On3 Roundtable: How many games South Carolina must win in 2023 to take the next step

South Carolina has become a dark horse ready to shock the world after the fireworks Shane Beamer’s squad showcased toward the end of last season. Could it be time for the Gamecocks to take that next step already?

GamecockCentral’s Wes Mitchell joined the On3 Roundtable alongside JD PicKell to discuss what Beamer’s squad has to do this season to put themselves on par with the rest of the first class SEC football programs.

“If you look at the schedule again, it’s difficult for me to sit here and say nine wins, but I think you look at what they’ve done in the last couple of seasons, and obviously they won seven, including the bowl game in year one under Shane Beamer,” Mitchell said. “They won eight without winning the bowl game in year two with Shane Beamer.

“So then I think you look at this year and just being able to show that you’re still making that incremental progress, putting yourself in a position — that would mean you’ve won some marquee games.”

It’s going on 10 years since the Gamecocks have notched 10+ wins in a single season. Beamer has added to his win total in each season he’s been in Columbia, meaning if that trend continues — he’ll be on a better trajectory than Steve Spurrier when he arrived in 2005.

Spurrier also won seven games in his first season, and then eight in his second. His Gamecocks took a step back the following season with a 6-6 record, and wouldn’t sniff at least nine wins until 2010.

Unlike Spurrier’s year-three squad, Beamer’s is expected to be able to beat any team on any given night based on their late-season push in 2022.

“If you look back to last year, recruits don’t really talk necessarily about South Carolina’s record,” Mitchell said. “They talk about, hey, smoke Tennessee at home, edged out that win at Clemson for the first time in almost a decade — they talk about those marquee wins.

“So if you were to get to nine regular season wins, if you’re South Carolina, just by default, that means you have again beaten some of those teams, you’ve gotten some wins that everybody’s talking about. That’s sort of the next step for this program.”

South Carolina will kick its 2023 campaign off against their neighboring rival in North Carolina at home on Sept. 2. After a give-me game against Furman in Week 2, they have an opportunity to make some noise early as they travel to Georgia in Week 3.