The South Carolina Gamecocks are in the stretch run of the season that could not end fast enough. Expected to be in the playoff hunt, the team has dramatically underperformed. In a season that predicted quarterback LaNorris Sellers would be in Heisman Trophy conversations, has Sellers as the 83rd best quarterback in college football. A 3-7 record (1-7 in the SEC) has the Gamecocks at the bottom of the SEC standings.
2025 has also provided a very uncommon number of head coaching vacancies. The number was as high as twelve before James Franklin signed on with Virginia Tech. The saving grace for Shane Beamer is that he is not one of them. Beamer seems to know exactly where he expects to be this time next year. In the mix for the college football playoff.
One of the many growing concerns within the college football playoff, NIL and transfer portal era is that there are twelve playoff spots with over 50 programs that claim to be fighting for a playoff spot. Just in the SEC alone there are about ten programs that believe they are playoff contenders in any given year. Despite a great deal of reason to believe so, Beamer believes the Gamecocks will be one of those twelve, according to USA Today.
“We’re going to be sitting here (this time next November) watching the playoff rankings to see where we are in the ranking show,” Beamer told the media this week. “And we’re going to be firmly in the mix for a College Football Playoff berth.”
No one will criticize a coach for being confident about his team, but the landscape today looks much different than it did a year ago. His quarterback, Sellers, might be the biggest transfer portal target if he chooses to leave. An idea Beamer referred to as “horse garbage” earlier in the week. Between On3 and 247Sports, South Carolina’s 2026 recruiting class ranks between 17th and 24th in the Power 4.
Beamer is in an interesting window of time. Provided South Carolina does not part ways with their head coach prior to the start of the 2026 season, Beamer will join the rare company of Lou Holtz and Steve Spurrier as the only Gamecocks head coaches to make it to year six since joining the SEC.
It's not so much that South Carolina can’t make the playoff, it’s more about the viability and probability of such an outcome and being certain of that eventuality. Casting aside the current rankings, Georgia, Alabama, Texas A&M, Ole Miss, Oklahoma, LSU, Florida, Auburn, Tennessee is all year in and year out expected to produce talent and a budget that would make South Carolina’s chances less than ideal.
Beamer might not currently be on the hot seat. However, these comments play like Beamer drawing a line in the sand. Not we hope to compete for, but we will be in the mix for a playoff spot. With over twenty Power 4 programs most fans 'expect' to be in the 12-team playoff mix next year, Beamer might have just set himself up for a difficult situation in 2026.
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