5 things we learned from South Carolina’s 30-14 loss to Ole Miss
South Carolina lost its fourth-straight game on Saturday, falling 30-14 to No. 7 Ole Miss and dropping to 3-6 (1-6 SEC) on the season.
Here are five things we learned:
1. This team is not enjoyable to watch
In an odd bit of irony, the happiest South Carolina fans on Saturday might be the ones with YouTube TV, the same folks who probably woke up livid they couldn’t watch the Gamecocks (because of a Disney dispute) and went to bed happy they didn’t.
After the game, Yahoo columnist Dan Wolken summed up the 2025 Gamecocks perfectly.
“South Carolina was the most fun team in the country to watch last season,” he wrote. “This year they’ve become a very tough watch.”
Perhaps it is unfair to keep comparing the 2025 South Carolina team to their 2024 counterparts, but it remains striking how different they are. The ‘24 Gamecocks were fun, exciting, sometimes dominant. They had swagger. They had an identity — one of the best pass rushes in the nation paired with a dynamic rushing attack on offense.
Through nine games this year, watching South Carolina can be agonizing. The defense has been solid, and yet you can count on them giving up two to three way-too-easy drives a game. And the offense is just going to beat itself — sacks, penalties, short runs, missing wide-open receivers.
The Gamecocks are not dominant in anything. They have no identity. They have no swagger. They just play football — and, sometimes that’s even debatable.
2. Even more baffled by LaNorris Sellers
Six months ago, it was all but a guarantee Sellers was headed to the NFL Draft. And now, who knows?
Could enough NFL teams still fall in love with his upside and measurements to lure him into the draft? Of course.
Could he return to college? Of course.
And if he does, would he return to South Carolina? Your guess is as good as any.
The fact we’re even talking about this is wild. But Sellers looks like a shell of the guy we saw against Clemson last season. He’s air-mailing passes to wide-open receivers. He’s indecisive in the pocket, sometimes just surveying the field for four, five seconds. Sure he breaks some tackles, but he was still sacked six times on Saturday.
Did Sellers regress that much from 2024? Was the preseason hype too much? Did offensive coordinator Mike Shula’s offense and/or coaching style drain all his confidence? Did it force Sellers to think more, thus sapping his play-making ability?
Or is this just who Sellers is? Was he propped up in 2024 by a better offensive line and a better running back (led by Rocket Sanders)?
There are so many questions surrounding Sellers right now, and there aren’t any definitive answers.
3. Mike Shula was fine
Offensive coordinator Mike Shula was OK Saturday. Not amazing. Not great. Not even above-average.
But South Carolina did not lose on Saturday because of Shula or his play calling.
At one point in the third quarter, the ESPN cameras caught an interesting exchange. Beamer was on the sideline, absolutely irate, screaming into his headset during an offensive sequence. Presumably, it was Shula on the other end of that frustration.
Then Sellers hit Nyck Harbor on a 47-yard touchdown and ESPN reported that Beamer walked up to Shula and shared some genuinely kind words with his OC. It kind of underscored the odd dynamic around Shula.
He’s not exactly putting South Carolina in the perfect positions. But he put the Gamecocks in plenty of good spots ... and his offense completely failed the execution over and over.
On his plane ride home, perhaps Beamer will have thoughts about whether to move on from Shula. And maybe he’ll wonder: Is it really his fault? Does it matter?
4. Rushing offense continues to struggle
Coming into the game, Ole Miss had one of the worst rushing defenses in the SEC, allowing over 150 yards a game.
And, well, South Carolina did nothing to exploit that.
The Gamecocks ran 32 times for 50 yards. Even if you take out all the sacks, South Carolina still averaged less than four yards per carry.
South Carolina will head into the bye week as the worst rushing team in the SEC, by a decent margin. And again, it’s hard to know who to blame: Shula, the offensive line or the running backs?
5. Clemson is now the grand finale
Asked after Saturday’s game what he’s using to motivate his team, Shane Beamer made sure to mention an article from The State.
“I know you wrote yesterday that: Do bowl games matter?” Beamer said, referencing this story. “Eff-yeah bowl games matter. And we’re trying to get to a bowl game.”
Well, that’s probably not happening. After a bye week, the Gamecocks travel to face No. 3 Texas A&M and, barring the most incredible bye-week turnaround, South Carolina will most likely lose and be eliminated from bowl eligibility.
At that point, USC would be 3-7 and fighting for pride. That might make the Clemson game the last hurrah for this Gamecocks’ squad, their last chance to prove that they can finally put it all together.
It’s been a while since South Carolina played Clemson with no hope for a bowl game. It’s also been a while since South Carolina has played a Clemson team this bad. Nov. 29 should be fun.
