Add Shane Beamer to the list of college coaches that have issues with Lane Kiffin.
The South Carolina coach indicated that LSU head coach Lane Kiffin hired Gamecocks defensive assistant Sterling Lucas without the courtesy of a phone call to inform Beamer of his interest. As Beamer tells it, Lucas informed him of the LSU job offer in the evening and accepted the job the next morning.
“Happened fast, as you guys know,” Beamer said Friday. “Got a call on a Thursday night after 11 p.m. from the previous coach that was here, telling me that he had been offered a job at another school. 9 a.m. the next morning, he was gone. A little bit unusual. Usually, you get a phone call from the head coach of the school kind of giving you a heads up that he’s interested in maybe talking to one of your coaches or things like that. That didn’t happen — which, again, there’s no rule that that has to happen. But it’s kind of an unspoken rule.
“Didn’t hear anything from the other school, didn’t hear anything from the previous coach until he called to tell me that he had been offered a job. It wasn’t a very thorough interview process where you have a few days to plan and think this might be coming down the track.”
Shane Beamer doesn’t sound thrilled that he didn’t at least get a phone call from Lane Kiffin to let him know that he wanted to speak with Sterling Lucas about joining LSU staff.
— Trey Wallace (@TreyWallace_) January 2, 2026
10 hours after receiving a call from Lucas at 11pm, he was gone to Baton Rouge pic.twitter.com/YlCIovyuo3
As Beamer notes, Kiffin and the Tigers did not actually break any rules here. Kiffin’s handling of the situation, however, is the sort of thing that goes down poorly within the industry.
Kiffin, of course, is not exactly known for his ethics. He left Ole Miss for LSU on the eve of the College Football Playoff, and was not truthful about certain aspects of it, at least according to his players. He clearly identified Lucas as a coach he wanted to pursue, made contact, and got it done.
One could argue that part of the reason Kiffin is so successful is his disregard for such standards. It will not make him many friends in coaching circles, though.
