Fantastic finish! South Carolina snaps losing skid vs. Missouri to reclaim Mayor’s Cup

Perhaps Shane Beamer just wanted to feel something. Wanted to feel the anxiety ramp up his heart rate into the danger zone. Wanted to roll the dice and pray fortune was on his side.

During Saturday’s 34-30 win over Missouri, Beamer gambled. And, given USC’s recent history against the Tigers, perhaps that was wise.

South Carolina (7-3, 5-3 SEC) had not beaten Missouri (7-3, 3-3 SEC) since 2018. It had not beaten Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz, who led App State over the Gamecocks in 2019, ever.

So perhaps Beamer felt the need to be bold. Maybe that explains how the Gamecocks’ head coach sent his offense on the field for five fourth-down tries, how he chose to not punt until midway through the fourth quarter. Perhaps it also explains how his team backed it all up, how they looked into the face of defeat time and time again and punched back.

“We haven’t had a game like that here in Columbia in a while,” Beamer said.

Quarterback LaNorris Sellers played perhaps the most sparkling game of his season, finishing with a career-high 353 yards and five touchdowns (all to different receivers) while completing 70% (21-30) of his passes. Receiver Dalevon Campbell, who had not caught a pass in a month, led the team with 86 receiving yards and two critical catches. And though he had under 75 total yards, tailback Rocket Sanders willed his way to the winning touchdown.

This game felt like so many South Carolina games of the past, which is to say South Carolina took a lead and then that lead dwindled and dwindled until — usually — it became a loss.

That was the script in 2023 against Georgia (up 14-3) and Florida (up 37-27). Just a month ago, the Gamecocks had a one-possession lead over Alabama heading to the fourth quarter and lost. In September, South Carolina led by 17 over LSU before the Tigers slowly drained all the fervor from Willy-B.

Saturday night, Beamer stood on the sideline thinking about how this all felt so familiar. Missouri had just scored to start the second half. LSU did the same thing. Was this going to become yet another disappointment, yet another what-if to add to the storage shed full of them?

“That popped in my head,” Beamer said of the similarities to other blown leads. “Hopefully it didn’t pop into the players’ heads. But I thought about it.”

Saturday just felt like another night where 80,000 folks get to collectively deal with a painful dose of deja vu.

The Gamecocks, who came into the Missouri game 9 of 17 (53%) turned the ball over on downs three times, keeping Missouri hanging around with a chance. The Tigers, down 15 at halftime, scored 18 points in the fourth quarter. Even after South Carolina seemed to overcome its fourth-down woes, with Sellers hitting TE Michael Smith for a late touchdown, Missouri responded.

On fourth-and-5, Missouri quarterback Brady Cook lofted a 37-yard touchdown to star receiver Luther Burden, giving the Tigers a field-goal lead with just over a minute to play.

This, normally, is where the story ends. But not with this team.

“We’re resilient,” Beamer said. “We have been through shared struggles together and that makes you closer and you saw that tonight.”

Sellers ran onto the field with 62 seconds on the clock. He completed a pass to Jared Brown. Then a third-and-10 completion to Brady Hunt, which was only set up because Sellers turned into a pig covered in butter and somehow escaped a dead-to-rights sack. Then one to Campbell for 39 yards. All of a sudden, the Gamecocks were in field-goal range.

But game-tying field goals have already led to tears this year. Attempting another opened the door for more heartbreak or, at best, overtime.

“We’re not playing for overtime,” Beamer said. “But we also wanted to be smart.”

Two plays later, there was no worry to be had. Sellers pitched a shovel pass to Sanders, who cut and bounced his way into the end zone from 15 yards out. Williams-Brice Stadium, on edge with the possibility of another “oh so close” game, erupted. And a celebration with the Mayor’s Cup — a trophy that Beamer and his entire team have never held before — ensued.

“I was planning to score there and that’s what I did,” Sanders said. “I was in that mode.”

The stadium hollered and stomped over a football team that, in the last month, has rewarded the believers. South Carolina is now 7-3, hasn’t lost since Oct. 12, and ends the season with contests vs. Wofford, at Clemson and a bowl game to be announced.

If the Gamecocks win out, it will be the fifth 10-win season in program history. A team that was so often counted out, that was .500 midway through the season, could reinvent itself and become legendary.

Next game

• Who: South Carolina vs. Wofford

• When: 4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 23

• Where: Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia, South Carolina

• Watch: Streaming only — SEC Network Plus and ESPN+

South Carolina football schedule

• Aug. 31 – South Carolina 23, Old Dominion 19

• Sept. 7 – South Carolina 31, Kentucky 6
  
  

• Sept. 14 – LSU 36, South Carolina 33
  
  

• Sept. 21 – South Carolina 50, Akron 7
  
  

• Oct. 5 – Ole Miss 27, South Carolina 3

• Oct. 12 – Alabama 27, South Carolina 25

• Oct. 19 – South Carolina 35, Oklahoma 6

• Nov. 2 – South Carolina 44, Texas A&M 20

• Nov. 9 – South Carolina 28, Vanderbilt 7

• Nov. 16 – South Carolina 34, Missouri 30

• Nov. 23 – vs. Wofford – 4 p.m., SEC Network+/ESPN+

• Nov. 30 – at Clemson – TBA