Mizzou’s actual SEC rival finally got a win against the Tigers and had a pretty good year to boot. Now what?
Welcome back to Rock M Nation’s annual opponent preview series of the upcoming season. Each week we will break down one opponent from the schedule in chronological order. Given that rosters are ever fluid – and this is done by a hobbyist rather than a pro – there could be some errors in history and current roster makeup. All mistakes are done on purpose and with ill intent because I don’t like you or your team.
Catch up on previous 2025 opponent previews!
Here’s what I said about South Carolina last year:
If the pattern holds then this should be a bottoming out year that costs Shane Beamer his job. I don’t know if the administration is at that point with Beamer the Younger but with divisions removed and the Playoff expanded there’s a chance that athletic directors envision a realm where their school can win big now and choose to can the guy who hasn’t shown he can make a breakthrough.
Also, having an 0-4 record against Missouri feels like one of those secret clauses in every SEC head coach contract that gets you canned. But that’s just a hunch and a projection for this season so don’t pay that too much heed while we sit here in July.
Lol whoops.
Instead of bottoming out and getting fired Shane Beamer caught lightening in a bottle and rocketed up in SP+ rankings, turning a 5-win season into a 9-win season. Obviously I – along with many others in the college football world – were surprised by this turn around, but who among us thought that an overlooked 3-star transfer edge rusher from Georgia Tech could pair up with a wee baby freshman defensive end to create one of the most formidable pass rush tandems in the country? Or that a quarterback with barely any experience could team up with an old, banged-up running back to unleash one of the more effective rushing duos in the SEC?
Certainly not me!
The fact of the matter is that Shane Beamer’s Gamecock program had enough questions and too many negative data points to think that they would do anything but what they had done in the past – fall short of expectations. But that’s the beauty of the transfer portal, isn’t it? Catch lightening with a few impact transfers and you can give a facelift to an entire program, let alone a specific unit, by simply adding a few “right guys” to the team.
It happened at Vanderbilt with Diego Pavia. And it happened last year to South Carolina.
But is this sustainable or just a one-year blip? Let’s remind ourselves as to what South Carolina did last year:
Previous iterations of Beamer’s boys were other-worldly against inferior competition and humbly awful against any team with a pulse. To wit, in 2023 South Carolina had the following record:
- South Carolina vs. SP+ Top 30 teams: 0-5
- South Carolina vs. everybody else: 5-2
In 2024, that record looked like this:
- South Carolina vs. SP+ Top 30 teams: 3-3
- South Carolina vs. everybody else: 5-1
It’s amazing what even a .500 record against good competition can do for you. And, even while picking apart their 3-3 record in one-score games, you can see that when they played like total crap they lost their one-score games, while they absolutely did enough to legitimately win their one-score wins (except for Missouri, which was a straight 50% coin flip). What does that mean? Well, to me, it signals that this wasn’t a fluky 9-win team. SP+ views it similarly: their adjusted record was 8.4 wins, incredibly close to the 9 they actually were accredited.
I’m not sure how much of this is replicable, especially with a ton of turnover on the defensive side and a reset in the offensive coordinator chair. But they do return their dynamic quarterback and threw a ton of interesting names from the portal at the defensive depth chart; as Missouri fans we know that, sometimes, that can be enough to sustain.
Coaching Staff
Photo by Dustin Markland/Getty Images
Shane Beamer – 5th Year – 29-22 (15-17)
For years I have remained unimpressed with Coach Beamer’s work in Columbia East, especially on the offensive side of the ball. What a relief for him, then, that his young quarterback was able to paper over enough inefficiencies to rocket the offense up to Top 35 status and turn the lackluster Dowell Loggains into Appalachian State’s next head coach.
Beamer’s disappointing offenses have held back some legitimately good defenses and special teams play, and last year’s squad was finally able to burst through due to an increase in explosive plays. So…can that continue? And will the defense – a legitimate question mark for seemingly the first time in Beamer’s career – be able to sustain it’s high level of play with new faces across the two deep?
