Shane Beamer and Lane Kiffin are social media studs, especially among SEC coaches
It is the Ali-Frazier of 280 characters. The Fischer-Spassky of social media. The Magic-Bird of the bird app.
It is the thumb war between Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin and South Carolina’s Shane Beamer — with supremacy on X (formerly Twitter) at stake. And it’s basically a two-man race.
Among the 16 head football coaches in the SEC, Kiffin and Beamer occupy their own air.
To them, social media is not a distraction to be handed off to a graduate assistant. It’s fun. Kiffin and Beamer are really two of the three SEC head coaches (Auburn’s Hugh Freeze being the other) who use X as a normal person would, which is to say they occasionally fire off tweets where you have to click on their profile to make sure it’s actually them.
Two months ago, Kiffin tweeted out an ESPN article that simply read: “How Ohio State built a $20 million, ‘national championship or bust’ roster.” It gained 1.5 million impressions. In the offseason, he riled up opposing fan bases by tweeting pictures of airports when he went to visit possible transfers, even posting a picture of a South Carolina golf cart when he was in Columbia recruiting Juice Wells.
Beamer, more subdued, will simply congratulate fans on getting married. Or tell Sir Big Spur, South Carolina’s live mascot, to “Rest up.” A few weeks ago, he posted the screenshot of a text his wife received from the Oklahoma NIL collective searching for a donation, saying: “I’m afraid we’re going to have to pass.”
People often ask Beamer, Who runs your social media?
“Me,” he’ll respond.
“Seriously,” they say, “who does that?”
“Me!” He’ll say again.
“People think I don’t (run it),” Beamer said, “but I am who I am.”
Since creating his account in July 2012, Beamer has fired off nearly 11,000 tweets, which is only behind Freeze (16K) and Kiffin (17.5K). Here is how the numbers break down going back to Aug. 1.
▪ Freeze (Hasn’t tweeted since Sept. 19)
Tweets- 34
Retweets- 69
▪ Beamer
Tweets- 97
Retweets- 76
▪ Kiffin (Hasn’t tweeted yet in October)
Tweets- 236
Retweets- 114
Clearly, the man in Oxford is the posting king.
Kiffin has explained in the past that there is a logic behind his social media philosophy. Yes, it is hilarious that the head coach of Ole Miss dug up a 3-year-old post that shows the new Mississippi State coach rocking Rebels socks. And, yes, it’s cute to see the recovery of his dog, Juice. But Kiffin does not just do this strictly for fun and entertainment.
“We deal with it all the time,” Kiffin said on The Ryen Russillo Podcast in 2022. “A recruit’s parent comes into the office and the first time, almost always what they say over the last couple years is ‘I follow you on Twitter. It’s so awesome. I feel like I know you.’ Well, that’s pretty important.
“Now it’s, ‘Where’s Juice? We wanna see Juice,’ ” Kiffin added. “It does work and it does connect things. And It puts Ole Miss football in the spotlight. That does matter.”
Beamer agrees. He acknowledged that it’s common for the parent of a recruit to come up to him and say, “We love following you on social media,” or “We love seeing the family interaction you have.”
In trying to create a “family atmosphere” at South Carolina, Beamer is not shy about sharing his family. Which, it should be noted, is human. What parent doesn’t get on social media and post pictures of their kids? These are just videos of a school talent show or a postgame hug broadcast to a wider audience.
“Recruits and recruits’ families use the words ‘real’ and ‘genuine’ with us all the time,” Beamer said. “And that’s who we are.”
WHAT SEC COACHES TWEET THE MOST?
*** We counted tweets as 1 point and retweets as 0.5 points ***
1. Lane Kiffin (Ole Miss)
Total Tweets- 17.5K
SEPT: Tweets- 126 // Retweets- 57
AUG: Tweets- 110 // Retweets- 57
2. Shane Beamer (South Carolina)
Total Tweets- 10.6K
SEPT: Tweets- 44 // Retweets- 33
AUG: Tweets- 50 // Retweets- 39
3. Hugh Freeze (Auburn)
Total Tweets- 16K
SEPT: Tweets- 13 // Retweets- 25
AUG: Tweets- 21 // Retweets- 44
4. Jeff Lebby (Mississippi State)
Total Tweets- 2,820
SEPT: Tweets- 1 // Retweets- 31
AUG: Tweets- 2 // Retweets- 41
5. Kirby Smart (Georgia)
Total Tweets- 2,208
SEPT: Tweets- 15 // Retweets- 0
AUG: Tweets- 15 // Retweets- 0
*** (22 of Smart’s 30 tweets were to wish a player happy birthday.)
6. Steve Sarkisian (Texas)
Total Tweets- 3,425
SEPT: Tweets- 7 // Retweets- 19
AUG: Tweets- 4 // Retweets- 18
7. Eli Drinkwitz (Missouri)
Total Tweets- 5,207
SEPT: Tweets- 8 // Retweets- 10
AUG: Tweets- 7 // Retweets- 13
8. Billy Napier (Florida)
Total Tweets- 4,063
SEPT: Tweets- 0 // Retweets- 2
AUG: Tweets- 3 // Retweets- 39
9. Brian Kelly (LSU)
Total Tweets- 2,707
SEPT: Tweets- 4 // Retweets- 5
AUG: Tweets- 13 // Retweets- 8
10. Kalen DeBoer (Alabama)
Total Tweets- 2,908
SEPT: Tweets- 0 // Retweets- 0
AUG: Tweets- 6 // Retweets- 10
11. Josh Heupel (Tennessee)
Total Tweets- 1,823
SEPT: Tweets- 2 // Retweets- 0
AUG: Tweets- 9 // Retweets- 1
12. Clark Lea (Vanderbilt)
Total Tweets- 2,238
SEPT: Tweets- 2 // Retweets- 6
AUG: Tweets- 1 // Retweets- 2
13. Brent Venables (Oklahoma)
Total Tweets- 3,168
SEPT: Tweets- 0 // Retweets- 2
AUG: Tweets- 5 // Retweets- 1
14. Sam Pittman (Arkansas)
Total Tweets- 1,841
SEPT: Tweets- 0 // Retweets- 0
AUG: Tweets- 6 // Retweets- 0
15. Mike Elko (Texas A&M)
Total Tweets- 1,112
SEPT: Tweets- 0 // Retweets- 0
AUG: Tweets- 4 // Retweets- 0
16. Mark Stoops (Kentucky)
Total Tweets- 3,381
SEPT: Tweets- 0 // Retweets- 0
AUG: Tweets- 1 // Retweets- 0
This story was originally published October 3, 2024 at 7:00 AM with the headline "Shane Beamer and Lane Kiffin are social media studs, especially among SEC coaches."
