South Carolina Football Is in an Unenviable Spot Right Now
What to make of Shane Beamer's program going into Year 6 in Columbia.
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I came across a brutal statistic on the recent futility of the University of South Carolina athletics yesterday. The post came from Inside The Gamecocks on X, who highlighted just how bad things have been for Gamecock football, baseball, and men’s basketball since the first day of 2025. In baseball, the Gamecocks are 7-5 with losses to Army, Northern Kentucky, Queens, and just lost two of three in the Palmetto Series against in-state rival Clemson. After finishing tied for second in the SEC standings in men’s hoops in the 2023-24 season, the men’s basketball program has won five SEC games over the last two seasons and is quite likely to finish last in the conference in back-to-back seasons. After just missing the College Football Playoff in the 2024-25 season, the football program went 1-7 in the SEC in 2025-26 and finished fifteenth in the conference.
That’s tough.
That last line of that first paragraph stuck with me, though. The Gamecocks under head football coach Shane Beamer nearly qualified for the CFP two seasons ago. South Carolina finished that season fifteenth in ESPN’s FPI and was ninth in defensive efficiency. Only Texas and Tennessee had better defenses versus SEC competition than the Gamecocks two seasons ago, per CFBStats. BCFToys’ model liked Beamer’s team a bit more than ESPN’s, as his team finished No. 11 in FEI. The defense was playoff-worthy, but even with LaNorris Sellars’ emergence that season, the Gamecocks finished 42nd OFEI in stark contrast to that No. 8 finish in DFEI.
South Carolina has had two completely different seasons over the last two years. For Beamer’s team to get back to the 2024-25 version, the addition of Kendal Briles as offensive coordinator needs to be one of the best coordinator hires of the cycle. ESPN’s Bill Connelly released his final 2025-26 SP+ rankings, and the Gamecocks finished in familiar territory – the defense much higher than the offense at 31st and 86th, respectively. Briles will be the third offensive coordinator in the last three seasons under Beamer. The latter has now had four different offensive coordinators since arriving in Columbia in 2021. Under Briles as offensive coordinator last season, the TCU Horned Frogs had a top-10 passing offense, per CFBStats. In fact, the Horned Frogs had a top-10 passing attack in each of the last two seasons. Even with Spencer Rattler and Sellers, the Gamecocks’ passing offense has never flirted with a top-10 finish in FBS under Beamer. The Briles-and-Sellers pairing is one of the more fascinating SEC storylines to monitor over the six months.
The Gamecocks may have had a no-good-and-quite-terrible season in 2025-26, but over the last four seasons under Beamer, the team has bounced back twice after disappointing seasons. After smacking Tennessee and Clemson to close 2022 with some momentum, the Gamecocks went 5-7 the next season and didn’t make a bowl game. Then Beamer’s program went on to win nine games the following season. With a returning quarterback projected to potentially go as high as No. 1 in the 2026 NFL Draft, the Gamecocks went 4-8 and won just one conference game.
So Sellers is back. If he and Briles recreate some of that 2024-25 magic in Columbia, the Gamecocks could potentially have two first-round picks in Sellers and edge Dylan Stewart in next year’s draft. The Gamecocks’ biggest transfer portal addition came at a position of need at offensive tackle in former NC State offensive lineman Jacarrius Peak. Last season, left tackle Josiah Thompson struggled mightily in pass protection as he finished the season with a 46.6 PFF grade in pass-blocking snaps. With the Wolfpack last season, Peak registered a strong 84.1 PFF grade in pass-blocking snaps. How Peak fares in South Carolina’s nine conference games is of paramount importance for Beamer’s team next season.
There are a lot of questions at the skill-positions on offense once again for South Carolina, though. Outside wideout Nyck Harbor is back, along with solid slot guys in Jayden Sellers and Mazeo Bennett. Nitro Tuggle, formerly at Georgia and Purdue, is back in the SEC as a Gamecock. Does he make a move and start alongside Harbor on the outside? After last season’s Rahsul Faison debacle, you don’t really know what South Carolina has at running back, either. If the offensive line improves and a receiver and running back or two hit, you don’t have to squint too terribly hard to see a bounce-back year for the Gamecocks.
On the schedule front, South Carolina has a 2026 schedule that should excite the fanbase. There is a very real chance this team is 4-1 when they head to Gainesville on October 10. They get Tennessee, Texas A&M, and Georgia all at Williams-Brice Stadium. Traveling to Death Valley to close has never looked more winnable. It’s a schedule where one could see the Gamecocks reaching the eight-win threshold.
The pressure will be on this football program in 2026, though. The men’s basketball program and baseball program might both have new head coaches this time next year. For Beamer, he made a needed change at offensive coordinator. He retained Sellers and Stewart, and his schedule looks conducive to a nice bounce-back season. This fanbase has watched a lot of losses pile up over the last calendar year, though, and the pressure will be on for Beamer to flip the script next season.