Beamer can recruit stars but his talent evals always felt wrong…until last year, of course! If he’s finally turned the road and started making better additions, and finally has a quarterback that can unshackle the restraints, then maybe we finally have a rival who is able to trade blows in the win/loss column.
Assistant Staff
More good news for Sakerlina: almost no coaching staff turnover. Obviously OC Loggains is now in Boone, North Carolina but Beamer simply promoted Mike Shula – an analyst on staff at this time last year – to the OC chair and then called up Lonnie Teasley from the Gamecock analyst pool to take over as offensive line coach. Otherwise it’s a second year of full continuity for the staff that finally broke the curse and made it through Year Four.
Roster Movement
On the portal-out front, South Carolina’s hits were very similar to what we at Mizzou experienced: a mass exodus of backups. Not a single person on the list contributed significant time on a starting 11 (or even the two-deep) so while the production isn’t missing, the replacements are. And, it’s worth saying, most of South Carolina’s missing production stems from graduation so a lot of these guys had the opportunity to fill in a vacant spot.
To combat that graduating production, Beamer and friends brought in 17 additions, and a lot of them are BIG names. Quarterback Air Norland from Ohio State, running back Rahsul Faison from Utah State, Nolan Hay from Incarnate Word, Demon Clowney from Charlotte, Garbiel Brownlow-Dindy from A&M, Shawn Murphy from Florida State, Justin Okoronkow from Alabama…throw in Missouri defector Jaylen Brown and it’s essentially a list of dudes in the Top 10 of their state’s recruiting class. Making it all mix and play well together is the next step but, at least on a talent acquisition side, the Beamer staff did a great job.
And to round out the additions, South Carolina brings in the 11th-best recruiting class in the SEC – or, as others view it, the 18th-best recruiting class in the nation – chock full of 13 blue-chippers and assorted other high-upside 3-stars. Is there another Dylan Stewart in this class? A super talented freshman that starts and immediately makes a huge impact like last year? Or is there enough experience on the roster that these freshmen don’t even get to see the field? Questions!
Offense
As stated above, South Carolina’s offenses under Shane Beamer have suffered from a lack of efficiency, to the point where they had so many spin-outs that their defenses would wear down as they kept getting trotted out to defend worse and worse field position. But, luckily for the Gamecocks, quarterback LaNorris Sellers offered enough playmaking ability to create explosive plays to overcome that inefficiency. Paired with the super-explosive-but-also-not-efficient Rocket Sanders at running back, the Gamecock offense was overtly reliable on the big play…while thankfully having enough big-play merchants to oblige the necessity. But can they rip off the same trick for a second year? And can Sellers develop a steadier, more-efficiently-friendly style to avoid those crazy asks for big plays?
Quarterback
Photo by David Rosenblum/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Quick: LaNorris Sellers is the first South Carolina quarterback to run for more than 500 yards in a season since…whom?
Think about it.
You know him, I promise.
Ready?
First since Connor Shaw in 2013.
That’s 11 years!
Sellers is mobile but he’s only “ok” at the whole throwing thing. A 65% completion percentage is good but a 7.2 ANY/A is meh, and the 7 interceptions were slightly concerning. He also takes way too many sacks (33) which is common for mobile quarterbacks, and was usually flinging passes for unsuccessful plays which is also not a great look. But, again, he had a knack of creating a big play when they absolutely needed it, leading to the offense ranking 58th in efficiency and yet 21st in the percentage of plays going for 20+ yards.
Running Backs
If it wasn’t for us being Missouri fans and having Ahmad Hardy as a new addition, Rahsul Faison would probably be the best running back that you’ve never heard of. Much like Hardy, Faison was, essentially, his team’s entire offense last year, earning 224 touches on Utah State’s 862 plays: that’s a Tyler Badie-esque 26% utilization rate for one guy for the year!
