Andy & Ari On3 - Can Shane Beamer’s South Carolina Gamecocks BOUNCE BACK in 2026? Trinidad Chambliss Eligibility Hearing | Kansas St's loss to Cincinnati

Episode Date: February 12, 2026

While South Carolina's football team struggled in 2025, Shane Beamer and the Gamecocks are looking to turn things around in 2026. With top returning talent returning to Columbia, how will things shake out for the Gamecocks as they play their first 9-game SEC schedule? Can LaNorris Sellers lead his team to a winning record in 2026? How will Shane Beamer elevate the Gamecocks? Watch here as Shane Beamer joins Andy & Ari On3 before his 6th season in Williams-Brice Stadium. (0:00) On Today’s Episode(1:20) Presenting Sponsor(3:45) Intro: Previewing Shane Beamer(5:20) Shane Beamer joins(8:00) South Carolina's Retention: Dylan Stewart(11:25) Gamecocks Athleticism Returning in 2026(17:37) Off-Season Expectations(19:43) Offensive Line for South Carolina(22:26) Non-Conference games with 9 SEC games(29:03) Off-Season Hoops with Shane Beamer & South Carolina(30:08) Recapping Shane Beamer(32:31) Trinidad Chambliss' Latest(42:44) Kansas State's bad loss to Cincinnati(56:28) Conclusion: See you tomorrow! After talking with Shane Beamer, Andy & Ari dive into the Trinidad Chambliss eligibility case  and the latest. Will the former Ferris State QB be granted one more year of eligibility at Ole Miss for 2026? Watch here as Andy & Ari provide the latest with the hearing. Moving over to hoops, Andy & Ari take a look at the brutal loss Kansas State suffered to Cincinnati, losing 91-62. What's next for the Wildcats and Jerome Tang's basketball program? Watch as Andy & Ari discuss. For Dear Andy & Ari, send in your questions here:[e-mail]@on3.com  Our show is also presented by BetMGM! If you haven’t signed up for BetMGM yet, use bonus code ON3 and you will get up to a $1500 First Bet Offer on your first wager with BetMGM! Here’s how it works: 1. Download the BetMGM app and sign-up using bonus code ON3.2. Deposit at least $10 and place your first wager on any game.3. You will receive up to $1500 in bonus bets if your bet loses! Just make sureyou use bonus code ON3 when you sign up! Make this college football season one for the history books. Make it legendary. See BetMGM.com for Terms. 21+ only. US promotional offers not available in New York, Nevada, Ontario, or Puerto Rico. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER (Available in the US). Call 877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY). Call 1-800-NEXT-STEP (AZ), 1-800-327-5050 (MA), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA), 1-800-981-0023 (PR). First Bet Offer for new customers only. Subject to eligibility requirements. Rewards are non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire in 7 days. In partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel. Join On3 today! https://www.on3.com/joinHosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey Interested in partnering with the show? Email [e-mail] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On today's episode of Annie and Ari on 3 presented by BetMGM, we are joined by South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer, who enters a very big year for his program at South Carolina because last year did not go as expected for Shane Beamer in the game Cox. This year they bring back a lot of the key elements and have revamped a lot of the parts that gave them problems last year. So with Lenore Sellers back, with Dylan Stewart back, with Nick Harbor back, can the game? Cox be the team that we thought they might be last year, but do it this year. We'll talk to Shane Beamer about that. Plus, Trinidad Shambliss appears in a Mississippi court trying to get another year playing football for Ole Miss. Now, does he have to win this case? Not necessarily. He's trying to get an injunction. The NCAA is trying to keep him from getting that injunction. We will have an update on the proceedings in court. Plus, a Big 12 basketball coach says his players do not

deserve to wear the uniform. How much of this is on Kansas State's Jerome Tang and how much of it is on the players he's blaming. We'll talk about it all today on Andy and Ryan 3 presented by BEDMGM. We are presented by BEDMGM. We use BEDMGM lines, totals and futures on this year show. and if you're not signed up for BenMGM, now is the time because if you sign up using a bonus code on 3, you can get up to a $1,500 new player offer plus 50% off an annual subscription to the On3 College Sports Network. Here's how that works. You download the BetMGM app, you sign up using the code on 3. That's the letter O, the letter in, and the number 3. Deposit at least $10 in your account and place your first wager on any game.

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Welcome to Andy and Ari on 3 presented by BetMGM. Big day today, big guest, Ari. We got Shane Beamer. the head coach of the South Carolina Gamecocks. And Shane is one of those guys that he had a tough year last year. And then I was a little worried about how the offseason would go. And they just started getting good news right away. Like they kept the best part of the team and then went and got some interesting pieces.

Yeah. You know, it's just so interesting to me because coaches and their reputations and how we view them is so fluid on a year-to-year basis. last year, you know, we would have talked about, you know, extending Beamer immediately. He's doing such a great job. And at the end of last year, there was, you know, a discussion about whether he was there long-term answer, you know, and then next year, if they overperform, he's back to being great again. So, you know, I think that there are two ways of evaluating coaches. Obviously the most important way is how does your team do on the field on Saturdays in the fall?

The other way is how do you maintain your program in the offseason? How do you recruit? how do you get talent to come in? And I think Shane Beamer would be the first person, Andy, to tell you that things didn't go according to plan last year, especially with the hype that we had on the off season. But, you know, bad year turning into bad off season is how you lose a program. Bad year did not turn into a bad off season for South Carolina. No, and I think it went about as well as it could have.

Let's talk to Shane Beamer to explain to us how that happened. Honored to be joined by a South Carolina coach Shane Beamer, probably still. Buzzin, uh, watching former, uh, Gamecock and former Irmo yellow jacket, Nick M and Worry, tear it up in the Super Bowl. I, I love that story. So tell me if I have this right or wrong, Shane. Nick is one of those guys. He's in high school during COVID. He comes, you know, out of high school after COVID's over, but came to your camp when people could come to camp again. Did you guys just say, please don't ever go to another camp? Yes. Yeah, I wish I could tell you that we didn't, but we absolutely said, you don't need to go anywhere, get focused on your senior season and everything.

