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ORLANDO, Fla — In July, coach Shane Beamer knew that many doubted the 2024 South Carolina football team.
At SEC Media Days, he said that he knew media members would vote the Gamecocks toward the bottom of the conference in the preseason poll, and they did. South Carolina was voted to finish 13th among the 16 teams.
Alabama, South Carolina, Missouri and Ole Miss all finished with the fourth-best overall record in the SEC at 9-3 before the bowl games, and the Gamecocks were ranked No. 12 in the USA Today coaches poll after beating Clemson on Nov. 30.
The now No. 14 Gamecocks are gearing up for the Citrus Bowl on Tuesday (3 p.m., ABC) against No. 21 Illinois, a team that is also 9-3 and, like South Carolina, finished last season 5-7.
To Beamer, he cares more about sending his bevy of senior players off the right way but acknowledged the game has a lingering effect.
“There’s no question you want to win your last game to have momentum going in to the offseason,” Beamer said, mentioning the win over Clemson last month and Illinois’ 38-28 win over Northwestern. “To be able to sustain that momentum and keep that throughout the offseason is very important. Regardless of what happens (Tuesday), looking at our roster we’re going to be preseason picked, I would imagine, somewhere fairly high with who we have coming back and the young men that are coming into the program.”
Beamer mentioned how coach Bret Bielema will have a lot of his 2024 players back next season as well, which adds a layer to the Citrus Bowl as it features two teams that had a losing record in 2023 and are now playing for win No. 10 and the future of the program.
“Last year was a (losing) season that I didn’t enjoy and we used it as a catalyst to get to this year,” Bielema said. “Hopefully we will just continue to take this thing forward and build something that can sustain success for a long time.”
Beamer echoed that sentiment of sustaining the good parts of 2024.
The Citrus Bowl has “two teams that I think have really big futures in front of them because of the foundation that’s been laid and the progress that’s been made,” Beamer said.
For South Carolina, Tuesday’s game will likely be a look at next season as two seniors in running back Rocket Sanders and edge rusher Kyle Kennard have opted out to concentrate on preparing for the NFL, which opens the door for younger players.
For quarterback LaNorris Sellers, it’s a chance to put a stamp on his first season as a starter. In Week 2 when the Gamecocks defeated Kentucky 31-6 in Sellers’ first SEC road game, Beamer got an inkling that the season may end better than people expected.
“We had higher expectations than anyone on the outside did throughout the year,” Beamer said. “For me, probably the Kentucky game … to go up there with a redshirt freshman quarterback. … I walked off the field that day not saying ‘We’re going to end the season on a six-game winning streak and be in Orlando,’ but I remember thinking, We have a chance to be pretty good.'”
Lulu Kesin covers South Carolina athletics for The Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. Email her at lkesin@gannett.com and follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, @Lulukesin
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