The South Carolina Gamecocks are hoping to have a big rebound season under Shane Beamer in 2026. Following a down 4-8 season in Columbia, the Gamecocks need all the wins they can get in 2026. Coach Beamer enters the 2026 season with a 30-33 overall record.Â
The SEC did away with divisions officially before the 2024 season, thanks to the addition of Oklahoma and Texas to the conference The SEC is also set to move to a nine-game schedule in 2026. Using win-loss records and other criteria also seemed like a more fair way to determine game participants rather than a geographical divide. Previously, the Gamecocks participated in the SEC East conference.Â
The SEC East may be gone, but it certainly doesn't feel like it if you look at the Gamecocks' 2026 schedule. South Carolina will play three former SEC East rivals this year, in Florida, Tennessee and Georgia. One of the last few times South Carolina faced Tennessee, Williams-Brice famously ran out of touchdown fireworks during a 63-38 rout of the Vols. Â
At SEC Media Days earlier this week, Coach Beamer talked about how excited he is to face former divisional opponents, including Tennessee.Â
"That was a great night back in 2022," Beamer said. "There's no doubt about it. We know it will be a huge challenge when they come to town this year. Another one, I got asked about playing Georgia again. It's been weird not playing Tennessee the last couple of years, so it will be great having Tennessee back on the schedule this season too along with Florida. Three old SEC East opponents and rivals for South Carolina.
Got a ton of respect for Coach Heupel and the way he does things. We know he's going to have a really good team coming to town."
"That will be a big one when we get to that one," Beamer continued. And hopefully we can have the offensive output that we had the last time they were in town."
Tennessee holds a 27-2-11 all-time series lead over the Gamecocks, with the series an even 8-8 dating back to 2008. South Carolina has a 49.8% chance to win, per ESPN analytics' matchup predictor. South Carolina faces the Vols on Oct. 24.Â
The Gamecocks will go on the road to take on Florida, who will have first-year head coach Jon Sumrall on Oct. 10. When Spurrier was at Florida in the 90s, he never lost to the Gamecocks during his entire tenure there. He did well at South Carolina when he was HBC in Columbia, winning four out of five games from 2010-2014. Â
South Carolina will also take on Georgia on Nov. 21, luckily getting the Bulldogs at home. As expected, this one is lopsided in favor of the Dawgs, who lead the all-time series 55-2-19. The Bulldogs have also won eight of the last 10 games dating back to 2014, as well as four straight from 2020-2024. Steve Spurrier did the best against the Dawgs, winning five meetings while he was at South Carolina from 2005-2015. He also infamously said he liked playing Georgia earlier in the season because "you can always count on them having one or two key guys suspended."Â
It sure will be fun to see the Gamecocks play some SEC East rivals again in 2026.  Â
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