But no, that's exactly what happened. He's local, came to a camp. It was evident in camp, just how freakishly athletic and talented he was. We weren't really sure what he was going to be. Initially, he thought he'd be a linebacker. Then he got here and we realized, man, this guy's got so much. size, athleticism, speed, coverability. He really could be a safety, and he started as a true freshman, but yes, he walked out

of camp that day. We knew that he had a chance to be a special player and encouraged him that he didn't need to go anywhere else, that's for sure. You know what amused me, coach, is that Nick's mom went to the Super Bowl. I don't know if you saw this. She kind of went viral because she's like, I don't know what the Super Bowl is. And everyone was like, what was it like interacting with her? or does she said she understands football now?

Yeah, extremely academic family. Dad's a professor. So that was unique about the recruiting process, because obviously Nick really, really smart, football smart, academic smart, all that. But he had a brother or has a brother that had a football background. But most of the conversations were with Nick.

And with the family, with the mom and dad, it was more just how we're going to take care of your son, academic aspect of it, things like that, but much different than a lot of, you know, the, the families or the parents of prospects that you're recruiting nowadays that are heavily into it and no football. Nick and his family, it wasn't the same, but it was refreshing in a lot of ways, too. They just wanted what was best for their son. They wanted to make sure that he had a great experience here academically, athletically, and that's what he was able to do and really proud of everything that he accomplished in his time here. And really cool to see what he's doing,

in the NFL already. You've still got some of those very special athletes that the NFL is going to love on your campus, on your team. I'm going to bring in a guest commentator named Diego Pavia to talk about one of your players.

And he mentioned this unprompted, which is why I thought it was so great. So I want you to hear this about Dylan Stewart. And then we can talk about him a little bit. I'm the type of guy. I got to see it for myself to believe it. You know, like, all right, you're a first runner, you got to show me.

You know, and so, like, against South Carolina, Dylan Stewart showed me why he was so good. And I kind of like, you know, I was like, all right. So now you got to start sliding the line his way. And hopefully you guys make plays on the other side, you know. So that was the first time where it was like a D.N could take over a football game. I think that was when you all beat them in Nashville, Dylan's freshman year that he's talking about. But when you have a player like Dylan, how does that change your defense?

Yeah, no, I hadn't seen that interview. I'm glad you showed me that. I hadn't seen Diego Pavia say that. That's pretty cool. It changes a lot. I mean, when you got a guy like him, we knew going into last season that going into 2025, I mean, okay, Dylan Stewart did all this stuff in 2024. People are going to have an entire offseason now to study how to defend him.

Kyle Kinnard, who was the SEC defensive player of the year alongside Dylan, the year before, is now gone. So we spent a lot of time, Clayton White, the defensive staff, really looking at ways to make sure we can't, we don't allow teams to neutralize what Dylan does. We spent a lot of time watching NFL tape of, you know, great pass rushers, Watt, Parsons, whoever, and how they got those guys free and allowed them to still have an impact and not be taken out of a game. And, you know, but when you have that guy, it certainly, it was a big selling point for us in the transfer portal this year. When we were trying to bring guys in from the portal, it's, hey, you got, we got Dylan Stewart on our football team. It's going to be unbelievable opportunities for you to make an impact and rush the passer because of him. It was a great selling point in the portal for guys coming in. Let's face it, everybody wants to go to the NFL to be able to sit here.

and tell guys in the portal, you come to South Carolina, like literally all 32 teams in the NFL are going to be at our practices regularly in the 26 seasons. You want to talk about the eyes of the NFL. They're going to be coming here to watch Dylan and a lot of our players. And it's a great opportunity for UBC. So it helps in so many ways. You know, Dylan will be the first to tell you that he needs to be better in 2026. We got to be better in helping him in 2026. But I like where he is right now. I really like the fact that he's here in Columbia with us and like where he is from a mindset standpoint as we go into the upcoming season. Coach, I know that you can't really function in your day without listening to our show, so I'm sure you heard the segment. But we did talk about the expansive nature of the universe and how far away the edge of the universe is and how there's a high likelihood of aliens.

And then if there's a high likelihood of aliens, that means that there's a high likelihood that there are aliens amongst us. and that if we had to start an investigation into aliens amongst us, the first person we would knock on the door for would be Dylan Stewart. And the question, though, seriously, that I have for you, is that you have tremendous freak athletes on your team in multiple position groups. Nick Harbor, Lenora Sellers, Stewart, the list goes on. Who is the most athletic player on your team and why? That's a great question.

I'm going to get in trouble by who I name or who I don't. own name. You're right. We're blessed. We've got some really, you know, freakishly athletic guys. You mentioned those three and people know about Dylan. They see what they do, what he's been able to do on the field. You talk about Lenoris and what he's able to do at his size and speed. And Lenoris has a background in soccer, which you see when he runs the football or, you know, Nick Harbor and what he's able to do at his size and his speed. I mean, those are some freakish guys and each athletic in their in their own way. There's no question about it. And you carry us peak now on your team too is a freak.

Peak, yeah. I know Bruce Feldman did that. And you see him in the wait room and the way that he works out. I mean, his athleticism. Ask me again in like a week. We do a one of the things we do, I'm trying to dodge the question, but one of the things we do in the off-season with our players, we're trying to have a lot of fun activities outside of football in the month of February particularly. And next Wednesday, is our annual team three-on-three basketball tournament.

And that's always an awesome night because everybody on our team thinks they can hoop. Everybody on our team thinks they're the best basketball player, best athlete. But you see it. You see the linemen and play basketball. You see the athleticism. You see the competitive spirit. You see some guys that are able to go up and dunk on their teammates. So there's a lot of guys like that.

