Even with bowl loss, South Carolina’s season could set the stage for a special run

Perhaps the greatest compliment of this South Carolina football season was that it was, well, disappointing.

Not a disappointment — no. Disappointment means failure. Disappointing means there was room for more.

This has been one of the most remarkable seasons of South Carolina football. A squad picked to finish 13th in the SEC, counted out after missing a bowl in 2023, left for dead once quarterback Spencer Rattler and wide receiver Xavier Legette turned pro became just the eighth team in USC history to win nine games.

Though South Carolina fell 21-17 to Illinois in the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl on Tuesday — a bit of a letdown for a program that was quite vocal about its desire to win a 10th game — one must think of where the Gamecocks have come in just a year.

The team that brought in over 20 transfers and started a redshirt freshman at quarterback had tempered expectations. Just get back to a bowl game. Get the program back on track.

And, boy, did that proposition feel like a coin flip after South Carolina started 3-3 with losses to LSU, Ole Miss and Alabama. But then something happened. In a matter of a month, the Gamecocks elevated their own barometer of success — rewriting their own potential and expectations in a blink.

They scored impressive wins over Oklahoma and No. 10 Texas A&M. Then they knocked off Vanderbilt and Missouri. A bowl game was in the bag, but more was still out there.

In the leadup to the final two games of South Carolina’s season, the Gamecocks were in the hunt for the 12-team College Football Playoff. A team expected to do very little afforded its fan base the chance to play the what-if game.

What if the LSU loss went differently? If quarterback LaNorris Sellers didn’t get injured against the Tigers? Or if two pick-6s didn’t get called back? If the officials that day called that game, well, a little differently?

Then what about that Alabama game? What if Sellers didn’t fumble late in the fourth quarter? If Alex Herrera made that late kick? If the Gamecocks were able to get into field-goal range in the final seconds?

All of these questions were only exacerbated when Sellers made magic on third-and-16 and Demetrius Knight made the game-sealing interception as the Gamecocks’ beat Clemson to finish the year on a six-game winning streak.

So, yes, South Carolina had one of the best seasons in its 117 years of playing football, and it’s hard not to think it could have been even better. In the same vein, it’s really hard to not think 2024 was the start of a special time for Shane Beamer and South Carolina.

The goal for Beamer is to make fans look at 2024 the same way they remember 2010: The start of an era.

Under coach Steve Spurrier, the Gamecocks finally turned the corner in 2010. They beat No. 1 Alabama, won nine games for nearly the first time in a decade and, most of all, set the foundation. South Carolina won 11 games in each of the next three years, enjoying the best stretch in school history.

In another world, perhaps South Carolina in 2024 sneaks into the 12-team playoff and raises its national profile in record time. The ultimate dream season that no one in their right mind saw coming.

Or maybe that comes in the future and everyone looks back at 2024 as the season Sellers came into his own, as the Gamecocks became transfer portal maestros and Beamer’s program elevated into the top tier of the SEC.

Seven months ago at the SEC spring meetings in Destin, The State asked Beamer if there was a marker he was looking for to know South Carolina had turned the corner.

He had watched his father, Frank Beamer, lead Virginia Tech for six years before the Hokies won nine games – and 12 seasons before they won 11. Somewhere in there, Virginia Tech transformed into a different program. There had to be some moment when Shane Beamer realized things were different.

“I don’t know if it’s turning the corner, because you never really feel like that,” Beamer said. “But do you have a situation where, OK, you’re in the mix, where you’re gonna compete regularly to be one of the best teams in the country? And do we have things solidified from a resource standpoint off the field and moving things in the right direction?”

Did any of that feel attainable for South Carolina last season? If it seemed attainable, did it seem close? No.

But heading into 2025, it feels like the Gamecocks can compete with any team in the country. The resources — as shown by assistant coaching raises and extensions — are improving. And the program, so long as Sellers is at QB, is on an upward trajectory.

Years of suffering and letdowns have caused South Carolina fans to perpetually keep their guard up, just waiting for disappointment. But that began to fade this year.

South Carolina destroyed Oklahoma … then followed it up with an upset of No. 10 Texas A&M. The Gamecocks squandered a lead in the final minute to Missouri … then Sellers led the offense 66 yards for the game-winning score. Sellers threw a late interception against Clemson … then the Gamecocks scored on back-to-back drives for the victory.

So perhaps it is time to believe in this program. Perhaps it is time to believe the best days of South Carolina football began in 2024.

South Carolina’s 2025 football schedule

Game times, TV networks not yet set