The South Carolina Gamecocks picked up their fourth straight win on Saturday, knocking off the 23rd-ranked Missouri Tigers by a score of 34-30. In a largely back-and-forth affair, the Gamecocks scored a late touchdown with just 15 seconds remaining to secure the victory.
Now sitting at 7-3, the Gamecocks are one win away from matching their best total under head coach Shane Beamer. On the flip side, the Missouri Tigers have seen what little hope they had left at SEC contention evaporate with the loss. With game ten in the books for the South Carolina Gamecocks, let’s look at the key takeaways from the win.
Sellers’ Star Keeps Rising
It’s a pretty remarkable sight to see a young player evolve into a potential superstar week after week, and that’s what we are witnessing with LaNorris Sellers right now. The redshirt freshman raised the bar again against Mizzou, this time with his arm.
In a game where the Missouri defense completely shut down Carolina’s vaunted ground game, Sellers carried the Gamecocks to victory throwing the ball. On the day, he completed 21 of his 30 passes for a career-best 353 yards and five touchdowns. The last of these wound up being the game-sealing score that secured the win for Carolina.
“The moment is never too big for him,” Beamer said following the game. “He works his butt off, he’s very grounded, he’s very poised, he’s a competitor, his teammates love him, his coaches love him. He’s just a really good quarterback who continues to get better every single week.”
It’s hard to understate how special Sellers is becoming. The monumental potential was always there, but seldom do we see players of his caliber match the expectations that have been set. He really is everything people hoped he would be, and more
It’s not an over-exaggeration to say that Sellers has the potential to be the greatest Gamecock to ever grace the garnet and black. Only time will tell if this comes to pass, but in the meantime, it’s hard not to look at what he’s done in year one and salivate over what’s to come in the next couple of seasons.
Defense Bends, Doesn’t Break
On the other side of the ball, Carolina’s defense was able to avoid a disastrous second-half collapse. The normally stout unit started the game strong, allowing just six points in the first half. Coming out of the break though was a much different story.
It was clear that Eli Drinkwitz and his staff made some major halftime adjustments. The Tigers’ offense looked completely unrecognizable down the backstretch. These adjustments completely caught the Gamecocks off guard, and as a result, they began bleeding yards. Mizzou actually outscored Carolina in the second half by 11 points.
While the defense certainly got put on the ropes, they didn’t suffer a complete collapse. The front seven was able to come up with several key sacks, and Jalon Kilgore came up with a game-sealing interception as time wound down to finish the Tigers off. Beamer touched on the resiliency his team showed after the game, and how early struggles this season prepared his team for Saturday.
“I think we’re just battle-tested,” Beamer said. “When you go through shared struggles together, I truly believe it makes you closer and even more resilient. We went through some shared struggles last season and some shared struggles with those heart-breaking losses early in the year. What a way to finish. Proud of those guys because we have been through shared struggles together and that makes you closer.”
It was hard to look at the way things were unfolding in the second half at times and not draw parallels to the LSU game. Despite the similarities though, Carolina drew on that letdown in order to avoid a similar fate against Mizzou. That’s the mark of a veteran team and a team that doesn’t fold under pressure.
Beamer Rises to the Occasion
These past four games have taught us a lot about this team, and the man leading it. Coming out of the bye, it was clear to see that these final five games represented a crossroads for the program and more specifically for Beamer. Faltering down the stretch meant that the leash he had going into next season would become almost impossibly short.
In other words, Beamer needed to finish the campaign out strong in order to build optimism for the future. Over the last three games, he’s done all of that and more. His team is playing better now than arguably at any other time in his tenure. This shows that despite the early letdowns, his players believe in him. More importantly, they have also bought into the culture he and his staff have built.
If there were any reservations three weeks ago about whether or not Beamer was the guy to lead South Carolina football those are gone now. You can tell Beamer cares deeply for the program, and truly believes in what he is building. That’s not something that you can find just anywhere. With Beamer at the helm, it truly feels like the program is on the cusp of turning the corner.
Beamer has shown the Carolina faithful he’s capable of sustaining success in Columbia. In turn, we should expect the powers that be to reaffirm their support for him by giving him what he needs to continue building on what he’s done so far. If they do, then we may be on the precipice of something special.