For credentials. Say it again. Who do we contact for credentials to cover this? Me. I'll help you on that one. There's no need to go to anybody else. I'll help you on that one. But it's always a lot of fun, but we've got a lot of them for sure.

And I'm not trying to dodge it. I kind of am, but I do like the athleticism overall on our team. You know, we've got a lot of guys that, you know, Fred Johnson, Fred J.R. Johnson, one of our linebackers, was an all-state receiver in high school. You know, Vicarry Swain, our punt, return, our defensive back could be a great receiver for us. I mean, there's just a lot of guys like that that. you know, I think have skills. I mean, when we first started recruiting Nick,

there was a sense that he may be a defensive end, just because he played defensive end in high school in so many ways. So I like that. The effort is some we have on offense and things. And we can see a lot of that next week in the basketball tournament. Swain strikes me as a little bit of a point guard. It looks like he could distribute a little bit too.

Or maybe they had John Wall style just straight, down the court because we saw him against Virginia Tech with the punter turned touchdown. So but I so another one you might want to dodge, but I think this is really interesting. The season obviously didn't go the way you wanted it last year. But how did you so quickly? Because I remember you guys being among the first to come out and say, Lenores is coming back. We got him signed. Dylan Stewart's coming back.

We got him signed. How quickly did you guys do that? How much of a priority was it? and how did that change the tone of the offseason? Yeah, it was a major priority. It wasn't like, you know, when the season ended, all of a sudden we just put on our recruiting spiel and try and convince Dylan and Lenores,

Nick Harbor and Fari Swain, Fred J.R. Johnson, Justin Okoronko. I mean, there's a lot of guys on our team. Matthew Fuller, running back. They weren't the portal, but they had opportunities to go places. And, you know, we didn't put on like all of a sudden a recruiting hat as soon as the season was over. For us, it's, it's, I don't mean to sound cheesy or corny, but we were just who we are and we were just consistent day in, day out and throughout the year where those guys, they didn't want to go anywhere. It wasn't conversations like, man, I'm thinking about leaving and what do I need or here's what I need to stay.

I mean, those really didn't come up. It was more them saying, we want to be here. We love the experience we're having in Columbia. We're being developed, we're happy, which I think sometimes people can mess with happiness and realize it's not what they, they don't, they take for granted what they have. They knew they were happy. They knew we had a chance to win football games this upcoming season because of what we had just gone through in 2025 and the things we learned that we would be better in 26 because of it. And so, yeah, it was pretty quickly, but it wasn't like we just, you know, all hands on deck, let's keep these guys around. It was, let's have conversations about you coming back.

I know you want to and you haven't given me any reason not to or you haven't shown me any reason that you don't want to. So let's try and get this done. So, you know, credit everybody in our building from that standpoint, their families. Some of those conversations, I mean, I was having with those guys just casually throughout the season, Lenores, Dylan, you know, Nick. I think a lot of those, you know, and some of those guys, probably Nick and Lenores both, probably in their minds at the beginning of the season, it was, I'm going to have a great year and go to the NFL. and they chose not to. So those are, you know, aspects of the conversation that we were having to. But it was very, you know, simple.

I'm not going to say that it wasn't stressful at times. It was. But deep down, I knew those guys wanted to be here. I knew they wanted to be here for the right reasons. I knew they were excited about 2026. And, yeah, it changed the dynamic for sure. I mean, the season didn't go the way we wanted. We were all really, really unhappy and disappointed at the end of the year.

But as soon as, you know, that clock hit zero, in the last game against Clemson, I went in there and did the post-game press conference, and as soon as that was over, I mean, it was full speed ahead on 2026, and let's get better starting immediately. Shane, at this time last year, your team was one of the media darlings

in terms of who's going to break out or who's going to make the CFP and all the stuff that Andy and I and annoying people like us do every off-season. I don't know if it's going to reach the same heights this off-season for whatever. reason. I'm not in control of that, but you did retain a lot of the main pieces of your team that made people very excited. As a coach, do you want hype around your team in the off season,

or would you rather go into a year under the radar a little bit? Like, what's better for you? Yeah, great question. A little bit of both, if I can say that, you know, I like the hype and that people have high expectations. And I'd rather be at a place where, you know, you're in, you're out, there's high expectations. You look at, you know, Georgia. I mean, every year, they're picked in the top five of the country and rightfully so. And I hope that, you know, we get to that point where every year, it's just a shoe in, you know, South Carolina, because of the program they have and the way that they've recruited, they should be in that mix each year. And that's the ultimate goal. I think any coach would say that. But, you know,

certainly I love the motivational aspect of it of, you know, nobody thinks we're going to be very good and being able to use that aspect of it, too, in some way. So it's a fine line. And I think every team's different. Some teams that I've had here since I've been the head coach, that still fueled them. And the more, like, disrespect, whatever you could give them, the better because they've thrived off that. Some teams I've had, it was like they couldn't care less what anybody says. Some teams early on, it was, you don't want to tell them how people think about them because it may affect their confidence, you know, early on in my time here.

So I think it's each year you've got to kind of figure out the team. I want the high expectations, but I also like being able to use the doubting aspect of it too. But we know, too, that we, you know, the only thing we can control is how we play on the field. And there were high expectations for us last season because of the way we finished in 24. And typically you look at the polls, the preseason rankings, the people that are ranked, it's, did they have a good year or the year before? And does their quarterback come back? And more often than not, if the answer is yes to both those things,

and they're going to get ranked pretty high. And, you know, last year we were ranked pretty high for those reasons. And this year, you know, our quarterback comes back. We didn't have a good season, so we're probably not going to be ranked, and that's okay, too. You know, I like that aspect of it being able to use that motivation in some ways. One area you really revamped in the portal was the offensive line. And it's interesting because we talked about Dylan and Nick and Lenores coming back.

