Shane Beamer provides outlook on South Carolina ahead of season opener: ‘I really like where we are right now’
By Sydney Hunte
Published:
Shane Beamer knows South Carolina needs massive improvement in 2026 to challenge for the top of the SEC. More than that, he’ll be coaching for his job: he’s on one of the hottest seats in the country after the Gamecocks slipped from a 9-4 record in 2024 to a 4-8 mark a season later. The hope, though, is that the hiring of Kendall Briles — the program’s fourth offensive coordinator in the Beamer era— can help bring improvement to the offense.
With his team’s season opener against Kent State just over a week away, Beamer is pleased with the way things are trending in preseason camp.
“I really like where we are right now, offensively, defensively, special teams, the progress we made, the way things have come together,” he said on Thursday. “There’s still position battles and rotation battles that are going on. That’s really for me the big emphasis this week, and next week is seeing some of those things solidify themselves as we go into game one.”
All eyes will be on LaNorris Sellers, who looked poised for a big 2025 but ended up playing a disappointing campaign. After a 2024 where he threw for 2,534 yards and 18 touchdowns while running for 674 yards and seven touchdowns, Sellers posted 2,437 yards and eight touchdowns in 2025. His rushing output dipped to 270 yards and five TDs.
The Gamecocks also averaged 111.1 rushing yards per game, second-worst in the conference and within the bottom 20 nationally.
Sydney is an Atlanta-based journalist who has covered everything from SEC and ACC football to MLS, the U.S. men's national soccer team and professional tennis. His work has appeared on such platforms as SB Nation, Cox Media Group and FanSided.
