Shane Beamer reacts to Nico Iamaleava, Tennessee standoff

As the Nico Iamaleava situation unfolded over the past week, coaches across the country were watching. Taking notice.

South Carolina coach Shane Beamer was asked about those developments recently, and he chimed in on the whole saga. He didn’t dunk on Tennessee or blast Iamaleava. He’s got his own focus at the moment.

“I saw it, like everybody,” Beamer said. “I’m not trying to avoid the question, I’ve got my own program to think about and that’s what I’m trying to do. It’s unfortunate, and don’t know the whole story and who was told what in everything. Got a lot of respect. Don’t know the quarterback. Got a lot of respect for coach (Josh) Heupel and how he does things and the people in that program. I spent three years there and know a lot of people still in that building that are in different roles, so got a lot of respect for their whole organization.”

Nico Iamaleava, of course, was reportedly involved in active negotiations with the powers that be at Tennessee over an improved NIL package. He ultimately didn’t get it.

What resulted was a messy split between the two sides, but one that was handled rather authoritatively by Heupel and his staff. The decision to part ways was made rather quickly after Iamaleava missed a practice.

As for the practical fallout from the Nico Iamaleava situation for other college coaches, like Beamer, time will tell. It’s too early to know how significantly this situation might impact future goings-on or whether this is closer to a one-time scenario.

“As far as us, we’re doing what we do every day, and that’s just be real, be honest, be transparent, be genuine, treat our players the right way and be who we say we are,” Beamer said. “Honestly it wasn’t like I saw that news and said, ‘Oh my God, we’ve got to start doing this tomorrow so this doesn’t happen to us.’ It’s be who we say we are in recruiting and who our players know us as.”

One thing that has been referenced a lot in the wake of the Nico Iamaleava saga is program culture. Tennessee did its best to protect its culture by parting ways.

Will other schools make similar moves in close-to-identical scenarios? Or, better yet, will the right cultures prevent a Nico Iamaleava fiasco altogether?

“The culture in our program is really, really strong,” Beamer said, by way of an answer. “I think that’s been evident and been on display for a while now here at this place and nothing’s changed.

“Does it mean that you’re not going to lose players to the portal in different instances? No, we’ve lost two in the last three weeks. Disappointed that those young men decided to leave, but certainly wish them well and we’ll help them in any way. And understand why they left. But for us it’s just continue to do what we do and love these guys up, care about them, be honest with them and make this a program they want to be a part of.”

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