The guy who surprised you was Josiah Thompson, your left tackle, who went into the portal. But then you wind up getting him back. But you had to make a plan for life without him. How much did him being in the portal change the way you recruiters? We talked about Jacarius Peak, the offensive tackle you got from NC State, who was one of the highest rated offensive tackles in the portal. Did you go after somebody like that because you didn't think you were getting your left tackle back?

No, we were going to go after, you know, Peak or whoever, regardless of what just I did just because we needed to add depth and competition in that room. And I love Josiah. And he's been a two-year starter for us at left tackle. But, you know, we had some guys that graduated. We had some guys that moved on and left in the portal. And we needed to revamp that room in a lot of ways and add bodies because we did have a lot of guys. We did have some attrition there for different reasons.

So, you know, Josiah's decision was independent of bringing anybody else in. He made the decision. And to his credit, I mean, the conversations that I had with, I wasn't blindsided. I mean, I was, but I wasn't. But we had some conversations before Christmas, Josiah, myself, and Josiah's family. And then, you know, thought we were in a good position. And then, you know, you always expect the unexpected when the portal is going on. And he decided to go in the portal.

But, you know, my conversation with him, Andy, was, look, if you're going to go in the portal, that's, you know, it's your decision. But understand, like, I've got to go replace you now. now. So that's going to, it is what it is nowadays in college athletics. There's a financial aspect of it to be able to replace you and understand that. It's not just you that we're replacing. We've got to put together an entire offensive line and add the depth in that room. And then, you know, Josiah to his credit, reach back out a little farther down the road and approach the subject of coming back. And certainly our situation had changed from a depth standpoint and a lot of aspects had changed since we decided to go in the portal, but we were fortunate

to be able to get him back, another guy that has started a multiple games in the SECC for two years now. And we've been able to bring him back, but then also put together a really, you know, solid group of offensive linemen that, you know, hungry, got an edge about themselves, play the game the right way, but they've played a lot of football. We've added experience and production in that offensive line room with the guys that we brought in, you know, from multiple schools at different levels. Shane, obviously one of the big topics in college football, as we're two years into the expanded playoff and maybe further expansion down the line is scheduling. And, you know, now that the SEC and the ACC are out to nine conference games, what's the prudent thing to do with your non-conference

schedule? You guys have Clemson every year. What's your philosophy with the NCSTW? NC State series in 2030, 2013, you know, being canceled or set to being canceled on these non-conference games? And is it important to schedule smartly? I mean, what's your stance on it? Yeah. I'm all for competition. And, you know, I love those regional rivalries and would love to continue those. But at the same time, with us going to non-SCC games, we're in a little bit of a different situation, us, Georgia, Kentucky, and Florida in the SEC, because we all play an in-state rival already. We play Clemson, Kentucky has LSU, Florida has Florida State, and Georgia has Georgia has Georgia Tech. And I want to continue playing that Clemson games, great for the state

of South Carolina. And I love the rivalry. And I don't want to, I don't want to give that up at any time, anytime soon. So now we're playing nine SEC games. Now we're already playing a 10th power-four game. Whereas the other schools in the SEC, they're playing nine SEC games. And some of them are going to, you know, I guess all of them are going to play a 10th power-four game. But it doesn't make a lot of sense to me if there's 12 other schools in the SEC that are playing nine SEC games plus a power-four opponent. And then we decide to play non-SCC games plus two power-four opponents. You know, I'm all about the competition, but you also got to be smart with, you know, the competitive balance and your own roster and the health of your team and a lot of aspects are coming to play.

So I hate seeing them go away, NC State, Virginia Tech, North Carolina, whoever. There's a lot of teams in this region that make a lot of sense for us to play. Wake Forest, Duke, you name it. We'd love to be able to play those guys. But as the head coach, I've also got to be smart about, you know, not the, I've used this before. you know, the Kansas City Chiefs, they don't play 18 NFL games, and then everybody else plays 17. That doesn't make a lot of sense. You know, so I want to be due right by our team, too, but I hate it for the fans because I know they all love those regional rivalries.

And I grew up in an era where my dad was the head coach at Virginia Tech, and, you know, Virginia Tech wasn't in a conference when I was growing up. So they played South Carolina and Florida State and NC State and West Virginia. every year, teams that were all in that little blueprint within, you know, four hours or so of Virginia Tech and Maryland and would love to be able, I saw that. I saw how cool it was for the fans and I'd love to be able to do that here at South Carolina, but just got to be smart compared to what the other schools are doing. Especially very good, too. I mean, they're very good every year. Yeah. So it's really like, I feel like I'm playing 10 SEC games already, too. So if every school in the SEC said, okay, we're going to play 11 power for us. opponents and great, you know, let's sound me up for Clemson and another regional game, but until that happens, I like where we are.

So you and the other SEC coaches and the ADs, you just got done with a couple days of meetings. Was that topic, one that people were discussing quite a bit? A lot. I would say that the first meeting, we had the first night, the head coaches

and Commissioner Sankey, that was a brief meeting before dinner, but that was the bulk of the meeting. And then I would say the meeting, the next morning with the athletic directors, the head coaches, and the, and Commissioner Sanky, the scheduling aspect of, you know, nine game schedules and all the factors that go into play there. That was a big topic of conversation, along with a lot of stuff. Don't be wrong. But that was a big part of the conversation for sure. Would you say that the tenor in the room was everybody was in agreement?

Or did some people want to play more? Did some people want to play less? Or did you guys feel like you were all agreed on this? No, I think, you know, to each their own, I think for all of us, it's just having an understanding of the, what does the playoff look like going forward? What is that format? Is it 12? Is it 16? Is it 24?

