Is there any chance South Carolina can turn its offense around in 2025?
If Shane Beamer is short on inspiration this week, perhaps he could show his struggling football team what other underperforming squads have done in college football this season.
Stanford lost to SMU by 24 ... then beat Florida State the following Saturday.
Arizona State lost by 32 to Utah ... then beat No. 7 Texas Tech a week later.
And South Carolina’s opponent on Saturday, No. 4 Alabama, opened the season with an ugly defeat to FSU ... and hasn’t lost since.
There is always hope for the miraculous one-week revival, and South Carolina has to hope it can come close to replicating what it did in 2022 — when the Gamecocks’ seven-day turnaround was so jarring that some Tennessee fans are still convinced that South Carolina illegally obtained the Vols’ signs.
Because how else do you explain the Gamecocks scoring just six points against a bad Florida team and then — just a week later — hanging 63 on the No. 5 team in America?
It was almost unfathomable, and considering the state of South Carolina’s offense as it prepares to face the fourth-ranked Crimson Tide, Gamecock fans have to hope that Beamer can produce some déjà vu.
“It may be something that as the head coach,” Beamer said about his offense, “I step in and say, from a schematic standpoint, we don’t need to be doing this anymore, or we need to be doing this more.”
Among its many flaws this season, South Carolina’s offense lacks an identity. There is nothing it can hang its hat on, nothing you can confidently say the Gamecocks do even above average.
They score the fewest points in the SEC. They rush the ball for fewer yards than anyone in the conference. They are worse on converting third downs than every SEC team not named Florida. And they’ve given up more sacks (26) than every conference foe but Auburn (27).
A remedy seems unclear, especially as the Gamecocks offensive line continues to struggle protecting quarterback LaNorris Sellers. And listening to offensive coordinator Mike Shula creates even more questions about this offense.
Shula is plenty knowledgeable about offense. He understands what a good, balanced offense looks like. He understands that calling plays in a football game is like chess and the winner is the guy who’s five steps ahead. And, well, you get the sense that perhaps he’s out-thinking himself.
For instance: South Carolina ran eight plays from inside the 10-yard line against Oklahoma. Not one of those included a design run for the Gamecocks’ 6-foot-3, 240-pound quarterback.
“You want to have him run things that are just maybe a little bit, so to speak, cleaner,” Shula said. “Those running backs are used to those dirty runs, so to speak. ... But there’s different ways you can do that. There’s quarterback draws, there’s counters, there’s outside runs and then a couple other a couple ways.”
He’s correct. There are a lot of different ways to run a quarterback. There is also some injury risk in running your quarterback into a loaded box. But what Shula opted for — having a running back consistently go into the heart of OU’s defense — didn’t work.
Later in the game, after two quarters of Oklahoma’s defense bringing constant pressure, South Carolina faced a third-and-2 and all three wide receivers ran long-developing routes. By the time Sellers’ was flushed out of the pocket, none of his receivers had turned their head.
Perhaps, on paper, Shula called a stellar play. But, because Sellers had no time to throw, it had no chance of working.
“We don’t have our head in the sand (like), ‘Hey, we’re going to do this no matter what. No matter what. No matter what,’” Shula said. “We want to find out what’s the best thing you do, and then put you on the field doing that thing.”
That hasn’t happened enough for the Gamecocks this season. Perhaps this is the week South Carolina can figure out its identity and stick to it. Certainly, fans aren’t expecting Shula to all of a sudden fix the offense in late October — but, if this season around college football has proved anything, a turnaround is possible.
Next South Carolina football game
- Who: South Carolina vs. Alabama
- When: 3:30 p.m. Saturday
- Where: Williams-Brice Stadium
- Watch: ABC
This story was originally published October 23, 2025 at 7:00 AM.