And he was good, of course! 5.6 yards per carry, over 1,100 yards on the year, 42% success rate, in the “great” tier of forcing tacklers to miss and avoiding runs for 0 or fewer yards. He’s efficient and explosive and the exact type of running back you want stepping in to join Sellers in the backfield.
Receivers
Photo by John Byrum/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
The good news is that South Carolina returns three of their top four wide receivers. The bad news, then is that their best receiver – tight end Joshua Simon – is now an Atlanta Falcon. But it seems that the coaching staff is ok with this, as they portalled in many receivers last year but only one tight end this year, former Kentucky tight end Jordan Dingle.
Offensive Line
Photo by Peter Joneleit/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
The Gamecocks are getting a full reset on the interior of their offensive line, as both guards and their center depart. Both tackles return, as does sixth-man lineman Tree Babalade. But the staff hit here the hardest for offensive transfers, bringing in four experienced linemen pieces to fill in the gaps, including FCS iron man Nolan Hay from Incarnate Word. Snaps and talent tends to outperform starts and cohesion and jt seems that the Carolina staff is banking on this experience to overcome lost production-based efficiencies.
Defense
Clayton White’s defenses have usually been the strong point of Shane Beamer’s Gamecock squads, but they’ve never been in elite territory.
That is, until last year.
Add one part transfer revelation in Kyle Kennard, sprinkle in a freshman phenom in Dylan Stewart, and then liberally apply experienced, talented pieces – like Nick Emmanwori, Debo Williams, T.J. Sanders, and Bam Martin-Scott – and, baby, you got yourself a Top 15 stew going.
But all those names I mentioned? Yeah…only Stewart returns. In fact, based on tackles, South Carolina loses their top five players to graduation. Now there’s still plenty of meat on the bone, but the depth and experience will be a lot different than what they were able to roll out last year. And all that talent and depth led to the Gamecocks ranking 13th in overall defense, 28th against explosive plays, 34th in 3rd-down defense, and 14th in points per scoring opportunity.
But to recatch that lightening from last year, the Gamecock staff brought in a whopping six defensive linemen – including former 5-star tackle Gabriel Brownlow-Dindy – as well as a two-pack each of linebackers and corner to stuff the depth chart. Their target seemed clear: of the 10 transfers in on defense, half were former 247 composite blue-chippers and P4-caliber players.
We’ve seen “throw numbers at it!’ work for Mizzou’s defense, and I’ll be curious to see what the results are for the team from lesser Columbia.
So what does it all mean?
Look…I’m probably being a hater right now but I’m going to cite the full Beamer history – rather than just one season – as to how I view this 2025 South Carolina team.
History shows a coach who can catch media attention and recruit well but fails to deploy his talent in a manner that wins games. Scroll back up to that SP+ chart at the beginning: the caliber of his teams sea-saws from 14 or 16 at its highs to 4 at its lows the year following the success, and even then, last year was the first time he had fewer than 5 losses in a season. It’s absolutely true that he was able to steer out of the skid last year and surprise the nation with nine wins thanks to some impact additions. But history has shown that those additions were an outlier to what he usually does, and given his overall lackluster record and talent evaluation, I’m going to believe that is what he usually does rather than what we saw in ‘24.
But, as we saw in last year’s preview, I could be absolutely wrong about all of this. And, secretly, I hope I am! Life is boring if you always know what’s going to happen, and I’ll admit there was a tiny speckle of joy in this consistently-dumb team finally finding a way to not be dumb for a full month of surprising wins. But I’ll believe it when I see it for more than one year.
Mizzou will absolutely have its hands full with its second trophy game in three weeks, especially so early in the season. Here’s hoping Drinkwitz’s penchant for nabbing hardware and playing at home is able to hold serve and dish up an L back to South Carolina’s leger.
I’d hate to live in a world where Shane Beamer, of all people, has two straight wins over Missouri.