Is it something else? And what's the criteria for the playoff? It's strength of schedule a factor. And if so, how is strength of schedule determine? You know, what are the factors to determine the strength of schedule? So those are the questions, I think, you know, I think every coach in that room is about. you know, competition and wanted to play a great schedule, but also making sure that, you know, what we're doing, what gives us the best chance to get the most number of teams in the playoff

and that we're not doing anything drastically different than the Big Ten or the ACC or the Big 12 or whoever might be because we already know, you know, what the schedules we play week and week out, you know, in this league. And let's just make sure that we're all, the end goal for everybody, certainly is to get in the playoff and have a chance to win the national championship. let's make sure that we're doing the things that allow the best, you know, situate us and position us to be able to do that. Well, Shane, we appreciate that and want to see the toughest schedule, the most entertaining schedule possible.

And the next thing on the schedule, we're coming to the three-on-three tournament. Like, we're going to crash it. I kind of need to see how high Nick Arbor can jump. I just, like, I want to see, I kind of want to see Nick Harbor and Dylan Stewart. match up in the paint. I think that's what I'm really looking for. That's a big one, but don't, don't, don't underestimate the athleticism of some of these offensive linemen, too, you know. Pete posting up there. He obviously is a good athlete. We've got some really good athletes, only offensive line and defensive line. We just signed one in Darius Gray, an offensive lineman

from Richmond, Virginia. He's not here right now. He'll be here in the summertime, but I watched him play high school basketball last year. And he's as good a high school basketball player I've ever seen from an offense alignment, just defeating the athleticism. So to be able to get him here and throw him here in that mix next year. How do you guys graph the teams, though? Like, do you have like one big and two perimeter players? Yeah, we've done a different ways.

You know, we kind of had like some off-season teams last year that competed in all kinds of different events. This year, we're not doing that. So it was interesting. They take it seriously. So they came to George Wynn, our director of operations last week, and guys were starting to put together their own teams. They were, like, drafting who they wanted to be on the team with them.

So we put a stop for that. And it's really just randomly make sure we got enough linemen on the team, make sure we got enough skill guys on the team, you know, make sure the teams are, they got enough depth where it's fair for everybody. But we have a lot of fun, do it in our practice facility, and then appreciate Coach Staley and Lamont Paris, our men's coach, for letting us have the semifinals in the championship and Colonial Life Arena and do it on the big floor where our men and women teams play.

I love how everybody has a – everybody who comes a GM when it suits their purposes. It's great. Shane, thank you so much. Yeah, thank you. Keep up the awesome work. Appreciate you. That is Shane Beamer, the South Carolina football coach, and RES. We do need to crash the three-on-three basketball basketball.

basketball tournament because I like how high do you think Nick Harbour can jump? Oh, really high. I think he's one of those people. I just see him dunk. Yeah. You know, I do think there is a fascination too of, you know, especially when I was covering recruiting on a day-to-day basis of a football prospect's high school basketball tape. You know, there was one kid that played at Ohio State.

Nick Harbour was his track tape, but yeah. Yeah, yeah, right. And when I was covering Ohio State, there was a kid named Sam Hubbard, who you may have heard of. He was very good at Ohio State. and then went to the Bengals and played in the NFL for a while. They were up. Urban Meyer became obsessed with him watching him play dodgeball. Like it's it's always right.

So Sam Hubbard was going to Notre Dame to play lacrosse. Yeah. Urban Meyer was at his school, saw him playing dodgeball in PE class. And we're just like, who's that? Yeah. I guess good evaluations aren't necessarily, uh, restricted to only football, but obviously athleticism oozes. You know those people who are just good at everything.

You know, never been no boarding before. Next thing you know, they're halfway, their first day and they were going down the blacks. It's a, that would be a sight to behold, watching Nick Harbor do anything else. I'd watch Nick Harbor brush his teeth, dude. Yeah, it's fascinating. Dylan Stewart, you talked about it a little bit with Shane, but their alien quotient is very high at South Carolina. Now they have to turn that into win quotas on the field.

Yeah. Which, you know, if they did make the offensive line better, I think that gives them a really good shot. I think that's the key on this one. So we'll find out what happens next. One of the sellers, too, Andy. Let's be honest. I did a top 10 list of my top quarterbacks in the country. Lenore Sellers was on every single one of those lists last year.

He might not be. He wasn't on mine this year. Part of that too was things didn't go his way. Obviously, Lenore Sellers is one of the best athletes, pure athletes at the quarterback position in the country. You protect him a little bit better. And, you know, Nick Harbor advances a little bit. Like South Carolina, I don't think it takes much of an imagination to see that thing come together and things get turned around in 20.

And you heard Shane Beamer mentioned, Lenore Sellers actually has a soccer background too. So it's a lot of good athletes on this team. Now you've got to turn it into a really good football team. And that's the goal for Shane Beamer in 2026. Ari, another SEC team in 26 trying to figure out who will play quarterback. And what happens in a courtroom near the university is going to basically decide how that happens. Trinidad Shameless eligibility hearing. Well, it's not really an eligibility hearing

because it's not the NCAA. He's having a hearing trying to get an injunction against the NCAA, which has said, we deny your request for a waiver for another year to play. He's trying to get an injunction saying the NCAA gives people these types of waivers all the time. Why not me? I'm being treated arbitrarily and capriciously.

And we'll find out whether a Mississippi judge degrees, but right now they are currently in the hearing. They've had the doctor who treated Trinidad Shamblis for his tonsillitis at Ferris State. They've had Joe Judge, the Ole Miss quarterback's coach. He was being direct examined right before we started recording this. I believe he's being cross-examined now. So we'll see what happens. The hearing's going to go on a little bit longer. I don't suspect there will be a ruling right at the end of the hearing. I think it's going to be one of those cases where the judge is going to take the information in that he hears today, and then he will issue a ruling at some later date, which probably will be fairly soon, and then we'll find

out because if Trinidad Chambliss gets this injunction, which is basically the judge saying, I believe you'd be irreparably harmed if you were prevented for playing while this case is being heard in the court system, then I suspect with the pace of justice these days that Trinidad Ed Schambliss would be able to play the entire 2026 season in Ole Miss. Yeah. So you were watching part of it. You're our resident lawyer. Tell us how you thought it was going.

