Negative 9 yards? USC searches for answers in run game after Missouri loss
Shane Beamer had to watch the tape, had to subject himself to another viewing of perhaps one of the worst rushing performances in South Carolina history. Had to figure out how it’s possible that his team finished a game with negative rushing yards.
In the Gamecocks’ 29-20 loss to No. 23 Missouri (4-0, 1-0 SEC) on Saturday at Faurot Field, South Carolina totaled minus-9 yards on the ground. Even if want to fudge the numbers and erase the five sacks on USC quarterback LaNorris Sellers, the rushing numbers are still pitiful: 17 carries for 37 yards.
“Little bit of everything,” Beamer said Sunday during his weekly teleconference. “I wish you could pinpoint it to one thing.”
If it were one thing, the solution would be a tweak. Instead, it might require an overhaul.
Sometimes, the perimeter blocking wasn’t good enough. Sometimes, the Gamecocks running backs are boxing (going inside) when they should be spilling (going outside). Or vice versa. Sometimes guys were leaning their head the wrong way. And, sometimes, the Mizzou defense just made exceptional plays.
That is the nitty-gritty Beamer is focusing on.
The bigger-picture questions are harder to comprehend.
How is it that Sellers ran the ball only five times on Saturday? While it’s obvious that defenses are keying in on him, is there no option offense that can at least present the threat of him running? Heck, does USC even care if its 6-foot-3, 240-pound unicorn uses his legs?
Is this offensive line good enough to block SEC defenses? The Gamecocks (2-2, 0-2 SEC) shuffled their starting five before Missouri. Then two starters went down with injuries and they shuffled some more.
Is that group capable of holding up? And if they’re not, are the Gamecocks tight ends good enough to help block? Per Pro Football Focus (PFF), tight ends Jordan Dingle and Brady Hunt were two of the team’s four-worst run blockers against Mizzou.
And, well, are South Carolina’s running backs being utilized correctly? Heck, are they SEC-caliber backs?
Missouri went in the transfer portal and snagged Ahmad Hardy from Louisiana-Monroe. He bulldozed over the Gamecocks for 138 yards and forced 16 missed tackles. The Gamecocks went and got seventh-year Rahsul Faison from Utah State. He picked up five yards (!) and broke one tackle.
Actually, he led the Gamecocks’ tailbacks in broken tackles. Yep, he was the only South Carolina rusher to break a tackle against Missouri, per PFF.
So, South Carolina can’t block and can’t slip out of tackles. No wonder the Gamecocks can’t run the ball.
And this was not a one-off. Through four games, South Carolina has 321 team rushing yards. The Gamecocks’ 80.25-yard average is — by far — last in the SEC.
For comparison: In their first four games of 2024, the Gamecocks had already totaled 769 yards (192 per game) and had produced two 100-yard rushing games (Robby Ashford and Rocket Sanders).
This season, Faison’s 74 yards against Vanderbilt is the team-high so far.
“Teams are going to load the box and make us throw, and we did that last night,” Beamer said Sunday. “We threw the ball successfully. And you would hope that would open up the run game, but we didn’t do it consistently enough.”
Beamer is right, partially.
Sellers was 18 of 28 passing (64%) for 308 yards and two touchdowns. He was solid, though he missed on a number of crucial throws. There was missed deep ball to Mazeo Bennett early in the game. And there were a number late in the fourth quarter, when the Gamecocks needed a touchdown to take the lead.
But Mizzou did not seem to care about going all out to stop Sellers’ arm. Per PFF, the Tigers blitzed on just four plays (11% of the time). They hardly sent extra pressure ... and were still able to sack Sellers five times. They could just load the box, sit back and trust their coverage.
It worked pretty well, giving a blueprint to every other SEC team on how to stop the Gamecocks’ offense. That is, unless the Gamecocks make big changes.
“Talked to the staff about it today,” Beamer said. “We’ve got to take a step back and really look at everything.”
He continued: “And that doesn’t mean blow stuff up, but it means, you know — there’s a four-game body of work right now of evidence that we’re not anywhere close to where we need to be. And it’s our responsibility as coaches to get it right.”
This story was originally published September 21, 2025 at 6:55 PM.
