[Tuck4Bama]

Shane Beamer has been dreading this week for seven months.

As much as the South Carolina assistant wants to stomp on Mississippi State, Beamer knows doing so will leave cleat marks on friends, former colleagues and the man who gave him his first full-time job.

Beamer, who coaches the Gamecocks’ outside linebackers and is the co-special teams coordinator, spent the past three years on Sylvester Croom’s Mississippi State staff. He met his wife in Starkville, learned a lot of Xs and Os there and formed bonds with the Bulldogs’ coaches and players.

But Beamer will put those feelings on hold for four hours Saturday.

“I’m a competitor, but at the same time, those people there, those players, I still think the world of them,” said Beamer, who arrived in Columbia in February. “It’s tough playing people you care a lot about. I’m the biggest fan they’ve got. And after Saturday, no one will be pulling harder for them than me.”

Beamer was a third-year graduate assistant at Tennessee when Vols assistant Woody McCorvey told him Croom was expected to get the Mississippi State job and was looking for talented, young coaches.

Miss. St. ties run deep for Beamer