Paul Finebaum names SEC coach who 'looks like a loser' after Week 12 loss

Paul Finebaum did not hold back after South Carolina's latest collapse. On ESPN's "The Matt Barrie Show" following Week 12, the longtime SEC analyst zeroed in on HC Shane Beamer after the Gamecocks blew a 30-3 halftime lead in a 31-30 loss at No. 3 Texas A&M.

"Shane Beamer, right now — hate to say it — just looks like a loser," Finebaum said, adding that the fourth-year head coach has a "better chance" of being fired than landing another job.

The criticism came after one of the most stunning turnarounds in SEC history. South Carolina dominated the first half in College Station, forcing three turnovers and outgaining the Aggies 312-132 on the way to that 27-point advantage.

But Texas A&M responded with 28 unanswered points, outgaining the Gamecocks 371-76 after the break behind quarterback Marcel Reed's 439 passing yards and three second-half touchdown passes.

The comeback was the largest in Texas A&M program history and snapped a long-standing trend across the conference. Since 2004, SEC teams had been 0-286 when trailing by 27 points or more. The Aggies became the first to erase that kind of deficit, while South Carolina became the team on the wrong end of the SEC's biggest modern blown lead.

Finebaum described the collapse as a referendum on Beamer's tenure, not just one bad afternoon. He pointed to a new athletic director, Jeremiah Donati, who arrived from TCU in December 2024 and inherited Beamer rather than hiring him. The tricky part though is that Donati signed Beamer to an extension through 2030 at roughly $8.15 million per year, a deal estimated at around $50 million total. Firing Beamer without cause would cost South Carolina just under $28 million, the 24th-largest buyout in major college football.

South Carolina Gamecocks head coach Shane Beamer | Troy Taormina-Imagn Images

Saturday's loss dropped South Carolina to 3-7 overall and 1-7 in SEC play, guaranteeing a losing season one year after a 9-4 campaign that pushed the Gamecocks into the 2025 preseason top 15. It was also their fifth straight defeat, a skid that has wiped out bowl hopes and erased much of the goodwill Beamer built.

Beamer, for his part, sounded shaken but defiant in his postgame comments, saying he was "hurt" for his players and insisting the program is closer than the record shows. At halftime in College Station, he told his team the scoreboard was "irrelevant" and urged them to keep "dominating," a message that now reads differently in light of a scoreless second half.

For now, Beamer is still the head coach in Columbia. After Week 12, though, he is also the coach who just watched his team deliver a historic meltdown — and heard one of the sport's loudest voices say, on national airwaves, that he looks like a loser.

South Carolina Gamecocks quarterback Lanorris Sellers | Troy Taormina-Imagn Images

Read More on College Football HQ