Mike Shula is back in the SEC in a full-time coaching role, about to embark on his first season as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at South Carolina.
Shula, the former Alabama quarterback and head coach who spent last season as an analyst on the Gamecocks’ staff, replaces Dowell Loggains — now head coach at Appalachian State. Shula now has at his disposal one of the more talented quarterbacks in the country in sophomore LaNorris Sellers.
Asked Monday at SEC Media Days about Shula’s work with Sellers thus far, Beamer described it as “fantastic.”
“Last year … Dowell Loggains, our offensive coordinator was in the press box,” Beamer said during an appearance on SEC Now on the SEC Network. “So between series, LaNorris was on the iPad on the sidelines with Mike Shula. So that was a good and then (Shula) was in every quarterback meeting as well.
“The fact that he has played the position and literally has been in LaNorris’ shoes as a starting quarterback in the SEC, it’s really beneficial. So he’s been able to take a lot of the things from a fundamental standpoint with LaNorris and make him better.
“And then overall from this an offensive standpoint, some of the tweaks we’ve made schematically, the staff dynamic, it’s been really good so far and it was an easy, easy transition.”
Beamer said he never had a second thought about elevating Shula to offensive coordinator once Loggains left for App State. He said Sellers quickly signed off on the move.
“I was here in Atlanta when the news was announced that we were going to have an opening; I was here for the SEC championship,” Beamer said. “I was on the phone with LaNorris and his family that night, (told him) I just wanted to make sure ‘you see things the same way’ and he was 100% adamant that Mike was the right guy and he’s 100% right.”
In addition to his time at Alabama, Shula spent more than two decades as a high-level assistant in the NFL. Among the pro quarterbacks with whom he worked were Josh Allen, Eli Manning and Cam Newton, whom he helped lead the Carolina Panthers to the Super Bowl at the end of the 2015 season.
