Bowl loss shouldn't diminish what was successful second season

Shane Beamer stood at the podium, a room full of reporters waiting to pepper questions to him after a seven-point loss to Notre Dame. 

Tears welled in his eyes after a disappointing end to the season. But Beamer stayed true to how he looks at everything and framed a deflating end by putting it into perspective in what was a successful second year. 

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“For us to be down that many players and for those guys to play their butts off like they did and leave everything out there like they did, I’m really, really, really proud to be their coach. Just the fight,” Beamer said. 

“We just said in the locker room in there, we’ve got a hurting group of guys that left it all out there and played for one another, and it’s special what we have in that locker room. Very few teams, I think — I don’t know, it’s just unique what we have.”

And, despite a sour taste to end the season, this was probably the Gamecocks’ best regular season since 2013 when South Carolina won 10 regular season games. 

The only other season that could stack up would be the 2017 year where South Carolina also went 8-4 in the regular season. Even then, though, the Gamecocks only beat one nine-win team in the regular season (NC State).

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This year South Carolina beat three teams that were ranked at the time. Two of those will assuredly be ranked at the end of the year: Tennessee and Clemson. 

 The Gamecocks also beat Kentucky in Lexington for the first time in a decade. They beat Texas A&M for the first time in program history. 

“It’s just a group of guys that believe in each other and love one another,” Beamer said. “And I hope that showed. And I hope our fans, and I believe they do, can appreciate our team and the passion and joy they play with.”

The Gamecocks can’t rest on any laurels heading into what will be a pivotal offseason. South Carolina is replacing a ton of production from this year’s team while breaking in a new offensive coordinator in Dowell Loggains. 

South Carolina will continue to bring in more talent and add to its depth, but Beamer is optimistic about it.

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“We’ve made a ton of progress, and it’s just the beginning…Eric said it yesterday in that press conference, we’re headed this way, and we’re just getting started for sure. It’s a journey, and today was a bump and really, really a loss that really hurt,” Beamer said. 

“But we’ve got the right people in our program. You can tell that by the hurt that’s in that locker room right now. There are not many dry eyes, to say the least.”

Offensive inconsistency was also an issue for most of the season. The offense coalesced over the final two weeks of the regular season while beating Clemson and Tennessee.

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“It’s a blessing. It’s an eight-win season that should have been nine. It sucks we lost this game. But it’s a blessing,” Spencer Rattler said. “We won a lot of big games this year. And the program is still going this way and only going to get better.” 

Rattler finished his year completing 66.6 percent of his attempts, averaging 7.6 yards per throw with 18 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. He now enters the offseason with a decision to make.

“Time flew by. This is the fastest year of my life football-wise. It sounds crazy I got here almost a year ago. This year was such a blessing,” he said. “God put me here for a reason. I’m definitely going to pray on my decision and see what God has in store for me next. I don’t know what it is.” 

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