For the first time since being fired as Alabama’s head coach following the 2006 regular season, Mike Shula is back in an on field role in college as South Carolina’s new offensive coordinator.
In May of 2003, Mike Shula was named head coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide. After four seasons and a 26-23 record, he was released and returned to the NFL. In March of 2024, after 17 seasons in the NFL, he returned to College Football as an analyst with the South Carolina Gamecocks. Now, he is tabbed to become the next offensive coordinator in Columbia, S.C.
The move to hire Shula comes in the wake of Dowell Loggains leaving to take the head job at Appalachian State. Shula, a bonified quarterback developer with plenty of playcalling experience, could be the next step for a Gamecock program looking for consistency.
Developing quarterbacks will be a huge part of the job. True freshman LaNorris Sellers put in a solid first season with the Gamecocks but will need to take a step forward for South Carolina to find consistency.
Shula’s reputation as a quarterback developer began in 1999 as the OC of the Tampa Bay Buccanneers. The Bucs went 11-5 in the ’99 season behind their 1998 second-draft pick, rookie quarterback Shawn King. In 2007, working with the Miami Dolphins, he helped turn David Garrad into a Pro Bowl candidate. In 2011, as part of the Carolina Panthers staff, he helped Cam Newton win Offensive Rookie of the Year and set multiple NFL rookie records.
Sellers, a guy built from Newton’s mold, will be his latest project. The 6’3”, 242-pound freshman threw for over 2,000 yards in 2024 and rushed for 655 more. In Shula’s role as OC, he won’t be down on the field working with Sellers the way he was in 2024, but you can expect the playbook to be wide open in 2025
As a play-caller, Shula’s level of success has been high. Looking back to the Alabama days, that can be hard to see, especially considering Alabama’s injury problems when he was head coach. But the NFL-level success is there, Shula was part of the ’99 Bucs run to the NFC Championship and helped take the Panthers to the Super Bowl in 2015. A year in which he was named the Pro Football Focus Offensive Coordinator of the year.
Shula’s hiring is also a sign of the times in College Football as the sport moves towards a more NFL-based system. Across the game, Schools are hiring GMs to help run teams, and Colleges across the country are looking into former NFL coaches.
The move to hire Shula could also be seen as a way to develop the Gamecocks in the way Bill Belichick talked about when considering taking the job at North Carolina.
“If I was in a college program, the college program would be a pipeline to the NFL for the players that had the ability to be in the NFL.” Belichick said in an interview with the Pat McAfee Show on ESPN. “It would be a professional program – training, nutrition, scheme, coaching, and techniques that would transfer to the NFL.”
Promoting Shula, with his reputation of developing top-notch quarterbacks at the NFL level, could be a move in that direction for the Gamecocks.