It's hard to say because we've only seen a little bit. The doctor under direct examination sounds great. Sounds like they practiced everything because they probably did. And then under cross-examination, the incident of lay attorneys were like, hey, why didn't you just take his tonsils out? Because that's what happened, I believe, after the 2024 season. and all of his issues, which he had sleeping issues, he had chronic, you know, throat issues, chronic breathing issues.

All of those issues apparently cleared up when he got his tonsils removed, but they didn't remove them. And what is an issue right here is the 2022 season? So Trinidad Shamliss was a first year player at Ferris State in 2021, and he redshirted. His second year at Ferris State, so he was a redshirt freshman that year. He did not play at all. He didn't get on the field at all, but he did practice. And what the NCAA is saying is he wasn't completely incapacitated as the doctor is saying he just wasn't good enough to get on the field.

And what Trinidad Shameless attorneys are arguing and what the doctor's arguing is that had he not had a medical issue, he probably would have been good enough to get on the field. And so the question is, why didn't Ferris State try to get him a medical hardship for that year? And the answer was probably, well, they didn't know he was going to turn into this. But it'll be interesting because Shameless's attorneys have unearthed some stuff in the past few days, some videos. Like when Ferris State was playing in the D2 national title game in 2024, when they played against Valdaosa State and Trinidad Shameless was their starting quarterback, like the play-by-play guy says, oh, he got a medical red shirt in 2022. She hadn't.

But it makes it sound like that is something maybe fair. estate was planning to try to get. Or at least we're aware that he was struggling. I mean, like, at least that this isn't a story they just made up out of nowhere. Right. And they have medical records from that year. It's not like they just falsify. It's not like they said, oh, you know, he had this and we just came up.

But the NCAA is arguing, why didn't you say this then? Because if he'd broken his leg that year, they probably would have applied immediately for it. Yeah. You know, and I don't know. if I were a college athlete, even if I didn't think I was going to be an NFL guy, I would always want to file the paperwork to get as much eligibility as possible because you never know how it's going to turn out, obviously, case and point here. But, you know, I'm not a doctor.

You're not a doctor, but I know that, you know, upper respiratory issues and tonsillitis and all those things can knock someone out for a large period of time. It turns into, in some cases, I've heard people have a hard time swallowing. it they lose weight, they're weak, they're fatigued, like all these different things that would have a certain impact on your ability to compete at the highest level. And, you know, frankly speaking with the way that he has turned out to play at Ole Miss and what we saw a lot of him in the playoff, it's like kind of hard to imagine that, you know, based on the merits of his athleticism and ability that he wouldn't have been good enough to play at fair estate, right? Like, I mean, just like that's, that's just

kind of the way I view it. So, I mean, I buy it, Andy. I don't know if the judge will or if this will be enough to get him back next year, but we'll see. The craziest thing, because these hearings can go in strange directions, the testimony can go in strange directions. Joe Judge is being direct examined by Trinidad Shameless's attorneys. And somehow I know how they got there. They were talking about how important sleep and regular sleep is to a football player,

how it helps prevent injury, how it makes you a better player. And obviously, this is to explain that when Trinidad Shambliss was suffering from these symptoms, his sleep was very much disrupted. But Joe Judge gets into this stuff about when he was in the pros, he would have to tell the wives of players when the wives were pregnant, hey, your husband's not going to be able to get up for midnight feedings during the season.

He needs to sleep. So we're going to tell him to go sleep in another room. After the season, he can change all the diapers you want him to. But just understand he needs to sleep during the season. and it was just, Joe Justice asked, and how did those conversations go with the wives of the players?

And Joe Joggi goes, about as well as you'd expect. Yes, I'm trying to think of like how Britt would have handled that. Not well. Some of the biggest, I don't know if you know this about me, but you do know this about me

because you've had to bang on hotel room doors to wake me up in the morning. But once I'm out, I'm hibernating. Like, things don't wake me up. Like, if I'm like deep asleep, you could shoot a fight. firearm in the bedroom and I probably would wake up. So while Britt was, or we first had live, the first few months, like she would cry and stuff and I would sleep through it. And that turned

into some of the biggest fights that we've had in our entire marriage. Like, you know, Daddy needs to sleep a little bit. But as you can imagine, but that's, that's how the some of the times these hearings go. They do take very interesting directions. We'll see what comes out. I don't think there's been a smoking gun from either side. It's like, oh, that side's definitely going to prevail here. And again, we are talking about an injunction that they're trying to get. This is not the case itself. They're not trying to decide the case itself. And I think that's the key distinction. And remember we had our attorney friend right in last week to explain what the injunction is. I wrote about injunctions with the Charles Betiaco situation in Alabama.

when he was denied an injunction, and the judge very clearly pointed out why he didn't meet the three prongs that you must meet for an injunction. And those are, will the person suffer irreparable harm? Is there no other remedy at law? And is the person likely to prevail on the merits of their case? So that's the situation. This is obviously different from Charles Betiaco, the Alabama basketball player, because that was he was arguing he should be able to play. after he had left college gone, pro, and gone, and come back when that is expressly against NCAA rules. It's different from the Joey Aguilar case, the Tennessee quarterback who has a hearing scheduled for tomorrow in Tennessee.

That one, he's arguing that his time in junior college should not count toward his eligibility and that only his time in the NCAA should count and therefore he's got one more year. this is different. This is a little more standard. This is an argument over whether the NCAA gave was was fair or unfair in its decision on whether to give him a medical hardship waiver for 2022. And that is a much more common case in NCAA land than the other things. And it's also not completely settled because there is some inconsistency in how the NCAA rules on these cases, which I think is what Trinidad Shameless's lawyers are hoping to highlight for the judge. Yeah, and, you know, I don't know if this is controversial or not, but I'm rooting for him to play.

