At home in Atlanta: South Carolina secures opening win over Virginia Tech
It was hard to watch South Carolina’s first drive of the 2025 season Sunday and not fall into a trance.
This can’t be real — can it?
How dare anyone question this football team! This program! This coach! This quarterback! Speaking of, is there still somewhere to bet on LaNorris Sellers for Heisman? Honestly. There was a lot of football played this weekend and no quarterback looked better than Sellers just did in one drive. The way he got the ball out quick, hit his tight ends, the way Sellers busted through those Virginia Tech defenders then trucked that last one into the end zone.
Man, what’s that environment at LSU gonna be like? No chance the Gamecocks lose before then. Heck, they could lose in Baton Rouge and still make the playoff. That’s really possible. Heck, this might be the best South Carolina offense … ever?
For the first five minutes of Sunday’s 24-11 win over Virginia Tech at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the No. 13 Gamecocks rose above their highest expectations. And over the ensuing 3 and a half hours, it was hard not to get caught up in all the fears and questions about this football season.
“It was certainly ugly at times,” USC coach Shane Beamer said. “We made it harder on ourselves than we needed to. First games are tough, but this one was extra tough.”
South Carolina went into the fourth quarter up just two points, leading 10-8. The offense was sluggish. The defense was doing just enough. In front of 55,531 fans — at least 70% of whom seemed to be cheering for USC — it felt like the Gamecocks and Hokies were headed for a coin-flip finish in the Aflac Kickoff Game.
Which had to spike Beamer’s heart rate to unhealthy levels. He has not been shy about what this matchup meant to him, about the emotion and nostalgia conjured up by seeing the Virginia Tech football team. The one he played for. The one his father turned into a near-dynasty.
Just before Virginia Tech ran on the field, Beamer took off his headset. “Enter Sandman” was blasting inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium and he wanted to listen. To feel Metallica building to the chorus and thousands of Virginia Tech fans jumping like their life depended on it. Beamer smiled. Part of this game was special.
“I was doing pretty good with my emotions until we got here and did the walk, and I saw my parents at the end of it,” Beamer said.
Frank Beamer, the architect of the VT football program, was in the crowd Sunday. He wore a black quarter-zip with a big South Carolina logo and a smaller Virginia Tech pin under it. That seemed to be a sign of his allegiances. Family first.
And then on a day spent remembering the good ol’ days of Beamer Ball, South Carolina conjured up special teams magic to win the game. Down two in the fourth quarter, with South Carolina desperately needing a spark, Vicari Swain cut and slipped and spun his way to an 80-yard punt return touchdown.
“If you could have scripted it, you would have scripted it like that,” Beamer said.
Once the special teams gods were satisfied, everything else began falling into place.
On the ensuing drive, the dream of so many outspoken Gamecocks fans finally came true. South Carolina let the fastest man in college football just sprint downfield. It’s unclear whether Nyck Harbor hit top speed, but he blew past his defender. Sellers hit him in stride for a 64-yard touchdown.
“Once I looked at the defense (and) I saw the safety was down, I said, ‘Oh yeah, this ball (is) coming to me,’ ” Harbor said.
Sellers finished the day with 12-of-19 passing for 208 yards — nearly a third of which came from the Harbor TD. Not counting his sacks, he picked up 61 rushing yards on just nine carries.
It was magic, erasing many of the frustrations from a day that began with it can’t be real turned into what was real?
How much of the preseason hype was overblown? How much does this team still have to figure out? How much patience should fans prepare for?
Like with the freshman wide receivers? You know, the six mega-star prospects that every Gamecocks player and coach has gone over and beyond to compliment? Just in the past two weeks, both Shane Beamer and offensive coordinator Mike Shula said all six might play on Sunday. If that happened, no one noticed … because a South Carolina freshman didn’t catch a pass until late in the third quarter.
Or the interior of South Carolina’s offensive line, which gave up four sacks. Sure, it lost all three starters, but wasn’t this the time to show off all those highly touted recruits USC’s signed? Isn’t that why the Gamecocks landed a trio of O-linemen in the transfer portal? What we do know: None of it made a difference Sunday as Virginia Tech’s front dominated like bulldozers driving through balloons.
In saying all that, South Carolina won. It beat an athletic Virginia Tech team that looks much improved from 2024. It did so after entering the fourth quarter in a tense spot, on the verge of giving away a game that felt so secure. It did so by squashing — for now — the biggest question heading into the season.
The Gamecocks lost seven defensive starters from last year and, well, it was hard to tell. That’s the best compliment possible. Edge Dylan Stewart looks better than he did last season. The three new linebackers are just as fast as the veterans from 2024. There was no major drop-off in the secondary. Ditto for the defensive tackles.
“We replaced a lot of good shoes,” Swain said. “I’d say this year we’re probably more talented than we were last year.”
The promise of this South Carolina season was simple: If the defense just doesn’t completely crater, the Gamecocks are golden … because certainly the offense will take a massive leap forward. Right?
The answer is still up in the air. The bomb to Harbor quelled some of the worry. And perhaps this is all an overreaction to a sloppy season opener.
Think: It was just a year ago that the Gamecocks looked outmatched after giving up four sacks and nearly losing to Old Dominion. That USC team got better with each week. Sellers improved. The young guys found their footing. And by season’s end, the Gamecocks were in the hunt for the College Football Playoff.
All of that is still possible. Plausible, even. But there will need to be improvements — and patience.
Next South Carolina game
Who: South Carolina (1-0) vs. S.C. State (1-0)
When: 7 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 6
Where: Williams_Brice Stadium in Columbia
TV/Stream: SEC Network Plus and ESPN+
This story was originally published August 31, 2025 at 6:34 PM.
