South Carolina off to another late surge after convincing win over Top 10 Texas A&M

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Another November and another late surge for South Carolina and coach Shane Beamer.

The Gamecocks (5-3, 3-3 Southeastern Conference) have made it a habit to finish with flash in most of Beamer’s four seasons.

In Beamer’s first year of 2021, the overmatched Gamecocks beat SEC powers Florida and Auburn down the stretch in the regular season and finished with a victory over North Carolina in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl.

A season later, South Carolina went even bigger by topping a pair of Top 10 teams in consecutive weeks in No. 5 Tennessee and No. 8 Clemson, ultimately ruining both teams’ chances of making the College Football Playoff.

The Gamecocks look like they’re at it once more. They followed a landmark win at Oklahoma with another decisive beatdown of then-10th-ranked Texas A&M, 44-20.

“I tell the players every year that it would be a shame if we’re the same team in September that we are in November,” Beamer said.

Apparently, the Gamecocks are listening and hope to carry that into No. 24 Vanderbilt on Saturday.

South Carolina was inconsistent and badly beaten at home in a 27-3 loss to then-12-ranked Ole Miss in early October. But it’s come back to win two straight in the SEC including a 44-20 wipe out of the Aggies who came in as the last undefeated team in SEC play.

“I think we were just rolling in that game,” South Carolina offensive lineman Cason Henry said. “We were blowing them off the ball as the game went on.”

Heady stuff for a team picked 13th in the super-sized, 16-team SEC during the summer.

South Carolina sits fifth in fewest yards allowed in the SEC this season while edge rushers Kyle Kennard and Dylan Stewart have combined for 14 sacks this season. Kennard leads the SEC with 8.5 sacks with Stewart tied for sixth at 4.5.

Sophomore LaNorris Sellers, in his first season as starting quarterback, is ninth in SEC total offense at 223 yards a game. He accounted for 350 yards and three TDs in the Texas A&M blowout.

Players and coaches point to the steady way the team approaches each week of preparation. Weight sessions have the same intensity in July as in November and coaches won’t ease up no matter whether the opponent is No. 1 in the nation or from the Football Championship Subdivision.

“As the season goes, we don’t lighten anything up or chill out at all. We just keep going the same way we’ve been going,” defensive tackle Alex Huntley said.

The Gamecocks have had plenty of teetering points this season, going from the high of a September win at Kentucky (31-6) to the disappointment of close, last-minute defeats vs. LSU and Alabama.

LSU, then No. 16, trailed 17-0 yet rallied for a 36-33 win as Josh Williams scored a 2-yard touchdown with 1:12 to go. A month later, South Carolina led at No. 7 Alabama 19-14 entering the final quarter before losing 27-25 on a Crimson Tide interception as time ran out.

It’s hard to escape this truth: Finish in both those games and it’s South Carolina competing for a spot in the SEC title game and College Football Playoff.

Linebacker Debo Williams tries not to think too hard about that “because you don’t want to dwell on the past,” he said. “But I’m human, right? You do think about it and where we’d be. But that’s made us even hungrier.”

Henry, the third-year sophomore, takes a more philosophical view of the defeats, insisting they were essential for the team to be achieving what it is right now.

“I think we needed those losses, I’m saying that I like that,” Henry said. “But I think it was healthy for us to lose like that early in the season so we could put it all together in back half.”

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