Who's in first? Right now in the SEC, it's South Carolina

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Who's in first? In the Southeastern Conference, that's South Carolina.

The Gamecocks (2-0, 1-0) routed Kentucky 31-6 last week in the only SEC league game so far.

And that means an extra challenge for fourth-year coach Shane Beamer as his team looks to build on its first-place status when it faces No. 16 LSU (1-1) on Saturday.

ESPN's “College GameDay” is in town for the first time in a decade, and Beamer will put in a little extra work keeping his young team grounded.

“The bandwagon, if you will, is getting full,” Beamer said Tuesday. He wants his players to understand “there's people on that bandwagon right now that'll jump right off the next time things don't go well.”

Quarterback LaNorris Sellers, a redshirt freshman in his first season as starter, struggled in the team's late escape against Old Dominion two weeks ago but rebounded with a pair of TD passes at Kentucky.

Sellers knows he and his teammates can get overwhelmed if they don't prepare with energy and focus. “We're going to keep that same mindset,” he said.

Still, it has been a wild couple of weeks.

South Carolina, picked 13th in the SEC this preseason, began with a troubling performance against ODU. The Monarchs were ahead 19-16 in the fourth quarter and if not for a late ODU fumble that led to Sellers' winning TD, Beamer would be on a much hotter seat than he is now.

“You've got to be an idiot to think people weren't disappointed" with the Old Dominion game, Beamer said.

Beamer told his team to stay the course and that the positives he had watched throughout fall camp after a 5-7 mark a season ago would surface.

Few outside the program believed that would happen at Kentucky, where the Gamecocks had won just once in their previous five visits.

“We knew what we had,” said defensive back Jalon Kilgore, who has had interceptions in each of the first two games.

South Carolina took a 10-0 lead and pulled away in the second half. He added a second TD pass and safety Nick Emmanwori had a pick six to put things away.

Can the Gamecocks bring the same effort and tenacity against LSU?

Kilgore believes they will, despite the Tigers leading the SEC with eight TD passes. “We just have to play our game and things are going to be straight,” he said.

Beating Kentucky was a mild surprise and put the Gamecocks in a good spot to return to a bowl game, something they missed last year.

Taking down the Tigers? That could add to the team's belief of even bigger things to come, which punter Kai Kroeger said has been building all offseason. He understands the excitement from friends, family and fans after last week, all of which he and his teammates must block out to prepare for LSU.

“It's definitely difficult with everything going on,” said Kroeger, voted SEC special teams player of the week. “But Coach Beamer does a great job having us focus on what we have to do each week."

Beamer will lean on older Gamecocks like Kroeger and fifth-year players in center Vershon Lee and defensive linemen Alex Huntley and Tonka Hemingway to set the tone for younger players.

All four were around in 2022 when the Gamecocks gained national attention after defeating top-10 programs Tennessee and Clemson in consecutive weeks. All know how quickly momentum can shift.

Beamer hopes to look back on the Kentucky win as a springboard for a season few expected. He's working to make sure things don't slide in a different direction.

“I feel like we're prepared. Practice today showed me we're preparing the right way,” Beamer said. “We need to continue to improve and then turn it loose on Saturday.”

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Pete Iacobelli, The Associated Press