A mayo bath? Why Shane Beamer says he’ll ‘take one for the team’ with a bowl win

Admittedly, Shane Beamer isn’t much of a mayonnaise guy.

But would South Carolina’s first-year head football coach let mayonnaise be dumped on him after a win in the 2021 Duke’s Mayo Bowl?

“Well, I’m not a big mayonnaise guy,” Beamer said in Sunday’s bowl game press conference. “I mean, I’ll gladly take one for the team on that one if it means we won a football game — but phew.”

Danny Morrison, executive director of the Duke’s Mayo Bowl, announced in a video posted to Twitter on Sunday that this year’s winning head coach would have the option to take a “mayo bath” and receive $10,000 to donate to a charity of the team’s choice.

Last season, the Duke’s Mayo Bowl Twitter account teased the possibility a jug of mayo existed, leading fans to believe it would be poured on the winning coach. When the cooler labeled like a jar of Duke’s Mayo was dumped on Wisconsin head coach Paul Chryst, it appeared to have been filled with water instead.

Morrison apologized for “misleading” fans last season in Sunday’s Twitter video.

Beamer said he spent much of Sunday recruiting in Miami and had hopped off a plane for the Gamecocks’ awards ceremony before the Sunday night bowl press conference, so he hadn’t had a chance to look into the details of the mayo bath. He said USC deputy athletic director Chance Miller mentioned it to him at dinner.

“I literally jumped off a plane, so I hadn’t really been on social media a whole lot today to figure out the ins and outs of that one,” Beamer said. “But if it means we win a football game and get a seventh win, then I’ll do whatever I need to do.”

Beamer will take on Mack Brown’s North Carolina Tar Heels for the Duke’s Mayo Bowl on Thursday, Dec. 30 at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte. The game will be broadcast at 11:30 a.m. on ESPN.