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South Carolina’s bid for a 10-win season ended in disappointment on Tuesday night at the Citrus Bowl. The Gamecocks were looking to extend their winning streak to 7 games to close out the year and earn what would have been just the fifth 10-win season in program history.
But Illinois came up with those game-winning plays in the fourth quarter and escaped with a 21-17 win.
The Gamecocks will end the year with a 9-4 record. While disappointing, it’s still the best mark of the Shane Beamer era. The Gamecocks will also likely close the season ranked in the final AP poll of the year for just the second time in the last decade.
Here are 3 takeaways from the game.
LaNorris Sellers makes plays, just not the play
South Carolina’s starting quarterback went into the finale red-hot. And he mostly played fine. He missed throws. He finished 24-for-34 for 260 yards and a touchdown. He didn’t do much damage with his legs (19 yards on 11 carries), but he didn’t turn the football over either. Illinois played to limit his rushing ability and forced the Gamecocks to nibble in the pass game.
There is 1 very specific play he will want back.
Trailing by 4 points with a little over 3 minutes to play, South Carolina faced a fourth-and-4 from the Illini 7-yard-line. Rather than kick a field goal and ensure the possession ended with something, Beamer rolled the dice and left the offense on the field to go for the lead. Sellers was pressured, but he had a crosser open in the endzone for 6.
His throw was low and behind the 6-foot-4 Josh Simon. Simon got his fingertips on the pass, but he couldn’t bring it in. The ball hit the dirt, South Carolina turned it over on downs, and Illinois broke a 60-yard run on third down 3 plays later to ice the game.
South Carolina never got the ball back.
That’s a throw Sellers has to make. If he’s going to contend for the Heisman Trophy next season — as many, myself included, have suggested he is capable of — that’s a throw he cannot miss. Sellers ends his season with 2,274 yards through the air. He ran for 655 yards and 7 touchdowns as well. The growth this offseason, however, has to come as a passer. He tossed 7 interceptions and only 17 touchdowns. He took 31 sacks and closed out the season with a 70.4 QBR. That’s good for an ascending team. A contending team needs more.
Run defense falters
South Carolina entered Tuesday’s slate of games ranked 12th nationally in run defense and seventh in run efficiency defense. Opponents only averaged 3.1 yards per carry against the Gamecocks this season and no one gained more than 150 yards on the ground against them.
Until Tuesday.
Illinois ran for 183 yards. Remove the 1 sack the Gamecocks recorded and the Illini averaged 5.7 yards per carry. Aidan Laughery ran for 67 yards. Josh McCray ran for 114 yards and 2 scores on 13 carries. Illinois hit 5 explosives on the ground against a unit that entered the game only allowing 3.5 per contest.
It was an uncharacteristically poor showing from the defense, and it bit the Gamecocks in the behind late. Illinois had 115 rushing yards in just the fourth quarter. Most of that came from 1 carry — McCray’s 60-yarder — but that 1 carry was also incredibly important.
South Carolina had the Illini in third-and-short with 1:56 to play and 2 timeouts still in its pocket. A stop would have given Sellers and the Gamecock offense 1 final chance to go for the win. But McCray raced up the gut untouched and wasn’t dragged down until he was knocking on the door of the red zone. South Carolina needed only 4 more plays to kill the remainder of the clock and leave with the win.
Beamer-Bielema tiff steals the show
At the end of the third quarter, Illinois head coach Bret Bielema did something I can’t recall seeing from a major college football coach before. While checking on an injured Illinois player, he brazenly taunted South Carolina for a loophole in the rules he was actively exploiting.
When South Carolina would substitute on offense, Illinois would match as slowly as possible in an attempt to bleed the play clock and leave the Gamecocks without much time to do anything pre-snap. The Illini did it repeatedly.
And when Bielema started mocking the South Carolina sideline, he flashed the substitution signal. It was bizarre, almost like a coach flaunting, “I’m smarter than you,” in the middle of a game. No flag was thrown. No penalty was assessed. But Beamer blew his lid and had to be restrained. Amidst the commotion, Bielema just laughed on the other side.
To the casual observer, this was a tremendous moment. Beamer and Bielema literally recreated a meme. If we want the non-Playoff bowl games to matter, we embrace things like this. That being said, Bielema was an instigator in a way I just haven’t often seen from a coach.
Beamer called it “bush league” after the game.
Is there any way we can get these 2 teams scheduled for a neutral-site game to open the 2025 season? Please…?
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.
