COLUMBIA, S.C.: Newly employed South Carolina assistant Shawn Elliott didn’t depart his job as Georgia State’s head coach due to challenges with NIL, retaining gamers or different modifications in school soccer.
His causes had been rather a lot nearer to residence. For all of his seven seasons with the Panthers, Elliott maintained his household residence in Columbia and ceaselessly commuted the 220 miles every technique to Atlanta.
“The most important people in my life live in the state of South Carolina and the Columbia area,” Elliott stated Tuesday.
Elliott’s departure got here earlier this month after the staff already had begun spring apply. It adopted larger profile head coach departures — Chip Kelly leaving as UCLA coach to turn into Ohio State’s offensive coordinator and Jeff Hafley quitting at Boston College to turn into the Green Bay Packers’ defensive coordinator — and he gave the impression to be the newest to throw up his arms amid the altering recreation.
Not the case, Elliott stated. Yes, the the lure of identify, picture and likeness cash from Power Five faculties did take a toll on this system, with 22 of his gamers leaving for greater faculties the previous two years.
But that didn’t drive him from the Sun Belt Conference program.
“I’ve never personally run from a problem,” he stated. “I’ve always found a solution in how to fix it.”
Elliott actually did that at Georgia State, which has performed within the Football Bowl Subdivision solely since 2013. He led the Panthers to their first successful season within the FBS and went 4-1 in bowl video games throughout his time there.
But because the mileage piled up — Elliott stated he has put some 110,000 miles on a truck he purchased in 2020 — Elliott stated being away from spouse Summer, daughter Maddyn and son Max was tougher to do.
It was the appropriate determination in 2017 for Elliott to depart his job as South Carolina offensive line coach for Georgia State. “It was what I needed to do for my career at that point in time,” stated Elliott, 50.
This too, he stated, was the appropriate transfer.
Elliott stated he reached out to South Carolina after tight ends coach Justin Stepp left to turn into large receivers coach at Illinois to verify the college knew of his curiosity. A few cellphone calls with Gamecocks coach Shane Beamer was all it took.
Elliott acquired a three-year contract price $2.275 million. He coached the offensive line at South Carolina below Steve Spurrier from 2010-15, was interim head coach after Spurrier’s midseason resignation in 2015 and stayed on the workers with Will Muschamp in 2016 earlier than transferring to Georgia State.
Elliott acknowledged the tough timing of his departure. But he stated his discussions with college leaders and Georgia State gamers had been candid and cordial. “There wasn’t another way I could’ve done it,” he stated.
Beamer, who labored with Elliott in 2010 on Spurrier’s workers, was wanting to deliver Elliott again. “I always try to make our program better,” Beamer stated. “He makes our program better.”
South Carolina particular groups coach Joe DeCamillis, who received two Super Bowls over 32 years as an NFL assistant, stated he thinks school is extra pure than the professionals. College groups aren’t tanking for higher draft picks such as you would possibly see within the NFL, he stated.
“That’s what it’s all about, in my opinion, is winning,” he stated.
For Elliott, it’s in regards to the likelihood to not have to hurry off moments after his daughter’s cheerleading competitors or his son’s soccer recreation. He imagines the three sometime acting at Williams-Brice Stadium, dad main the tight ends, daughter a part of the faculty cheer squad and son as a participant.
That, Elliott stated, can be “a dream come true.”
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AP school soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football
(This story has not been edited by News18 workers and is printed from a syndicated information company feed – Associated Press)