I think it's cool when college football has better players. But I also hope we can thread the needle where it doesn't turn into 19 other similar lawsuits. But it seems to me that he has at least. I think you have to have, like, he's got medical records from 2022. I think you'd have to have something like that. Right. To mount a case like this. And I can buy that.

So we'll see how it turns out. and obviously we'll keep you guys updated, but it's certainly something worthy of tracking. And, you know, he might have appeared on some lists that he wasn't on if he gets approved. So or hits the injunction, I should say. Yeah, we'll find out because we're either going to be discussing him about his future in the NFL or how good Ole Miss can be because they have another year

with Trinidad Shamless. I think, you know, obviously Pete Golding is waiting with bated breath to find out because it's a very different situation if you have this veteran guy coming back who led you to the CFP semifinals last year, or you're going to be having a quarterback competition where Deuce Knight, the redshirt freshman who played at Auburn last year, he seems like the favorite. That's a pretty big experience gap.

So we will see what the judge says, but at the moment, as we record this, the hearing is ongoing. Ari. One team that I think has been weighed and measured by this point, the Kansas State Wildcats basketball team. And we remember when they were the darlings of the NCAA tournament a few years ago, Jerome Tang was very early in his career as the coach. Marquis Noel was their point guard, and he was so much fun to watch.

And they had Keante Johnson, remember, had a heart issue at Florida, and then had come back playing for Kansas State and wound up being really good for them. So things have not gone very well. since. The Wildcats have been fairly middling. Now this year, they are, they're just bad. They are 10 and 14 right now. They're one in 10 in Big 12 play. They just got beat 91 to 62 at home by Cincinnati, and Cincinnati's not a particularly great Big 12 team either. The octagon of Doom was basically empty, save for some students wearing paper bags over their heads. And then Jerome Tang, the coach, gets up and says this.

I'm going to honor Christ like I always do blessed to do this but this was embarrassing. These dudes do not deserve to wear this uniform. There will be very few of them in it next year. Like I'm embarrassed for the university. I'm embarrassed for our fans. our student section, you know, it is, it is just ridiculous. We got practice at 6 a.m. tomorrow morning, and, and, and we will, we will get this thing right. I, I have no answer, no word.

So you got, you got two questions. So whoever want to ask two questions, I'll answer them to the best of my ability right now, but right now, like, I'm, like, pissed. And did this, this, this. Yeah, this is All right, questions Yeah, I don't know I asked the staff

This week that same question And you know, they said that You know, more the opponents, you know, you play I don't know Because I mean I followed Minnesota last year closely and they played great on the road and struggled at home so then they started staying in hotels at home like treating it like a road game and so i even talked about hey do we need to

change that that change but like no there's that none of that crap matter man these dudes got to have some they got some pride man they got some pride it means something to wear a case state uniform means something to put on this purple man are like everything this university is about and all that it's been about why i love this place man like They don't love this place, so they don't deserve to be here. Yeah, I'd wear a paper bag, too, if I was done. Thanks a lot, fellas. God bless.

Well, he gave him two questions. He answered him. Terrible follow-ups, Sandy, by the way. If you have two questions, I might think the first question wouldn't be about the home and road splits. My first question would be, we saw what happened out on the court. You guys lost by almost 30 points. What specifically is enraging you about this team?

and why do you say that some players don't deserve to be in the uniform? Like, I think that that's- And the next follow-up is, didn't you recruit these players? Why did you recruit guys that are going to quit on this program? Like, that's your fault. And I think Jerome Tang deserves a lot of this because, okay, I mentioned the Marquis-No-L-Ki-Jon Johnson season.

The rosters have not been very well-constructed since then, and it's not like K-State's not spending on rosters. This is a team that is in the top half of the Big 12 in roster spend, I believe, and they're not cheapen out on this thing. Like they've given him the resources he needs to be successful. They're just not very well constructed as a team. Now, they've had issues where one of their players who's from Ireland has been away dealing with a quote-unquote personal matter since January.

They've had players who were unavailable. but they also don't really have a true point guard and nothing that would have had everybody been available, they still would have never had a true point guard on this roster. Like, it's on the coach. And we talk about this in football, Ari. We talked about a lot with Indiana, but it's not just Indiana.

There are coaches out there, and Kurt Signetti, I think, has shown to be one of the best of them at Indiana, but we've seen it in basketball too. There are coaches out there who understand exactly what type of competitive character they're looking for. And even in the speed dating world of the transfer portal, they can find that.

We talked to Pat Coogan, the Indiana Center, about the 40-minute phone call with Kurt Signetti driving from South Bend to Chicago. And Kurt Signetti, in that period, identified that Pat Coogan is the type of player who fits competitively and character-wise with his team. Why is Jerome Tang not good enough of a person an evaluator to find those.

He's paid millions of dollars. That is a hugely important part of his job. If you don't have players who deserve to wear the uniform, if their effort does not suggest that they are worthy of it, that is your fault for not recruiting players who would give better effort. And like I understand too when coaches get upset, you know, from time to time you do see these types of news conferences where, you know, a coach will, you know, express how bitterly disappointed he is in the performance and the

effort of his team. And I just like, I don't know if it's just me, but like, I understand where they're going with it. They want to show the fan base or, you know, the people watching how deeply they care about the institution. And I think that Tang did a good job of that. But from my standpoint, I agree with you completely. It's like, well, you know, your job as a coach is to situate the roster with players that aren't going to make you feel this way. So like, You take a little bit less talented guy who's not going to quit on you. And you have, you as the coach, that is part of what the university pays you for. You can say, well, I don't have a crystal ball.

