Saturday night I was in the press box when Missouri scored a touchdown with 1:10 left on the clock to take a three point lead over the Gamecocks at Williams-Brice Stadium. When that happened my phone vibrated on the desk in front of me. I got a couple of text messages from several friends who are Gamecock fans. One was from my mom. That message was one single word. A word that I think went through the minds of many Gamecock fans at that point on Saturday night. That word? “Typical.”
The scars are deep for Gamecock fans. How many times have they been in a situation similar to this over the years? How many times have they been the better team in a game to only have their hearts shattered? How man times recently have they seen their team reach the top 25 to only lose the next week? Those scars are real and has led to the eternal pessimism that resides in the hearts and minds of the Gamecock “faithful.” The thought Saturday was “here we go again. Same old Gamecocks.”
Except it wasn’t. LaNorris Sellers, who has proven himself to be one of the coolest red shirt freshman we have ever seen, took the team down the field and got a shovel pass to Rocket Sanders at the 15 and Sanders did the rest and gave the Gamecocks the eventual win. On the last drive Sellers was poised and perfect on that final drive and the Gamecock defeated a ranked team for the third week in a row for the first time in school history.
I have been to a lot of South Carolina football games since I attended my first in the early 1990’s when Steve Taneyhill was the starting quarterback and he was throwing passes to Monty Means. To my recollection I have never seen a South Carolina team do that. Some people I talked to afterwards who have been around a lot longer didn’t have a recollection of seeing that kind of win. In other words it was very, “Atypical.”
South on Saturday had 109 total yards on the ground with Sanders as the leading rusher with 53 yards and Sellers adding 45. Sellers got it done through the passing game though with 353 yards through the air completing passes to nine different receivers in the game. Josh Simon, Nyck Harbor, Jared Brown, Sanders, and Michael Smith all had touchdown catches. Dalton Campbell also had two catches for 86 yards.
The defensive line for South Carolina wasn’t nearly as dominate this week as they have been this season. Only had one sack in the game before the final drive, when they got their second, and got gashed in the running game at times. Linebackers had a rough game as well and sometimes looked lost. And let’s just not talk about giving up the touchdown on 4th and five I want to try and keep this positive.
South Carolina of course has two games left both against instate opponents. Wofford this weekend should be a win giving the Gamecocks 8 on the season which is about double what I thought they would have before the season started. The last game looks like a “winnable” game as well but who knows with that one. But as things stand right now since 2022 Shane Beamer has more wins over top 25 teams than any other active coach in college football with 6 such wins. Brad Crawford from 24/7 Sports points out that is more than Ryan Day and Lane Kiffin’s 5, Brian Kelly and Lincoln Riley’s 4, and James Franklin and Mike Norvell’s 3.
I fell safe in saying that this years team has been atypical, different than past teams. I do know it has been a blast to watch.
