3 reasons for optimism, 3 reasons for concern as Gamecock football hits bye week
South Carolina football is officially through the first of its two bye weeks.
Shane Beamer and the Gamecocks sit at 3-2 with wins over Virginia Tech, South Carolina State and Kentucky and losses to Vanderbilt and Missouri.
There’s still plenty of football to be played this season. Starting this week, the Gamecocks’ season will only get tougher.
Here are three reasons for optimism and three reasons for concern for Gamecock fans as South Carolina’s season hits the midway point:
3 reasons for optimism
LaNorris Sellers: There was plenty of Heisman buzz around LaNorris Sellers coming into this season. While that buzz has certainly died down, the redshirt sophomore quarterback is still playing well.
Last year, Sellers threw for 793 yards in his first five games along with four touchdowns and four interceptions. This year, Sellers has thrown for 886 yards and four touchdowns. The biggest difference is he’s only thrown one interception.
Sellers completion percentage through five games this season is 66.7% compared to 62.1% in the same time last year. He’s also improved his passing efficiency rating, which was 124 through the first five games of last season but currently sits at 165.1.
Sellers has the No. 6 overall offense and No. 7 passing offense grades among SEC quarterbacks (minimum 50% of 226), according to ProFootballFocus.
Defense looks sharp: There have been games where South Carolina’s offense has been plagued by missed tackles or had the ball run down its throat, but, generally speaking, the Gamecocks’ defense has played well in 2025.
South Carolina’s biggest flex is that it is No. 3 in the country with three defensive touchdowns this year. In all, the Gamecocks’ special teams and defense have scored six touchdowns through five games.
Defensive coordinator Clayton White and his unit have forced nine turnovers already this year. That mark is good for No. 2 in the SEC and No. 7 in the country. The Gamecocks have recorded six interceptions this year, putting them at No. 3 in the SEC and No. 9 in the country.
South Carolina is also tied for No. 13 in the country with 14 sacks as a team.
White’s unit will be tested in the coming months, but if the defense continues to improve on what it has already shown it is capable of then the Gamecocks should be in a good spot.
The WR room: Coming into this year, most of the hype around South Carolina’s wide receiver room was focused on what exactly Nyck Harbor would look like after a full offseason dedicated to football.
Through five games Harbor, a junior wide receiver, is already on pace to pass the total amount of receiving yards he had last year. Harbor has 11 catches for 220 yards and a touchdown so far. Last season he had six catches for 51 yards through five games.
Surprisingly, Harbor has not been the top receiver for South Carolina so far this season. That honor belongs to Vandrevius Jacobs. The redshirt sophomore leads the team in most receiving categories with 18 catches for 323 yards and two touchdowns. Jacobs has proven so far this season that he has WR1 capabilities.
Other positives in the wide receiver room are freshmen Donovan Murph and Brian Rowe Jr. Murph and Rowe are third and fourth in receiving yards for the Gamecocks, respectively. The young duo has played the most snaps of any freshman on the team, outside of offensive lineman Shedrick Sarratt.
3 reasons for concern
Upcoming gauntlet in the schedule: Playing football in the SEC is never easy. The upcoming slate of games for South Carolina reflects just that.
The Gamecocks next five games all come against Top 25 opponents. Of those teams, four of them are in the top 10.
South Carolina will travel to Baton Rouge for a matchup at No. 11 LSU on Saturday. Then the Gamecocks return home for back-to-back games with No. 6 Oklahoma and No. 8 Alabama. South Carolina then has two road trips — with another open week in between — to No. 4 Ole Miss and No. 5 Texas A&M.
Beamer’s squad currently sits at 3-2 this season and likely only has one guaranteed win left on the schedule in Coastal Carolina. That means the Gamecocks, who will likely be underdogs in each of the next five games, could be on a path to not making a bowl game if they can’t sneak a win or two out the tough rest of the regular season.
If South Carolina gets at least one win in the next five games and beats Coastal Carolina they’ll be at five wins. The Gamecocks would go into their final game of the year against Clemson, which is having a down year by its standards, fighting for a spot in a bowl game. You probably don’t want to add even more stakes to a rivalry game and hinge your bowl eligibility on beating the Tigers.
General offensive production: South Carolina’s offense has just generally been mediocre from a production standpoint this season. There have been several flashes of what could be a high-powered offense but the Gamecocks have been unable to consistently maintain them.
The Gamecocks are averaging 24.8 points per game this season, which is second-to-last in the SEC. But even that fails to paint the whole picture.
South Carolina’s offense alone has scored only 10 touchdowns this season, compared to six scored by the defense and special teams. While the boost from the defense has helped the Gamecocks win games this year, it isn’t exactly sustainable.
Offensive coordinator Mike Shula’s unit has plenty of room for improvement as the Gamecocks are ranked near the bottom of the SEC in several offensive statistics.
Here’s where South Carolina ranks nationally in a few categories:
- No. 84 in passing offense
- No. 88 in scoring offense
- No. 97 in yards per play
- No. 103 in third down conversion percentage
- No. 107 in red zone offense
- No. 121 in total offense
- No. 124 in rushing offense
All that to say, things could be better for South Carolina and they’ll need to be better as the schedule gets tougher.
The run game: South Carolina’s offense in general hasn’t been great to start the season, but its rushing attack — or lack thereof — has stuck out like a sore thumb.
Much has been made of South Carolina’s inability to run the ball consistently this season, especially after the Gamecocks finished with negative nine yards against Missouri on Sept. 20.
Through five games, South Carolina has totaled 499 yards on the ground for an average of 99.8 yards per game.
For context, here’s how the Gamecocks have looked through the first five games during Beamer’s tenure:
- 2021: 603 total yards for an average of 120 per game (eventual season average was 137.2 per game)
- 2022: 691 total yards for an average of 138.2 per game (eventual season average was 118.8 per game)
- 2023: 435 total yards for an average of 87 per game (eventual season average was 85 per game)
- 2024: 920 total yards for an average of 184 per game (eventual season average was 184.3 per game)
This year’s numbers aren’t the worst of Beamer’s tenure, but they’re close. A lot of this season’s struggles can probably be placed on some inconsistencies on the offensive line due to injuries early in the season.
Couple those injuries with the lack of a dominant running back — it’s no surprise the best rushing season of Beamer’s tenure came when All-SEC talent Rocket Sanders was in the backfield — and you get a middling ground game.
South Carolina is currently dead-last in the SEC in rushing but maybe its season-high 178 yards against Kentucky last week is a sign of good things to come.
This story was originally published October 2, 2025 at 7:00 AM.