I can't tell you how they're going to respond under university. Your job, in part, is to know that. Either discern it through your recruiting of them or have whatever six cents that the really good coaches have, that you can tell who's a dude and who's not, who's going to fight when the chips are down and who's not. And I go back to like Todd Golden last year, the Florida coach, he wins the national title. And he made a point, like,

these weren't the highest paid guys in the transfer portal. But they were the guys who fit together the best, the guys who played together the best, the guys who exhibited the competitive character, to use a Nick Sabin term, that matched one another. So that when things got hard, they got closer together rather than farther apart.

Yeah. So, you know, we'll see, you know, what the next step is there. But I don't know if that route is saving people's jobs anymore. Well, and I just, I get it. It's a great soundbite. And I know there's a lot of people like, you tell them this, and there's all these selfish players in this NIL era. Okay.

The guy who makes more than the players is the coach. and if he's not good at doing his job either, something needs to happen. And it's interesting because they owe him a lot of money. And it sounds like they may have to wind up paying it. What's crazy, too, is when you make these types of sound bites, you know, you draw attention to what happened. Like, I don't know, like I wouldn't have been aware,

just or at least thinking about Kansas State better. Especially when a team underwhelms, you tend to forget about them. So, like, we probably would not have been paying much attention to K-State basketball as they go through the Big 12 because we'd be like, okay, Big 12 is a hard league. They're having a bad year. Not every player could play. But this makes you look a little closer, pop the hood.

And if you want to read more about this, if you're an on three member, by all means, go to K State online. Derek Young and his crew do an incredible job covering Kansas State sports. They've been covering this all season. They've broken it down. There's a really good from last week roster break. down on K-State Online that explains the flaws in this roster, why this particular roster is not constructed well and is not capable of being competitive in the Big 12, which is a very

tough basketball league, by the way. So, yeah, it's a good point. I hadn't thought about that, Ari. Like, when you go into that press conference, and apparently he said something similar on his radio interview with the broadcast team after the game and then came into the press conference and did it. you obviously have a plan doing that. You obviously expect to get this response or to get a response.

Mm-hmm. I'm not sure that's the response Jerome Tang was expecting. I think all he did was wave a big purple lavender flag. We're broken. Yeah. Yeah. Come look, come pop the hood on this thing and figure out whose fault it is. Guess what?

It's your fault. It's your fault. You recruited these guys. Exactly. Man. That got me fired up. And I heard that I heard the sound bite at first. I was like, man, you tell him, coach.

And then the more I thought about it, like, wait a second. Wait a second. Yeah. Wait a minute. You recruited him, coach. And it's like, no, it's like not even just a discussion that's specifically tailored to tang, any football coach that had similar baseball. It doesn't it.

It is universal throughout all sports. you as the coach who puts the roster together, the GM and then the pros, who puts the roster together, has to understand the player's mentality, has to, and you don't always have all of the information. I've talked to coaches about this a lot over the years.

Like, this is one thing. I always, I always ask coaches, you know, about high school coaches. Back in the old days of recruiting when you're just, you know, you're in football,

you're talking to the high school coach, you're recruiting this kid. out of high school. You have years to get to know them. And then there would be concerted efforts among like a school community and a high school coach to kind of mask some of the flaws that a player might have, not just not physical ones because those show up on the field, but some of the character flaws that a player might have because they want the guy to get a scholarship. And that's why high school coaches will tell you, you got to be honest with these college coaches because if you do that to them once, they will remember that. And they will

never trust you again. And the college coaches say the same thing. Like, you've got to, you got to be able to trust people. It's harder in the transfer portal era because you don't know anybody really well. You have very little time to do your homework. But I think there are certain coaches. I don't know, but do you agree with me, Ari, that there are certain coaches out there that probably need about 10 minutes with a person to ascertain what that person is like and how they would be as a player, as an employee. I think that reading people is a human skill. And I think that it translates into business.

I think it translates into friendships and relationships. And some people are very good at it and some people are terrible at it. Now, you know, if you do it from a sports perspective, you want to know, is this person going to be a ride or die every day, regardless of how the games are going? You know, I think that that's an important aspect of it. It's like, I don't know if I'm good or bad at it. But, like, it wouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure out Pat Coogan's a good fit for your team.

Like, I think that, like, we figured that out when he was at Notre Dame at the National Championship game, Media Day, and a 15th. The bigger question would be, and obviously, I'm not talking about anybody specific or any specific coach, but maybe somebody who got in trouble at their previous school and you're bringing them in and you're trying to figure out, okay, can this person fit with my team? Will they get with the program? Will they work hard? and the coaches who can make the right choices on that, who can, dare I say guess correctly, because I think in some cases they are guessing, those are the ones that wound up,

wind up being very successful. So Jerome Tang might not have that skill. He spent years and years with the guy who definitely has that skill, Scott Drew at Baylor, and not everybody can do it. So we'll find out. I mean, it might be that Jerome Tang is bought out and back with Scott Drew at Baylor because of this.

And I don't think it's because of what he said. Obviously, K-State's administration's been watching this all season. They've been watching this for several years since they had that nice run of the elite eight. You recruit these guys. As the coaches always say, you recruit your own problems. And he needs to accept that he recruited this problem. Ari, heck of a show. Great show.

A heck of a show. Balanced, diverse. What going on today? Yeah. You know, Andy, we're in mid-February. We're trucking along. You know, you go to close your eyes. Another month will go by and we're getting closer to spring.

And then you'll get through spring and we'll be football season again. That's kind of where I'm at with things. So you don't want life to go by too quickly, but I'm certainly okay with the, I wish it was reversed. The summers would go fast and the falls would go slow, but it seems to be the opposite in my life. It doesn't always work that way. But tomorrow, one of my favorite days of the week. week, your questions. We're going to be talking quarterbacks.

We'll be talking North Dakota State. And also a tribute to the late James Vanderbeek. We'll never forget to Jonathan Moxen. Rest and peace. We'll talk to you tomorrow.