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Few coaches have as much fun doing their job as Shane Beamer, who exudes young dad enthusiasm in a notoriously dyspeptic line of work. He always seems like a man pumped to be accompanying his daughter to a Taylor Swift show.
In Year 4, though, his tenure is at a crossroad.
The momentum of a Top-25 finish in 2022 fizzled immediately in ’23, yielding to a 5-7 slog that didn’t look like fun at any point.
The Gamecocks weren’t bad, necessarily; they were boring, failing to top 20 points in 6 of their 7 losses despite the efforts of a draftable senior quarterback, Spencer Rattler, and a first-round wideout, Xavier Legette.
The result was thoroughly Muschampian.
As different as Beamer is personality-wise from his short-fused predecessor, his trajectory is starting to look very familiar. There’s a reason FanDuel set the Gamecocks’ over/under win total at 5.5, and why I picked them to finish 13th in the SEC.
Gamecocks at a Glance …
2023 Recap: 5-7 (3-5 SEC)
Best Player: DL Tonka Hemingway
Best Pro Prospect: DB Nick Emmanwori
Best Addition: RB Raheim “Rocket” Sanders (Arkansas)
Best Name: DL Monkell Goodwine
Most Grizzled: TE Joshua Simon (6th year; 30 career starts at USC and Western Kentucky)
Emerging Dude: Sophomore WR Nyck Harbor, a bona fide freak
Biggest strength: The interior d-line combo of Tonka Hemingway and TJ Sanders is as good as any in the SEC. They’re both future pros who finished 1-2 on the team in QB pressures in 2023 — rare enough for one defensive tackle, and a true feat for two.
Nagging concern: Redshirt freshman LaNorris Sellers is the greenest starting QB in the conference and, excluding true freshman Dylan Raiola at Nebraska, likely the greenest in the Power 4. Few teams in the portal era are content anymore to simply hand the reins to the next man up the old-fashioned way, unless the next guy was an elite recruit, which Sellers was not. It’s unfair to dismiss his potential strictly on that basis, especially after he fended off a challenge from Auburn transfer Robby Ashford in the spring. Until further notice, he’s just got a big question mark following him around by default.
Looming question: Can the new playmakers achieve liftoff? Rocket Sanders and Nyck Harbor are two of the most intriguing weapons in the country. At Arkansas, Sanders led the SEC in scrimmage yards in 2022, only to get waylaid by multiple injuries in ’23. Harbor, a 6-5, 235-pound track star with an infinite SPARQ score, is moving to the top of the wide receiver depth chart after a quiet debut as a freshman. Even if they don’t rise to the level of week-in, week-out stars, either has the potential on any given Saturday to singlehandedly ruin somebody’s season.
The schedule: There are 4 more or less guaranteed wins on offer against Old Dominion, Akron, Vanderbilt and Wofford. Good luck finding a 5th. But before you dismiss any given game as a likely L, double check: Is it a night game in Columbia? Under Beamer, Carolina is an impressive 11-3 in home games that kicked off at 7 pm ET or later – most of those wins coming as an underdog – compared to 9-15 in all other games. Kickoff against LSU on Sept. 14 is already set for noon, but if Ole Miss, Texas A&M, or Missouri gets stuck in a primetime SEC Network slot in Williams-Brice Stadium, they should approach it like it’s the Bermuda Triangle.
RELATED: Predicting every South Carolina game in 2024
The upshot
The Gamecocks went 5-7 with Spencer Rattler and Xavier Legette in the fold. They’re far from bankrupt, talent-wise, but losing that duo to the next level and getting better is not in the cards.
Matt Hinton, author of 'Monday Down South' and our resident QB guru, has previously written for Dr. Saturday, CBS and Grantland.
