Do you believe in the unbelievable?
It has never happened in South Carolina history, but the Gamecocks rarely speak of what's impossible for the team. Speaking Monday at the 2025 SEC Media Days, South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer turned heads when ESPN's Paul Finebaum asked a simple, but provocative question: Is it realistic to believe South Carolina can win the SEC?
For a college football program that has not won a conference championship since 1969, long before they were a member of the Southeastern Conference, the answer was loaded with history and context from Beamer.
"(It's) very doable, very doable ... I mean, we were two points away last season from being in the College Football Playoff and having a chance to compete for a national championship," Beamer said. "We play in the toughest conference in America and every year is different. Every Saturday, anybody can beat anybody. Some conference you look around, you can chalk up a win, but you can't do that in this league. Every single Saturday is a war. You come out of this league and you're one of the best teams. We've shown it in the past too, Paul. You go back, my last year as an assistant coach with Steve Spurrier was 2010 and we beat Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Clemson, Alabama."
And Beamer wasn't exaggerating either. The Gamecocks' 27-25 loss to Alabama last season, ultimately knocking them out of playoff contention. “In that locker room after that game, there was very much a feeling of, ‘Enough is enough,’” Beamer recalled.
But South Carolina football rallied behind their quarterback LaNorris Sellers, winning their final six games in the regular season, finishing as one of the hottest teams in the country.
"We have everything that we need in Columbia to compete for championships on and off the field," Beamer added. "I don't see resources that are lacking at South Carolina. It's exciting for me as a coach to (try) and do something that's never been done before. We want nothing more to bring a championship to Columbia."
South Carolina opens the 2025 campaign in Atlanta against Virginia Tech on August 31 at the Merecedes-Benz Stadium, which is the same site as the SEC Championship Game at the end of the season in December. While the early part of the schedule is favorable for the Gamecocks. The real test will begin in October when the Gamecocks face LSU, Oklahoma, Alabama, and Ole Miss in a brutal midseason stretch.