Iowa football's nepotism validates Shane Beamer's career path to South Carolina | Toppmeyer

Shane Beamer never wanted to be in the situation that Brian Ferentz finds himself in today, clinging to daddy’s coattails to keep his career afloat.

Iowa this week announced an amended contract for Ferentz, 39, its beleaguered offensive coordinator whose dad, Kirk, coaches the Hawkeyes. Kirk faced a pickle: Fire his son, or stomach the bad offenses Iowa produces with his son as coordinator. He protected his son.

Iowa ranked 130th out of 131 FBS teams in total offense last season. The Hawkeyes averaged 17.7 points. Still, Brian Ferentz endures. Iowa reduced his salary by 5.6% to $850,000 and included contractual requirements for 2023. The Hawkeyes must win at least seven games and average at least a modest 25 points per game – defensive and special teams scores count toward the cause – or Brian Ferentz’s contract will terminate before the 2024 season. If he achieves those modest goals, he’ll receive a $112,500 bonus, plus a $75,000 raise.

Sounds like a decent deal. If my employer gave me an ultimatum to achieve modest goals in 2023 in exchange for a $100K bonus and a substantial raise but risk being fired if I failed to achieve such attainable metrics, I’d say: Where do I sign?

Nonetheless, this contract is unusual for college football standards. And it’s the type of nepotism Beamer, South Carolina’s third-year coach, aimed to avoid.

Beamer played for his dad, legendary Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer. He respects his dad’s career and his leadership style, and Frank is no stranger to Gamecocks games. Shane welcomes discussion of his dad and his career, but he also differentiates himself by possessing his own personality and approach. He cemented his separate course by not working a day on his dad’s staff until he had established himself as an SEC assistant.

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After Beamer finished his playing career as a Hokies walk-on long snapper in 1999, he had the chance to become a graduate assistant on his dad’s staff. He rejected the idea – not as a slight, but because he disliked those optics, and he wanted “to blaze my own path,” as he told me last summer during an interview inside his office.

“Very proud of my dad,” Beamer said then.

And also …

“Very much a chip on my shoulder.”

So, Beamer wrote to coaches throughout the country inquiring about opportunities. In response, he received numerous rejections – letters he’s kept all these years – but Georgia Tech offered him a GA spot.

Beamer worked 11 seasons at four schools before reuniting with his dad as a Virginia Tech assistant for five years until Frank’s retirement in 2015.

In contrast, Kirk Ferentz is the only college coach for whom Brian Ferentz has worked. His only other coaching experience came as a New England Patriots assistant.

Ferentz may be a qualified assistant, but I can’t think a coach with a different surname would retain a coordinator whose offense averaged fewer than 280 yards per game the past two seasons.

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If Iowa had fired Brian Ferentz, what other Big Ten school would covet him as its offensive coordinator? I’m thinking somewhere between none and zero.

Neither Ferentz nor any other specific sons of coaches came up during my conversation with Beamer last summer, but these are the types of dubious situations he admirably stiff-armed for more than a decade while working for George O'Leary, Phillip Fulmer, Sylvester Croom and Steve Spurrier, instead of his dad.

“No disrespect to any coach’s son that does that, but I didn’t want anyone to ever say, ‘Well, the only reason he is coaching is because his dad gave him a job,'" Beamer said in June.

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As recently as last summer, the 45-year-old Beamer wondered if people questioned whether he’d be an SEC coach without his lineage. Beamer concedes his surname may have helped open doors during his career. There's nothing he can do about that; and, anyway, college football is like a lot of industries in that securing jobs often is partially based on who you know. Then, it's what you do with the opportunities.

Beamer quieted and won over skeptics by totaling 15 victories the past two seasons, including upsets of Tennessee and Clemson last November, and then signed South Carolina’s best-ranked recruiting class in more than a decade.

The Beamer name affords gravitas, yes, but, succeed or fail, he’s ensured this rests on his shoulders.

It's premature to say how this will unfold for Beamer’s Gamecocks. A coach’s second season can prove fool’s gold. To wit, Will Muschamp won nine games in Year 2 at South Carolina, but Muschamp never signed a class quite as strong as Beamer’s 16th-ranked 2023 haul that's just five spots behind Clemson.

While Iowa remains handcuffed by nepotism, South Carolina is satisfied with its coach who required no handouts.

Blake Toppmeyer is an SEC Columnist for the USA TODAY Network. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @btoppmeyer.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY NETWORK: Shane Beamer: South Carolina football coach smart to avoid nepotism