Will Stein didn’t wait around in overtime. After Kentucky found the end zone, the first-year Wildcats coach flashed two fingers from the sideline, and the message was clear: go win it right now.
Kentucky listened.
Kenny Minchey hit Henry Boyer for a 6-yard touchdown, then found Willie Rodriguez in the back of the end zone for the 2-point conversion that sealed a 35-34 overtime victory at South Carolina on Saturday. The Wildcats, who had fallen behind 17-0, walked out of Columbia with a second major road win under Stein and a season that suddenly looks a lot bigger.
“We just felt the momentum South Carolina had taken at the end of regulation,” Stein said. “We needed to go for two.
That's what we did. Felt really confident about the play call and executed it well.”
The win came two weeks after Kentucky beat then-ninth-ranked Texas A&M 31-21 at College Station, another road statement for a team that is now 4-1 overall and 2-1 in the Southeastern Conference. It also sets up a huge home matchup with No. 11 LSU next Saturday, a game that now carries even more weight after this kind of finish.
“Oh, it's going to mean a lot,” freshman receiver Kenny Darby said. “But I'm not going to worry about that. I'm ready to celebrate.”
Kentucky had to keep clawing its way back all afternoon. Minchey’s 32-yard touchdown throw to Nic Anderson late in the third quarter gave the Wildcats their first lead at 24-20.
South Carolina answered in the fourth when LaNorris Sellers connected with DJ Black on a 15-yard touchdown pass, but Kentucky refused to fold. Minchey then guided a 66-yard drive that ended with Adam Zouagui’s 29-yard field goal to tie it at 34 with 4:13 left.
In overtime, Sellers put South Carolina back in front with a 5-yard touchdown pass to Maurice Brown II. That only set the stage for Kentucky’s decisive response.
Minchey finished the job, and Stein finished the gamble.
Sellers had a big day even in defeat, throwing for 226 yards and two touchdowns while also rushing for 147 yards. His twisting 74-yard run set up the touchdown pass to Black in the fourth quarter. But South Carolina still couldn’t stop the bleeding, and the Gamecocks dropped to 2-3 overall and 0-3 in SEC play.
It was South Carolina’s eighth straight loss in SEC competition, and the Gamecocks were again missing star defensive end Dylan Stewart, a projected top-10 NFL draft pick who was suspended by the school and the SEC for throwing a punch late in last week’s 49-18 loss to Alabama.
For Kentucky, the start under Stein keeps getting better. He became the first first-year Kentucky coach to win a true road game at Texas A&M, and now this comeback only adds to the momentum around the program as SEC play deepens.
For South Carolina, the pressure keeps building around Shane Beamer. There were boos as he left the field, and Beamer acknowledged the standard is plain and simple.
“We're not here for moral victories,” he said. “I'm proud of the way they competed and the way they responded. But ultimately you're judged on wins and losses."
Beamer is 35-33 overall at South Carolina and 16-27 in SEC play.
Kentucky returns home to face No. 11 LSU next Saturday night.
South Carolina goes to No. 8 Florida next Saturday.
In Other News...
South Carolina Suddenly Has A Coaching Question Fans Cant Ignore
South Carolinas season has reached an uneasy point, with the Gamecocks sitting at 0-3 in SEC play under Shane Beamer in his sixth season. The timing only makes the pressure feel heavier, especially with the teams best player, Dylan Stewart, suspended indefinitely after an altercation that has added another layer of uncertainty around a program already searching for answers.
Shane Beamers job is not suddenly on the line by one bad stretch alone, but the conversation around the coaching staff is no longer hypothetical. With the SEC skid mounting and outside speculation already turning toward possible replacements, the question for South Carolina is less about whether fans are noticing and more about how long the school can afford to let the uncertainty linger. [Read more 🡒]
Gamecocks Blew Another Winnable SEC Game And The Questions Are Growing
South Carolina had this one in hand long enough to make the ending sting even more, building a 17-point lead before letting No. 24 Kentucky claw all the way back in a 35-34 overtime loss. The game fit a frustrating pattern for the Gamecocks, who had chances to put it away but kept leaving openings with a Jabree Coleman fumble and failed fourth-down tries that changed the feel of the afternoon in a hurry.
The defeat was another rough marker in SEC play, stretching South Carolinas conference skid to eight straight and undercutting a four-game winning streak over Kentucky that had helped balance the rivalry. For Shane Beamer, the bigger concern is that these losses keep coming in games that feel winnable, which only deepens the questions around what this team has to clean up before the schedule tightens again. [Read more 🡒]
Shane Beamer Debate Just Got More Uncomfortable For South Carolina Fans
South Carolinas latest SEC setback left another uneasy postgame scene for fans already watching a troubling slide, and it came with an unexpected twist from the other sideline. After Kentuckys 35-34 overtime win, Wildcats coach Will Stein took time in his press conference to praise Shane Beamer, calling the Gamecocks coach elite as South Carolina absorbed its third straight conference loss and a double-digit lead slipped away.
Stein also broke down Kentuckys game-winning two-point conversion in overtime, adding a little more sting to a result that already felt hard enough for South Carolina supporters to process. The Gamecocks have been trying to steady themselves through the league grind, but days like this only sharpen the debate around Beamer and how much patience remains as the losses keep piling up. [Read more 🡒]