A few days after Shane Beamer had to tread carefully while discussing his newest appointment since the deal hadn’t been finalized, the Gamecocks formally signed experienced NFL assistant Joe DeCamillis as their special teams coordinator and associate head coach. The USC board of trustees accepted a contract for DeCamillis, who spent nearly 30 years in the NFL before spending the previous season in college as the Texas Longhorns’ special assistant to the head coach. DeCamillis’ deal is for three years, ending December 31, 2026, and will pay him $800,000 each year.
If DeCamillis leaves South Carolina before the end of the year, he will repay the institution $500,000. If he leaves in 2025, that figure lowers to $400,000, and then to $200,000 if he leaves in 2026. If USC terminates DeCamillis without cause, the school will owe him the remainder of his contract. If he gets another job, the amount might be lowered. That is an increase above Pete Lembo’s previous compensation as special teams coordinator. Lembo, who earned $725,000 last season, traveled north to take over as head coach at Buffalo earlier this month.
“I feel like we’ve made a grand-slam hire, potentially, with what I was looking for,” Beamer said on Saturday, just before DeCamillis was officially hired. “It would have to be someone I thought was a great hire. And if I could afford it, I would employ a special teams coach. If not, I’d look into Plan B. But I don’t think we’ll have to use Plan B.”
DeCamillis, a former wrestler at the University of Wyoming, began his NFL career when his father-in-law, former South Carolina great Dan Reeves, persuaded him to join his Denver Broncos staff as an assistant strength and conditioning coach in 1987. Since then, DeCamillis has become one of the most outstanding special teams coaches in football. He has been an NFL special teams coach for over 30 years and a special teams coordinator for a decade and a half, winning Super Bowls with the Denver Broncos (2016) and Los Angeles Rams (2022), until being let go by the Rams in 2023. With appointments such as DeCamillis, offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains, and others, Beamer demonstrates how much he values NFL experience on his coaching staff.
“Any time you bring in a guy with NFL experience — to me, they’re a fantastic coach,” Beamer said Saturday. “If you’re a veteran from the NFL ranks, you know what you’re doing or else you wouldn’t have lasted that long.
