South Carolina off to highest-scoring start to a season since 1980
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South Carolina went 4-8 last season and won just 1 SEC game, so there was pressure on head coach Shane Beamer and the Gamecocks going into 2026 to win games.
Well, mission accomplished with that so far, as South Carolina has crushed its first 2 overmatched opponents, beating down Kent State and Towson for a 2-0 start going into its SEC opener in Week 3 against Mississippi State. The Bulldogs are off to their own 2-0 start, and so this Saturday’s matchup at 4:15 p.m. ET on SEC Network will be highly anticipated.
Can the Gamecocks get to 3-0 and match their SEC win total for all of last season? And for historical purposes, can they keep up their breathtaking offensive pace that they’ve set so far in 2026? Because it’s been an incredible offensive show so far for South Carolina, which put up 57 points in the opener against Kent State and followed that up with 45 points in its Week 2 blowout of Towson.
Add those point totals together and you get 102 points, which are the most by a South Carolina team in games 1 and 2 combined since 1980. That’s a very long time ago, and at the start of that season the Gamecocks combined for 110 points in their first 2 games, so this season’s team is just off that pace.
Leading the way for South Carolina so far, of course, is star quarterback LaNorris Sellers, who through these first 2 games has gone 29 of 46 for 366 yards with 3 touchdown passes and just 1 interception. He’s also been a terror on the ground, with a combined 120 yards rushing on 9 carries with 1 touchdown.
South Carolina hopes to keep its high-octane offense rolling all throughout the 2026 season and pile up the victories along the way. Here is what the Kalshi market is currently saying about the Gamecocks’ potential win total this fall:
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
