‘It means everything to me’: Travian Robertson eager to begin first year coaching at South Carolina

After playing five years at South Carolina, Travian Robertson didn’t know what he wanted to do next in his life.

“I’ll never forget a conversation I had with a friend of mine. He was asking me what I wanted to do when I was finished playing. And he was like, ‘Hey, you need to get in contact with coach (Steve) Spurrier, make sure he knows you want to coach,’” Roberston recalled.

But Roberston never reached out to Spurrier. He wasn’t sure if coaching was something he wanted to do.

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Robertson ultimately moved onto the NFL and played for three years with three teams. By 2014, he was out of the league. Now he needed to do something.

Eventually, he did get into coaching. Since 2017, he’s been coaching defensive lines at the college level.

While Robertson had enjoyed his time coaching at Georgia State and Albany State, he always wanted to come home. When Shane Beamer gave him a call to offer him the defensive line coaching job, he wasn’t turning it down.

“It just happened so fast. And it feels so good to come back to Columbia where I started,” Robertson said. “I knew years ago when I chose this place as my new home, I knew it was going to be home forever. Just to have the opportunity to come back, doing something that I love to do is coaching and being around football and being home, it means everything to me.”

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Robertson, who played during the program’s best seasons, is hopeful to get them back to those days.

“Just for me, years ago during the time that we had a lot of success, and to see the program where it’s at now, this is really a great opportunity for me to come back and be a part of what coach Beamer is building here,” he said.

One tool Robertson will have at his disposal is the magnitude of resources. Granted, his teams didn’t need everything that’s out there now, but he’d be lying if he said it didn’t help.

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“I think me and coach Beamer try to give guys hints like, ‘Hey, man, 10 years ago we didn’t have none of this,’” Robertson said. “To me, it’s just to get the guys to appreciate what they have because we did a lot of great things without the resources that we have. But to have the number of resources around Columbia right here in our pockets that we can just reach and grab and use is amazing.

“We didn’t have that facility, we didn’t have any of it, but we had a lot of success. I tell guys there’s no excuse for anything. You’ve got everything you need right here to be successful here.”

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