Shane Beamer details how South Carolina losses have prepared them to win in November

South Carolina has quietly ripped off four straight wins, including two against ranked opponents.

Coach Shane Beamer credited his team’s resurgence with growth through some hard times earlier in the season and even last year. He opened up on it after a thrilling win over No. 23 Missouri on Saturday night.

“I think just battle-tested when you go through shared struggles together — this is just life — when you go through shared struggles together I truly believe it makes you closer and even more resilient,” Beamer said. “And we went through some shared struggles last season and we went through some shared struggles with those heart-breaking losses early in the year.”

The Gamecocks lost some absolute heart-breakers indeed. Sure, there was the thumping the team took at the hands of Ole Miss. But there were also nail-biter, down-to-the-wire affairs against the likes of LSU and Alabama.

Neither one produced a winning result for South Carolina.

Beamer actually felt the game Saturday night against Missouri slipping away in similar fashion.

“There were a lot of, not signs, but eerily similar tonight,” he said. “You’re up two scores at halftime and just like LSU, we were leading by two scores going into the fourth quarter and then they score a touchdown at the beginning of the fourth quarter just like LSU. But that popped in my head. Hopefully it didn’t pop in the players’ heads, but I mean I thought about it.”

If his team did, it didn’t show. South Carolina had a chance to tie the game with a field goal in the final minutes.

Instead, the Gamecocks punched through and scored a touchdown, taking the lead and eschewing the idea of going to overtime.

What did Beamer learn about his South Carolina team?

“Just that we’re resilient. What a way to finish,” he said. “Proud of those guys, because we have been through shared struggles together and that makes you closer. You saw that tonight with some of the injury situation. We had guys that, at one point we were down our top three tight ends. Like we didn’t have a healthy, top-three tight end at one point. And guys just kept stepping up and making plays. It was really good to see.”