Lane Kiffin and LSU were in the mix to land highly sought after defensive line coach Elijah Robinson deep into the process that ultimately led the former Syracuse defensive coordinator back to Texas A&M, where he returns to College Station as Mike Elko’s co-defensive coordinator and defensive line coach after previously working for the Aggies from 2018-23.
Lane Kiffin’s search for his new defensive line coach then pivoted to South Carolina edge rushers / outside linebackers coach Sterling Lucas, where the play of Lucas’ unit provided one of the few bright spots in the Gamecocks 4-8 season this past fall. Standout rushers Dylan Stewart and Bryan Thomas Jr. have been among his star pupils and some of the best in the SEC.
Today, South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer appeared in front of cameras with a message about that search, seated alongside his new hire Deion Barnes, who worked with an impressive list of edge players at Penn State prior to landing on Beamer’s staff.
Beamer took a few issues with how Kiffin went about landing someone from the Gamecocks staff.
“Happened fast, as you guys know. I got a call on a Thursday night after 11 pm from the previous coach that was here, telling me that he had been offered a job at another school. By 9 am 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.”
With the timeline in mind, Beamer also took issue publicly with the thoroughness of the Kiffin’s interview of Lucas.
“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.”
Lucas had been part of the Gamecocks staff since 2022, coaching the defensive ends and outside linebackers before adding the defensive run game coordinator title in January of 2025. He was the assistant defensive line coach with the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2021 and spent the 2016-20 seasons with the Ravens.
Hear more from Beamer in the clip.
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.
10 hours after receiving a call from Lucas at 11pm, he was gone to Baton Rouge pic.twitter.com/YlCIovyuo3
— Trey Wallace (@TreyWallace_) January 2, 2026