3 takeaways from South Carolina's blowout win over Texas A&M
South Carolina pulled off a significant upset on Saturday night, beating Texas A&M 44-20.
The win moves the Gamecocks to 5-3 on the season. Perhaps more importantly for neutral fans, Texas A&M now has its second loss of the season — and its first in SEC play. This result will have significant implications on both SEC and national postseason races.
Here are 3 takeaways from South Carolina’s big win:
South Carolina’s offense dominated
This was easily South Carolina’s best offensive performance of the year versus an SEC opponent. The Gamecocks previously scored 30+ points in wins over Kentucky and Oklahoma, but both of those outputs were significantly boosted by takeaways.
That was not fully the case on Saturday night vs. the Aggies. South Carolina averaged 7.6 yards per play in the win over Texas A&M — a borderline elite mark against an SEC opponent, let alone one with a defense that’s as proven as A&M’s is. South Carolina’s previous season-high for yards per play in an SEC game in 2024 was 6.5 against LSU.
South Carolina’s running game was especially potent. Raheim Sanders and LaNorris Sellers both averaged over 7 yards per carry in this victory.
The defense controlled the game
Texas A&M gained 350 yards on Saturday night, but managed just 5 yards per play. That mediocre down-to-down average resulted in just 20 total points for the Aggies on Saturday night.
Marcel Reed played quarterback for A&M in this one after leading the Aggies to a comeback win last week vs. LSU. However, he was not nearly as effective vs. the Gamecocks. Reed was limited to 206 passing yards, 1 touchdown and 1 crucial interception on 28 attempts.
As a runner, Reed carried the ball 16 times for just 46 yards.
Postseason implications
This result will have significant implications on both the SEC title race and the College Football Playoff picture moving forward.
Instead of having an undefeated team atop the SEC standings, the league now has a whopping 5 teams with exactly 1 conference loss. Three more are just behind the top group with a pair of losses in conference play. The closeness between teams at the top of the standings could create plenty of chaotic tiebreaker scenarios down the stretch.
As for the CFP, Texas A&M now joins a group of 2-loss CFP hopefuls in the SEC. The group includes LSU, Alabama, Ole Miss and Missouri entering Week 11. Texas A&M does have a home game left against Texas in the final week of the regular season — that would be an excellent platform for the Aggies to make a statement for the selection committee.
For South Carolina, the Gamecocks are now 5-3 on the season and are just 1 win away from bowl eligibility.
The initial CFP rankings will be revealed on Tuesday evening.
See what difference having a head coach and D Coordinator who can make adjustments makes? The baffoon at LSU was unable to make changes. In the previous games he played he didn’t run up and down the field.
The difference is SC was able to stop a running QB.
LSU never made the adjustments after Marcel Reed came in and got punished for it.
It’s the best defense top to bottom that I have ever seen at SC and it’s a one season unit. Clayton White has a lot of holes to fill for next season. Kudos to Coach Loggains for getting the offense on track and I hope it continues in the last three games. Coach Beamer has done a good job of keeping the team positive for every game even after so many tough losses.
I totally agree. This is the best defense we have had since Spurrier’s three consecutive 11-2 seasons. Those defenses were great because of Defensive Coordinator Ellis Johnson and our recruiting coordinator Shane Beamer. When Johnson left to take a head coaching position and Beamer left to join his father’s staff at VaTech, our recruiting fell off big time. When Shane was hired from Riley’s staff at Oklahoma, many so-called “experts” questioned the hiring, saying “He’s never been an Offensive or Defensive Coordinator.” Well, I think he has proven his critics wrong that he did not have to be. Did everybody see ABC showing Frank Beamer on the sidelines last night in the fourth quarter? The apple does not fall far from the tree!
Congrats! You kicked our ass! We could not tackle your players. Your D kicked our ass too! Your team took this game. Please beat Clemson!
Beamer has really come into his own.
I’m still not the biggest fan of his coordinator & assistant hires, but he seems like he’s dead set on leaving his mark on the university and making this the ‘Beamer era’.
WB at night man… it’s tough.
