Shane Beamer’s plans for the 2026 season hit a major snag when he lost veteran special teams coordinator Joe DeCamillis to the NFL. Thankfully, he’s found a replacement for the position, who can turn out to be an interesting hire.

South Carolina is expected to hire Matthew Smiley, who has been in the NFL for a whole decade. GamecockCentral.com reported that a deal can be signed very soon. Beamer and Co. seemed to have pushed hard for Smiley because he had also interviewed for vacant positions at the Packers and Steelers. The staff is a little desperate to get the coach because they lost DeCamillis to the Raiders earlier this week. His departure forced the Gamecocks to lose a significant amount of coaching experience out of the blue.

Smiley has charted an up-and-down arc when he was special teams coordinator for the Bills. In 2022, this unit was ranked No. 1 in the NFL. But in the later years, there were a lot of struggles. In 2024, Buffalo allowed a punt block to be returned for a touchdown and saw a kickoff return meet the same fate. He was dismissed by the Bills before the 2025 season. This opportunity will mark Smiley’s official return as a proper coach. In 2025, he was helping out the Penn State staff. The difference between the two coaches is massive, but Shane Beamer needed someone ASAP.

He has mostly spent his time in college football, recording tenures in Dartmouth, Eureka, Eastern Illinois, and Charleston Southern. Smiley used to coach special teams in the last two programs. He now has to apply his learnings from this varied experience at South Carolina, whose special teams are in a comparatively better shape than other departments. DeCamillis used new starters at almost every position last season. They fared well during the first half of the season, but faltered afterwards.

But now that they return as experienced players, Smiley will have his work cut out in his first season at South Carolina.

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Shane Beamer is positive about South Carolina’s special teams for 2026

Despite the Gamecocks going 4-8 in the season, fans can still hope for a resurgence in the 2026 season. Some of it is bound to come to the special teams, which have some great numbers from last season. South Carolina finished 17 in the country in average punt return yards, with Vicari Swain’s three punt return touchdowns tied for first. Then there’s Mason Love, who earned All-SEC Freshman honors last year. Shane Beamer, in particular, is excited about this unit for the 2026 season.

“For everything to be new, you’re going to notice some being new throughout the season,” he told GamecockCentral.com. “Now you bring your kick returner back, you bring a punt returner back. Mason Love had a hell of a first year, you bring him back. We’ve got even more competition at the kicker position, so I think we’ll naturally be better there.”

For the first time, Shane Beamer brought a kicker in from the portal: Upton Bellenfant. He was behind Stone Harrington in the depth at Texas Tech, but hauled in a brilliant 6-on-6 record in field goals. South Carolina also added longsnapper Emmet Rhoades from Western Caroline. But with Swain and Love still at South Carolina, Beamer has all the reasons to expect an improvement in special teams.

“I think the next step where we need to evolve is doing it consistently,” Beamer added.

The Gamecocks’ head coach now has his complete staff for the 2026 season. There are a lot of new faces in, who are expected to help Beamer achieve what he couldn’t last year. Matthew Smiley, in particular, has to ensure that he delivers upon the expectations set for him, in his return to college ball.