Looking at Who Will Call Plays After South Carolina Fires Mike Shula

After only ten games as the offensive coordinator, South Carolina has let go of Mike Shula. This move doesn't come as a shock with how the offense has regressed from 2024. The question remains, who will step up in the interim to call plays for the rest of the way?

Gamecocks head coach Shane Beamer discussed the move on Sunday saying it has not worked the way they wanted on that side of the ball.

"Frankly it just hasn't worked like I wanted it to work," Beamer said. "Just didn't like the way we were performing offensively."

When asked about who will be the new play caller, Beamer said it will be a "group effort."

"I'm not going to get into that right now I haven't even met with the team yet,” Beamer said. “We've got a capable offensive staff with those coaches that are in there right now. It'll be a collaborative group effort putting together the game plan over the next couple weeks."

With that said, let's take a look at the potential options the Gamecocks have on staff.

Potential Play Callers for the Gamecocks:

Mike Furrey

Currently the team's passing game coordinator and wide receivers coach, Furrey is in his second season in Columbia. Last season, he took a lot of newcomers at the wide receiver spot and developed them into a good unit for quarterback LaNorris Sellers.

Prior to his arrival in Columbia, Furrey spent the previous two seasons as the head coach at Limestone University, a Division II school located in Gaffney, S.C. He led the Saints to back-to-back 8-4 campaigns, including a share of the title in the South Atlantic Conference’s Piedmont Division and a spot in the Division II playoffs in both seasons, in his second stint at the school.

Davis Koetter

The son of former Boise State, Arizona State and Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach and long time offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter, Davis was hired as an assistant quarterbacks coach this season. Koetter spent the past two seasons on Steve Sarkisian’s staff at Texas. In 2023, he was a graduate assistant working with the quarterbacks. In 2024 he was elevated to an analyst role and worked predominantly with the tight ends.

Marquel Blackwell

Hired as the running backs coach in 2024, Blackwell helped lead one of the program's best rushing attack in years in 2024. The Gamecocks averaged 184.4 yards per game on the ground, their most since 2013 and nearly 100 yards per game more than they averaged in 2023. The long-time running backs coach spent three seasons at Houston where he was the co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach in 2019.

Shawn Elliott

Lastly, Shawn Elliott is in the second year of his second stint with Carolina Football. Elliott is the current run game coordinator, offensive line coach, and tight ends coach. originally joined the South Carolina staff in 2010 and helped the Gamecocks reach five-straight bowl games while coaching some of the most prolific and balanced offenses in school history. His former head coaching experience could be a plus in the interim role of calling plays.

On this list, Elliott and Furrey could be the leaders in the clubhouse to be named the interim offensive coordinator, though I wouldn't count Blackwell out. For now it is a group effort, according to Coach Beamer, until someone is named to that role. We should know more in the coming days as Beamer meets with the team and media members.

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