Great win cocks
Sec is wide open
Georgia at ole miss looks real interesting.
Congrats to the Cocks! Great win. Total domination!
Horrible loss by the Aggies. All they had left was a bye, NMS, and the dumpster fire that is Aub before the Tex game.
That’s the SEC though. Just when you think it’s all downhill…it’s actually uphill. Maybe even Mississippi State will get that elusive conference win this season?
Don’t put that bad juju on us
Auburn is not a given.
Was Sellers greased up tonight? Aggies trying to tackle him looked like they were in a greased pig catching contest. He’s slippery. Or our guys didn’t practice tackling this week. One of the two, maybe both.
He’s been elusive in almost every game. He has good size and speed but he’s a redshirt freshman and made some poor decisions and bad throws at key moments in tight games. Tonight he looked ready and the offensive play calling worked better. It also helps that our receivers/tight ends have improved week by week and we are finally getting to know which guys can catch and run.
You guys had LSU on the ropes until he was injured, that’s for sure. He’s a good one.
South Carolina is a few points away from being in the driver’s seat in the SEC. They looked great tonight. Hope Beamer can build on that to deliver 9-10 win seasons every year. Seems like during his tenure USC takes one bit step forward and then one big step back.
Pure failure in fundamentals.
Trying to tackle runners high. Throwing a shoulder into the runner and not wrapping up. Basic defense.
No need for grease. Big, strong runners do not go down easily.
Congrats Gamecocks!
And I’ll second Fuzzy on WB at night. Not just upsets but beat downs.
Awesome win, USC! Go Cocks!!!
Great win!
SC at home at night is a great atmosphere and obviously a very dangerous place to visit.
Great win Cocks!
Every week you get better or worse. Every week is a chance to get a win that changes your outlook and the fortune of others as well
It’s great that people get all these high attitudes and then have to wear them like an apology of intellect.
This is why gambling and human activities are particularly bad ideas and should be illegal. If someone had an exemplary good/bad gsme we don’t want money to be involved because even the possibility should kill public interest.
So glad SC is not on TN’s schedule this year
It’s so weird we don’t play 10AhC, Georgia, or Florida this year.
After last night, the rest of the games are winnable. F Clemson, toughest game now might be @ Vandy
Sellers was a difference maker. One of those games where SC played well. 50/50 balls were capitalized on by SC and we came up inches short on plays, one of them not sure it was short still convinced Amari Daniels had the first down. Good job SC and glad the bye week is coming up. Maybe this is a wake up call and our guys might need a few weeks to get back to 100 percent.
A&M was outcoached and outplayed.
SC stacked the line to stop the run, daring Reed to beat them deep. And Reed was not even in the same zip code as the receiver on the deep throws. Even most of his completed short throws were off target (receivers have to either go down or climb a ladder to make the catch), which eliminated any possibility of YAC.
I am disgusted that the defense suddenly forgot the fundamentals this late in the season. Poor tackling. Not sealing the edge. Not maintaining lane discipline. And sadly, this did not improve after the half. Scourton continues to play selfishly, going for the glory (sack) rather than setting the edge and maintaining lane discipline. And that hurt.
Poor coaching decisions. Punting with five minutes left in the game was throwing in the towel. Going for it on fourth on your own 30 early in the game. Not bringing in Weigman in the second half.
SC just won all the way around.
Agreed. At least they no longer need to take two timeouts in first few minutes of every game to figure out what they’re supposed to be doing. One or two bad games a season is much easier to handle than consistent confusion.
This game makes me wonder if TAM beat LSU or did LSU beat itself. I’m leaning to the latter.
The Aggies beat us no doubt, three picks in short yardage situations definitely helped though. The game last night just shows me how much of a premium home field advantage is, add to that the inconsistent nature of most of the teams in the SEC this season.
Good take
I’m guessing that with the results of this game, we will see the Battered Aggie Syndrome character on SEC Shorts tomorrow.
Congrats Gamecocks, that was an impressive win. Sellers is a stud, and we couldn’t even make a dent trying to run up the middle. Stomp all over Clemson, would ya?