Beamer Suspends Star Dylan Stewart, Prioritizing Program Culture Over Crucial SEC Game

Dylan Stewart's late-game punch against Alabama was the latest example of a star player putting himself ahead of the team.

South Carolina was getting blown out Saturday night when Stewart, a projected top-10 pick in next spring's NFL Draft, punched Crimson Tide tight end Josh Ford in the helmet after a fourth-quarter touchdown. He was flagged, but not ejected. Earlier, Gamecocks coach Shane Beamer had confronted him after Stewart was slow to leave the field following a penalty.

None of it helped a team headed toward their seventh consecutive SEC loss, 49-18 at the hands of the Tide, under the current regime.

"Dylan is suspended from our football team indefinitely," Beamer said during Sunday night's SEC teleconference. "I'll make the decision on what his future looks like beyond this week here in the next day or so. Still having some meetings and talking with him. But he won't play this week versus Kentucky. There's a standard of how we do things in this program, and that was not it last night.

"And it's beyond the punch; the punch is unacceptable. He's not the first person to ever, unfortunately, throw a punch in a football game, and he won't be the last. But it's some of the other stuff that isn't how we do things in this program. And accountability is a core value of this program, and we are all accountable to the standard. So we'll see what that looks like here going forward."

Beamer's battling  enough outside noise during a tumultuous campaign on the league's hottest seat that an in-house headache could sink what's left of the ship entirely. Chalk this up as a smart move by him, even if it doesn't help South Carolina's case next weekend against Kentucky.

Also, this wasn't Stewart's first lesson in how quickly his emotion can hurt the Gamecocks. Against Vanderbilt last season, he was ejected after a second unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. In 2024, he sacked Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart, stood over him and pretended to fire an imaginary gun .

The subsequent 15-yard penalty turned a defensive highlight into another needless setback and led to college football's rules committee altering its verbiage for unsportsmanlike conduct flags to include "brandishing" a weapon .

There's a difference between playing with an edge and losing sight of the team and Stewart, despite his five-star talent level, has too often been in the gray.

For Beamer, an indefinite suspension was the only move. Perhaps a dismissal comes next. Speculation surrounding job security is growing as South Carolina sits 2-2 overall and winless in SEC play coming out of last season's abysmal 4-8 finish and another distraction only spikes the flames.

Letting his most talented -- and handsomely-paid -- defender walk away from Saturday without a meaningful consequence would have sent a damaging message to everyone else in that locker room: the standard depends on who breaks it.

That's how a coach risks losing his team when he can least afford to during a time of obvious peril at the program.

Beamer addresses job security

Following a report over the weekend indicating Saturday's home game with Kentucky could be decisive in his future with the Gamecocks, Beamer said he's had positive conversations with South Carolina athletic director Jeremiah Donati since the loss to Alabama.

The Gamecocks have lost 11 of their last 13 games against Power Four teams under Beamer and the Wildcats come to Columbia, SC in Week 5 newly-ranked in the AP Poll at No. 24.

"I'm focused on putting together a better plan and getting a team better this week to go play against Kentucky," Beamer said about job speculation. "That's what my focus is on. Have I talked to Jeremiah? Yeah, I talked to Jeremiah 20 minutes ago. We had a great conversation right before I jumped on the teleconference with you guys. We talked last night in the locker room, he and Jeff Crane and all of our administrators who are super awesome. So they were super supportive last night after the game. And they were in the locker room when I talked to the team after the game.

"They were in the press conferences you saw. And you know, like I said, I talked to Jeremiah today, and you guys know me, a person of faith, and my faith is very important to me. And one of my favorite verses is Jeremiah, Chapter 17, Verse 7 and 8. And it talks about being a person whose trust is in the Lord and who does not fear when heat comes. And when you are in this position, you understand that you're judged on wins and losses. I get that."

This week marks one calendar year since the Gamecocks' last SEC win -- which came against Kentucky inside Williams Brice Stadium.

Beamer's buyout is $27.9 million if he's fired before the end of the season.

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_Originally reported by [CBS Sports](https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/shane-beamer-on-secs-hottest-seat-made-right-move-by-suspending-best-player-why-dylan-stewart-has-to-sit/)._