Texas A&M is walking into another opponent’s celebration, and this time the timing is even more awkward.
For the second straight road game, the Aggies will land in a college town dressed up for homecoming. Alabama had that honor on Oct. 24, and Texas A&M left Tuscaloosa with a 31-20 loss. Now South Carolina gets the same setup, with Saturday’s game at Williams-Brice Stadium serving as the Gamecocks’ homecoming.
It is a strange coincidence on the schedule, and for an Aggies team still chasing its first road win, it does not exactly feel like a break.
Williams-Brice Stadium already has a reputation for being a difficult place to play, and Texas A&M has learned that the hard way. The Aggies lost 44-20 in Columbia in 2024 after South Carolina jumped out to a 14-0 lead, a result that left Texas A&M’s SEC title hopes in rough shape. They also fell 30-24 there in 2022.
Homecoming will bring the usual crowd and pageantry, but the atmosphere was never going to be quiet anyway. Saturday in Columbia was going to be loud no matter what the calendar said.
South Carolina has given its fans plenty to celebrate on its own. Shane Beamer’s team has won three in a row, knocking off Florida, Tennessee and Oklahoma to move to 5-3 and No. 21 in the first College Football Playoff rankings. LaNorris Sellers is coming off a five-touchdown outing in Norman, and the Gamecocks are carrying real momentum into the final stretch of the season.
Texas A&M, by contrast, sits at 4-4 and has dropped all three of its road games.
Those losses have not been pretty. The Aggies managed six points at LSU and Missouri, then scored 20 at Alabama, where they held a fourth-quarter lead before unraveling in the final period. Their last three possessions ended in three-and-outs.
The bye week gave Mike Elko time to reset his team, and he has shown before that his groups can come out of a week off prepared. Still, that preparation has to show up when Marcel Reed starts throwing into a hostile crowd.
Kickoff is set for 2 p.m. CT on ESPN. A win would push Texas A&M closer to bowl eligibility and finally give it something it has not yet found away from home.
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LaNorris Sellers Injury Suddenly Puts South Carolina's Offense On Edge
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He was back out for halftime warmups, leaving open the possibility of returning for the second half if he could go. Shane Beamer acknowledged the concern around Sellers, but the Gamecocks also had to be ready for the next-man-up scenario, with confidence in backup Cutter Woods if the injury kept Sellers sidelined. [Read more 🡒]