Five plays that led to South Carolina football's senior day win over Wofford

Of all the things that happened on Saturday, South Carolina’s Week 13 matchup against Wofford seemed to be at the lower end of the pecking order. It was easy to get lost in what else was going on that day.

The No. 18 Gamecocks honored 27 seniors before the game as part of their senior day celebration. That all took place less than 30 minutes before kickoff. Even before and then after the game, chaos happened around the rest of college football, with six major upsets by the end of the night.

But sandwiched in between it all, South Carolina picked up a 56-12 win over the Terriers to move to 8-3 (5-3 SEC) on the year. The Gamecocks have now won five consecutive games and turn the page to the biggest game of the season.

Before diving headfirst into Clemson week, let’s look at five plays that helped South Carolina earn its eighth win and close out the home slate in grand fashion.

Another stellar two-minute drive

For most of the first half, South Carolina hadn’t played its best football. In fact, it was kind of the opposite. The Gamecocks sleepwalked through the first quarter with a lot of mistakes made. And that continued into the second quarter when Wofford cut the lead down to five with just under two minutes remaining.

But just like they had done so well against Missouri, they drove down the field in eight plays to take a 21-9 lead into halftime. The scoring play came on a one yard catch by Maurice Brown II for his first career touchdown.

With so many other tight ends in front of him out with injuries, Brown got his moment to shine and help the team in a critical moment. But it wouldn’t have happened without two great catches by Dalevon Campbell. In the two plays leading to the touchdown, Campbell caught passes for 27 and 21 yards to put the offense on the doorstep of scoring.

“Obviously, we were a mash unit out there tonight from an injury standpoint,” head coach Shane Beamer said. “Dowell and the offensive staff had to get creative with a lot of stuff as far as personnel groupings and they did. Proud of the team.”

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Coming out of the break on fire

After scoring a touchdown to close out the first half, South Carolina got the ball back to open the second half and did the same exact thing.

In a nine-play, 82-yard drive over three minutes, the offense carved up Wofford’s defense. The big play came when LaNorris Sellers fired a pass into the end zone to a wide open Nyck Harbor for a 26-yard touchdown. This made it a 28-9 lead for the Gamecocks and at that point started to put the game out of reach for the Terriers.

“Really, it’s just reps at practice and getting chemistry down with the guys,” Sellers said on what’s been working with him connecting on deeper passes. “We stay after practice, get routes in with the guys…trusting what I see.”

This was exactly what Beamer wanted to see from his team after halftime. He challenged them to play the way he knew they were capable of and that’s what he saw take place.

“I said, the offense is up first to start the second half,” Beamer said. “We are going to go right down the field and score and then we need to play like Gamecock football is in the second half.”

Defense comes through again

With a now huge lead nearing the end of the third quarter, South Carolina was set to get the ball back with a punt upcoming. But on the ensuing punt, which only traveled 32 yards, the ball touched Peyton Williams, making it a live ball and Wofford recovered. It was a strange play and another blunder on special teams that seemed to take some of the air out of the balloon in a great third quarter showing.

But no matter. The Gamecock defense trotted back on to the field and handled business accordingly. With the Terriers nearing the goal line, Bryan Thomas Jr. ran right at the quarterback and got two hands on him before slipping out of the sack. But he was brought to the ground right afterwards on the play and Thomas was credited with the sack.

This third-down play forced Wofford to settle for a field goal to make it a 35-12 lead with a little over 13 minutes remaining in the game. It’s unclear what would’ve happened afterwards if the Terriers found the end zone. But this big sack by Thomas pretty much ended any chance of Wofford making it a game again.

The future at running back looks awfully nice

With this being Rocket Sanders’ only year as a Gamecock, South Carolina is going to be counting on others to step up in the running backs room next season. Saturday provided a glimpse into what that might look like and who could fill the void left by Sanders.

With a little over seven minutes remaining in the game, the Gamecocks were back in plus territory and had their backups in. On a 2nd and 2 handoff, Jawarn Howell easily picked up the first down without much trouble. Then he made a great cut to make a defender miss and was off to the races. He had two defenders trying to bring him down around the 10-yard line, but he kept chugging and steamrolled into the end zone for a 27-yard touchdown run.

The sophomore transfer from SC State has now played in four games this season. If he plays in the Clemson game, he won’t be able to redshirt this year. But while his sample size is small for 2024, there’s no denying Howell will have a chance to make a huge impact in 2025 and beyond for South Carolina.

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This is what senior day is all about

By this point, the game was already well over. South Carolina had the ball at the Wofford five-yard line with 16 seconds left to play. But the Gamecocks made sure to reward one of their own the right way.

On second and goal, still running plays on offense, Davis Beville handed off to redshirt senior running back Bradley Dunn, who broke to the outside and stiff armed his way into the end zone for his first career touchdown in what could’ve been his final game at Williams-Brice Stadium. He still has another year of eligibility if he wants to use it next year, but this was a great moment for somebody who worked hard in practice but never really saw much time on the field in games.

Dunn joined South Carolina as a walk-on back in 2020 and earned a scholarship in August. As he stood up in the end zone, his teammates jogged over from the sideline to mob him in celebration. It was a wonderful moment. This is what senior day is all about. And it’s great to see hard-working players be rewarded for their contributions.

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