In his four years of coaching at South Carolina, this is the best season head coach Shane Beamer has had with the Gamecocks, but it certainly didn't seem that would be the case early on. Just six games into the season, fans were searching for what Shane Beamer's buyout was and if it was worth it to send him packing.
At that point, South Carolina was 3-3 and had just lost to Alabama and currently sat a 3-3 on the season with the hope of making the College Football Playoff at an all-time low. It felt like nothing could go right, especially in the big games, as the three losses all came to ranked opponents. The Alabama game was an especially tough loss as the Gamecocks held a good lead and turnovers were the ultimate downfall for this young team.
After that game on Wednesday, Shane Beamer sat down with the leaders of every position group, just like he did after each game, to talk about their concerns. Looking back on it now, Beamer admits that is where is all changed for South Carolina this season.
"Talk about things that are on my mind and talk about things that are on their mind," Beamer said. "I usually start each meeting off with, ‘what’s on y’all’s minds?’ and they didn’t say a word other than ‘win out, there’s no other option."
Clearly, the players knew what had to be done, and Beamer knew that too, but it didn't matter how much he believed it, the guys on the fields needed to believe it. It was easy to say but to accomplish it was going to be a whole different story.
"Once one of them said it, they all agreed. Win out. I said, ‘OK, that’s great to say, but there’s some things that we have to perform better," Beamer said. "We have to coach better and play better than what we’ve been doing in some areas for that to happen.’ They committed to it and they’ve been on a mission since then as well to not just say it, but be about it.”
All South Carolina had to do was take things one game at a time, and they were able to bounce back big against a struggling Oklahoma team in a game that was over by halftime. After that, it was just coming together each week and believing they had the chance to win in any game.
The Gamecocks ended up finishing the regular season on a six-game win streak with ranked wins over Texas A&M, Vanderbilt, Missouri, and Clemson to close out the season. Now South Carolina will go for their 10th win of the season in the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl against No. 10 Illinois.
It may not be the College Football Playoff, but the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl is one of the biggest none New Year Six bowl games that picks the best SEC team not in the playoff, and they didn't pick Alabama or Ole Miss, but they selected South Carolina.