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Everyone wants to know what USC offense will look like, including this Gamecock great

Like many South Carolina fans and former players, Sterling Sharpe wants to know what the Gamecocks’ offense will be like in Shane Beamer’s first season.

So the Gamecock receiving great asked Beamer that very question to kick off Thursday’s news conference that followed the Birdies with Beamer media golf event at Woodcreek Golf Club.

Sharpe is one of four South Carolina football players to have his number retired by the Gamecocks. His golf team finished second in Thursday’s event.

Afterward he asked Beamer if the offense would look more like the recent teams at Oklahoma or like those of the Steve Spurrier era.

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“We need guys like you, Sterling and Harold Green and Robert Brooks, that I remember watching back in the day,” Beamer joked as part of his minute-long response to the question. “But at the end of the day, I hope that you are blown away with the physicality and toughness we play with. Nowadays in college football you better create explosive plays, so we want to create explosive plays. We need to be able to run it when we have to run and throw it when we have to throw it. And get the ball to our playmakers and get what we do best.”

Beamer knows a lot about being around explosive plays and offenses the past three seasons at Oklahoma. The Sooners averaged 475 yards of offense and 41.8 points a game last year. Beamer coached four years on Spurrier’s staff between 2007 and 2010.

Beamer said he plans to implement some traits of the Sooners’ offense with the Gamecocks’ scheme but also is comfortable letting offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield put his stamp on things.

Satterfield spent last season with the NFL’s Carolina Panthers as an offensive line analyst. While there he worked with offensive coordinator Joe Brady, who was the architect of LSU’s powerful offense that won a national title in 2019.

Satterfield’s last experience as an offensive coordinator was at Temple in 2014-15.

The Gamecocks have a talented backfield with Kevin Harris, MarShawn Lloyd and ZaQuandre White and future NFL tight end Nick Muse. Those are expected to have a heavy role in USC’s offense.

“I hired a fantastic offensive coordinator in Marcus Satterfield who was with the Carolina Panthers last year. And their offensive coordinator was with LSU in 2019. So blending with him and what I have done at different places and the outstanding coaches we have on staff with they have done at different places,” Beamer said. “At the end of the day you have to do what you have the personnel to do. And I have a feeling that we have a system that is multiple and flexible enough to get the ball to our playmakers.

“We aren’t trying to force a square peg into a round hole.”

The four retired USC football numbers

  • No. 2 — STERLING SHARPE, WR, 1983, 1985-87.

  • No. 37 — STEVE WADIAK, RB, 1948-51.

  • No. 38 — GEORGE ROGERS, RB, 1977-80.

  • No. 56 — MIKE JOHNSON, OL, 1963-64.