South Carolina HC Made Decision for Bangally Kamara to Exit Program

South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer and former Pitt linebacker Bangally Kamara saw differently when it came to the linebacker’s future with the program.

It was announced earlier this week that Kamara decided to redshirt and enter the transfer portal for the second time after playing four games at South Carolina, but it was Beamer who ultimately made the decision for Kamara.

“He came in my office yesterday and told me that he was redshirting,” Beamer said Tuesday at his weekly press conference. “I told him that’s not quite how this works, that we could have a discussion about his role and is redshirting best, and we went back and forth a little bit. I think his situation is a little bit different than somebody else, there’s guys on this team right now that we’ve had conversations with that, look, we’re doing what we have to do in ’24 to win football games, but if we can save your redshirt year and not play you in five games, we will …

“But he was a guy that played a season-high in snaps on Saturday at linebacker that was going to continue to play more for us moving forward. My job is to do what’s best for the team and what was best for the team in my mind is Gally continuing to play and help us go try to beat Alabama this weekend. And he didn’t quite feel the same way, so in the end, I made the decision for him that it was probably best to move on.”

Kamara played in four games for South Carolina this season, including a season-high 30 defensive snaps against Ole Miss over the weekend. He recorded nine tackles (seven solo) in his 70 total snaps this season.

Kamara recorded 1,144 defensive snaps over his last two seasons at Pitt and recorded 104 tackles (48 solo), 9.5 tackles for loss, three sacks, an interception, eight pass breakups and a fumble recovery. Now he will look to find a home for the final season of collegiate eligibility in 2025.

It’s a tough situation for South Carolina and Kamara, but it’s also indicative of the times. In today’s college football, where movement in the transfer portal is unpredictable, the grass isn’t always greener on the other side.

Pitt, on the other hand, is having a strong season from its new-look linebacker corps, including Kyle Louis and Rasheem Biles on the outside — who took over for Bangally Kamara and Solomon DeShields over the offseason.

The new-look linebacking corps has worked out very well for the Pitt Panthers — and should only get better throughout the season.