Shane Beamer wasn’t interested in a comfortable halftime cushion. Even with South Carolina up 28-10 on Oklahoma, the Gamecocks coach sounded like a man who thought his team had left points on the field.
“We have given [Oklahoma] 10 points. In my mind, [this game] should be 42-0 right now,” Beamer said at halftime in Norman.
“We gave them a field goal with the block below the waist by Vicari. We gave them seven [points] on the pick-six.”
South Carolina had every reason to feel good about where things stood. The Gamecocks were in control after two quarters and had piled up 322 yards of offense against Oklahoma’s defense. Even more striking, 232 of those yards came during three second-quarter touchdown drives that helped build the lead.
Still, Beamer kept coming back to the same point: the scoreboard should have been even more lopsided.
“I don’t like the fact we have given them 10 points. In my mind, the thing should be 42-0 right now.
We gave them a field goal with the block below the waist by Vicari. We gave them 7 on the pick 6.
Right now, they can’t run the ball,…” Beamer said in his halftime radio interview.
He added: “Right now, they can’t run the ball. They can’t throw the ball,” Beamer continued. “And [we’ve] got 300 yards of offense against probably the best defense in this league.”
The tone was a sharp contrast to where South Carolina stood not long ago. After a 35-34 loss to Kentucky in which the Gamecocks blew a 17-point lead, they fell to 2-3 overall and 0-3 in SEC play.
Since then, though, the turnaround has been dramatic. South Carolina has knocked off No.
16 Florida and No. 11 Tennessee in back-to-back games, and it was pushing for a third straight win against Oklahoma.
The Gamecocks were still ahead 28-10 roughly halfway through the third quarter. The game was being shown on SEC Network.
In Other News...
South Carolina Suddenly Has A Huge Backfield Problem After Oklahoma
South Carolinas backfield took a major hit against Oklahoma when Matt Fuller went down in the first quarter with an ankle injury, a sequence that ended with a broken bone in his foot and a likely season-ending surgery. Fuller had been one of the Gamecocks most productive runners, piling up 513 rushing yards and five touchdowns before the injury, and his absence immediately changed the feel of the offense.
Jabree Coleman, Christian Clark and Isaiah Augustave were the backs asked to absorb the workload after Fuller exited, and the staff now has to sort out how to replace both production and reliability moving forward. For a team trying to keep its ground game steady, losing a back who had become such a central piece of the rotation creates a problem that is hard to patch quickly. [Read more 🡒]
South Carolinas Late-Season Surge Just Got Hard To Ignore
South Carolinas late-season push picked up another jolt in Norman, where the Gamecocks handled Oklahoma 42-25 behind a big day from LaNorris Sellers. The quarterback threw for 301 yards and three touchdowns while adding two more scores on the ground, giving South Carolina the kind of balanced punch that can travel well this time of year even after a pair of interceptions and the early loss of top running back Matt Fuller.
What made the result stand out was how the Gamecocks absorbed the mistakes and still kept control. Oklahoma won the turnover battle, but South Carolinas defense made the Sooners work for everything and the offense kept finding answers, leaving the home team unable to climb back into the game. For a program trying to build momentum down the stretch, this was the sort of road win that gets noticed. [Read more 🡒]
Stingrays Are Off To A Start South Carolina Hasn't Seen In Years
The South Carolina Stingrays are doing more than just winning early, they are piling up goals and looking every bit like a team that has found its rhythm quickly. Their 7-3 victory over the Savannah Ghost Pirates gave them five straight wins to open the season, their best start in more than two decades, and it came with a season-high seven goals plus another power-play strike, the fifth game in a row they have scored with the man advantage.
What stands out for South Carolina is how complete the start has been. Multiple players chipped in on the scoring sheet, which is exactly the kind of balance that can carry a team through a long season, and Ben Kraws kept it steady in net with 25 saves while staying unbeaten in his starts. The early results are impressive enough on their own, but the bigger question now is how long this pace can hold once the schedule starts to tighten. [Read more 🡒]