Recently, Maryland head coach Mike Locksley accused South Carolina and their head coach, Shane Beamer, of some shady recruiting tactics. Locksley was pretty blunt, saying that South Carolina had used money to lure a five-star defensive end Zion Elee, for a visit to their campus. That didn’t sit well with Shane Beamer. The Gamecocks HC denied the accusation and called out the head coach and demanded action.

On November 2nd, When coach Shane Beamer was asked about it, he kept it blunt and did UNO reverse on him with the accusation: “disappointing to see a fellow coach insinuate something like that.” (Jordan Kaye on X) Beamer then added that he hopes Maryland’s compliance department, the group that makes sure Maryland follows NCAA rules, “deals with” Locksley for committing an NCAA violation.

The whole story came out during a radio show in late October 2025. When Locksley was asked about 5-star Zion Elee’s trip to see South Carolina play against Alabama, he dropped the bombshell. He mentioned that he wasn’t mad at Elee for potentially making “five to ten grand” just to visit. “Why would I be mad for Zion to make five to ten grand to go down to South Carolina? He’s been one of those guys that’s been really loyal to this area, he’s been loyal to me and the program that we’ve created.”

Locksley pointed out that schools can sometimes hide these kinds of payments behind the rules about (NIL), which can make things complicated: “I’m not saying that’s what happened, but you know, over the years… some of these schools have the ability… they hide it behind the NIL stuff.” That’s a serious accusation because paying a recruit to visit a school would break NCAA recruiting rules.

This isn’t the first time the two coaches have clashed over recruiting, making it a familiar rivalry. Back in 2021, there was also some drama when linebacker Jaishawn Barham flipped his commitment from South Carolina to Maryland, leading to some public complaints from Beamer. This latest incident just adds more fuel to the fire between the two teams and their coaching staffs. However, that isn’t the only highlight of the weekend for South Carolina.

South Carolina Fires OC Mike Shula

After 10 weeks of suffering and fan-cry, the Gamecocks finally decided to part ways with Mike Shula less than a year on the job. The decision was made by head coach Shane Beamer on earlier today, following a disappointing loss to Ole Miss where the team’s offense was MIA. Fans were vocal and calling about their frustration with the offense, with “Fire Shula” chants happening at previous games.

The main reason for the firing was the team’s poor performance on offense throughout the season. South Carolina’s offense was near the bottom of the SEC in almost every category, including total yards (294.1) and points per game (19.7). This was a major concern for the team, especially since LaNorris Sellers was expected to have a great season but ended up looking confused and clueless all the time under Shula’s system.

Shula was originally hired as an offensive analyst for the team before being promoted to offensive coordinator in December 2024. However, things didn’t work out as planned, and after the disappointing results week in and week out, especially the recent loss to Ole Miss, Coach Beamer decided it was time for a change.