...). Beamer has 2 of those. That's really not all that bad. Fan favorite Joe Morrison only had 2. Lou Holtz only had 2. If this season goes as it is tracking, Beamer will have 3 good/ok years and 3 bad years. All things considered for Gamecock football, that's ok-ish. Morrison also had 3 good years and 3 bad/ok years. Holtz had 3 good/ok years and 3 bad years (even his last year we were 6-5 (4-4) which sounds like a dream right now).

Maybe Beamer's tenure has to be evaluated in terms of where we've come from vs where we hope to get.

Click to expand...

fwm said:

"Our facilities and resources are middle of the pack in the SEC."

Based on your "middle of the pack"
logic we should be able to win 50%
of SEC gamed every year.

Click to expand...