South Carolina Coach Shane Beamer Defends Wife’s Cookie Baking Skills After Controversy

University of South Carolina head football coach Shane Beamer had some very serious business to address during a preseason press conference with reporters. 

“I do have a statement to make,” Beamer, 48, said on Tuesday, August 12. “I think my wife is getting some undue criticism on the cookies that she makes.”

Beamer was referencing episode 5 of Netflix’s SEC Football: Any Given Saturday, in which his wife, Emily, was seen making some homemade cookies that did not meet every viewer’s standards. 

“She’s actually had people that have reached out to her … saying she’s not cooking the cookies long enough,” Shane explained. “Much respect for the people that took the time to reach out to her to criticize her for her cookies.”

Shane added, “The cookies are the freakin’ bomb, just so you guys know. I’ve got my girl’s back.”

In fact, Shane explained that his wife’s cookies have been a longstanding tradition at all of the coaching stops throughout his career. 

“She’s been making those cookies [since] I was an assistant coach,” he said. “She’s been making those cookies for my position group that I coached — the running backs at Virginia Tech or the tight ends at Georgia or the tight ends at Oklahoma.”

Emily now makes the cookies every Thursday for members of the University of South Carolina football building. 

“To the people that reached out to her on Instagram to criticize her telling her that she’s not cooking them long enough, come up here on a Thursday after practice when I put those cookies out and see how fast they’re devoured and gone,” Shane challenged. “Because they’re gone in about five minutes.”

He added, “The cookies are awesome. She’s cooking them the right way.”

Shane and Emily got married in 2006 and share daughters Sutton, 17, and Olivia, 15, and son Hunter, 12. 

The couple got engaged around the holidays in 2005 during Shane’s time as an assistant coach at Mississippi State.

“We went back to the room after dinner to exchange Christmas presents,” Emily recalled in a recent interview with Columbia Metropolitan magazine. “My first gift was a little jewelry box. “After I opened it, he said, ‘I’m sorry to give you a ring. I know that probably made you think it was something else.’ Then, the doorbell rang, and it was a bellman with a different ring box. When I turned around, Shane was down on one knee. There were rose petals and candles.”

Emily added, “I don’t even know how he lit everything so fast. He did an amazing job with that.”

All seven episodes of SEC Football: Any Given Saturday are available to stream on Netflix.