Shane Beamer’s dreams are already coming true.

Under the victorious postgame lights after polishing off a signature victory over Florida, 40-17, Beamer was surrounded by his family — including his dad, whom he credits as a significant coaching mentor — as he relished the shocking victory over the Gators.

From his cell phone number being a Columbia area code throughout his career, to all the local landmarks, Beamer has made it clear that he not only wanted to be a head coach, he wanted to be a head coach at South Carolina. Remember, during the interview process, he brought iPads for the Gamecocks’ administrators to review his plan. Beamer understands from his time as a Steve Spurrier assistant what the program is capable of and what it did in those golden years — including, by the way, wins over Florida, most notably 4 in 5 years.

Saturday’s win put all the questions about a complex offense, a sagging offensive line not blocking very well for the underwhelming rushing attack, and the overall playcalling to rest.

With South Carolina at 5-4, not only is a bowl game within reach, but the Gamecocks have a shot at moving up the bowl pecking order. They now sit in 4th place in the SEC East with remaining games against Missouri, Auburn and Clemson. Put the kind of effort in against those teams as they did against Florida, and there’s no longer a question of toss-up or needing a break here or there.

The Gamecocks continue to add silver screen ideas to the table, now with a 3rd-string quarterback in Jason Brown who played last year at FCS’ St. Francis. That story, of course, could only be trumped by the Zeb Noland graduate assistant-turned-starting-quarterback script. Pair that with just 79 scholarship players, and South Carolina was still the better team than Florida, a team that only narrowly lost to Alabama this season.

With the win, Beamer gained a measure of equity toward his culture vision and locker room atmosphere that’s loving and supportive and more publicly positive than the average Power 5 program. It is one thing to preach it, but when there is evidence on video and paper, especially for recruits, it begins to move the needle.

Remember, the Gamecocks went into Saturday coming off a demoralizing loss at Texas A&M. There was an ugly box score with negative rushing yards throughout the game, and plenty of fans and media wondered if the players would pack it in. What that improved rushing attack showed is that the Gamecocks never quit. Beamer was proud to mention before and after the game that the players requested more practice time even on the off-week last week.

The barometer of Beamer’s 1st season has already changed because he has removed the feeling that the Gamecocks are out of the running and tied to the bottom of the standings. He now has something tangible to sell to players and recruits, and obviously, some of them have already bought it.

It is difficult to find a more 180-degree change for an SEC team than from the Texas A&M loss to this win. Florida was favored by 19 points, and South Carolina won by 23. What a shift.

In the summer, and certainly entering November, South Carolina didn’t have much to play for. Sure, a bowl game was mathematically in reach, but there was no reason to believe the same team that was crushed at Kyle Field could bounce back and do anything close to this. The Gamecocks did it in a clean and disciplined way, with no turnovers and just 1 penalty for 5 yards. The 284 rushing yards came at 6.8 yards per carry.

The dawn of the Beamer era has lifted, and so far, it’s all smiles.