South Carolina facing concerns where it least expected: On offense
South Carolina won its home opener vs S.C. State 38-10, but head coach Shane Beamer wasn’t exactly pleased with how the Gamecocks offense performed.
The offense scored two touchdowns against S.C. State, while its respective defense and special teams units accounted for the rest of the points.
“We know we need to be a lot better,” Beamer said. “We can’t rely on our defense and special teams to score three touchdowns a game like they did tonight.”
USC’s defense and special teams were supposed to be the units with the most question marks entering 2025. Two games into the season, it’s the offense that’s facing scrutiny.
South Carolina’s offense struggled to get anything going in the first half Saturday. The Gamecocks went three and out in all three of its first-quarter drivers and were held scoreless. USC was only able to scrounge up 12 total yards of offense in the period.
Beamer said the starting field position was partially to blame for the struggles in the first quarter. South Carolina started its first drive of the game at its own 6-yard line and began the next two drives on its own 10.
“Certainly a sloppy first half from an offensive standpoint,” Beamer said. “I think field position had a big reason for that, not to make excuses. But I think our first four drives we started all four of them inside the 20-yard line…There’s no excuse. We’ve got to be better when we’re backed up. Field position was a struggle early on. We weren’t very efficient.”
The offense found some rhythm in the second quarter, but it wasn’t much. South Carolina totaled 97 yards and increased its average yards per play from 1.5 to 5.1 in the second quarter. Still, QB LaNorris Sellers and the offense weren’t able to put any points of their own on the board.
South Carolina took a 17-3 lead into the locker room at halftime, but all of those points came from special teams.
“We’ve just got to be better,” Sellers said. “We got starting SEC play. Just got to communicate and execute, be on the same page.”
The offense finally found a bit of a groove at the start of the second half. Sellers led the team on an eight-play, 65-yard scoring drive to start the third quarter. Oscar Adaway punched in a five-yard rushing touchdown to extend South Carolina’s lead to 24-3.
“I told our players at halftime that we would find out a lot about our offense and our team in the first drive of the second half because we knew we were getting the ball first,” Beamer said. “To go down the field and get points on that first drive of the second half, was huge.”
The Gamecocks tallied 145 yards in all of the second half. South Carolina was able to get up to 253 total yards in the game (4.5 yards per play) but was still out-gained by S.C. State’s 270 yards.
South Carolina’s struggles in the run game were indicative of its performance on offense as a whole. The Gamecocks averaged just 3.5 yards per carry and totaled 125 in the game.
“I’d be lying to you if I always said I’m glad that we came in here and had 36 rushes for 125 yards,” Beamer said. “That’s not good enough.”
A total of eight Gamecocks logged a carry in the game. Jawarn Howell led the team with 30 yards on seven attempts — though five of those carries came in the final four minutes of the fourth quarter with the game in hand. Sellers totaled 23 rushing yards and USC starters in Adaway and Rahsul Faison combined for 41 yards.
“Didn’t run the ball very efficiently,” Beamer said. “...There were some runs that looked like we maybe missed some reads on, but there were certainly some runs that we didn’t block very well either. Gotta look at that and certainly be better.”
South Carolina’s offense also struggled with penalties in the game. The Gamecocks had five penalties — four false starts and one illegal formation.
“There’s no excuse for that. That’s day one stuff and that’s not good,” Beamer said. “... So that goes back to us as coaches, and starting with me. Certainly that’s correctable, but that’s disappointing to see, because that’s day one stuff too.”
This story was originally published September 7, 2025 at 8:18 AM.
