Gamecocks hope to use Clemson, Tennessee wins as springboard into 2023

COLUMBIA — Everywhere they went while patrolling the halls of Nashville’s Grand Hyatt during SEC Media Days, they were asked, congratulated and looked upon with curiosity. Many still wondered how exactly it happened.
South Carolina was the king of college football during the last two weeks of the 2022 regular season. The Gamecocks, floored 38-6 by a bad Florida team the week before, scored touchdowns on every possession in a destruction of Tennessee. They followed up by going to Clemson and beating the Tigers for their first rivalry win in nearly a decade, not to mention breaking Clemson’s 40-game home winning streak.
The cherries on the sundaes?
The Volunteers and Tigers were each hoping to make the College Football Playoff, and each watched, befuddled, as the Gamecocks snatched their dreams. The first back-to-back victories over top 10 teams in school history had sports anchors across the country talking USC.
What’s weird — in a sport ruled by “What have you done for me lately,?” nobody in Nashville and not many this preseason mentioned that the Gamecocks lost their last game. Notre Dame got ’em by a touchdown at the Gator Bowl. “Well, funny things happen in bowl games,” folks have said.
That’s perfectly fine at USC. Want to talk about the two amazing wins and not the disappointing loss? Great!
Because the Gamecocks are obviously using those two wins to move forward, be it in recruiting or as motivation for this year’s team.
“I was telling somebody earlier, proud of the fact that coming off that win in Columbia against Tennessee, to not just go on the road the next week and win, but to be down 14-0 on the road to Clemson and come back and win that game, that’s what I’m so proud of," USC coach Shane Beamer said. "Because human nature would have been to say, ‘Well, it’s just not our day. You know we had a great week, great game last week in Columbia, and we’re down 14-0, but we got that win and we’re good.’
“But our guys battled back, so to me the mental toughness and fortitude our guys showed that day was awesome. It absolutely has springboarded us in a lot of ways.”
Nobody took the “it was life-changing, but it was last year” approach at Media Days, each player more than happy to talk about those games and pointing to them as the defining legacy of the 2022 team. They hope that boost can carry forward into this season.
“I came from a place where there was rivalries, but it wasn’t that serious, so I didn’t really understand it. You come here and you do not talk to anybody that wears orange,” punter Kai Kroeger said. “That game was unbelievable, especially being able to contribute the way I did, was awesome. So that game I’m not going to forget forever, for sure.”
Beamer pointed out that it was definitely easy for the fan base to lap it up, with a 106 percent increase of season-ticket sales and sold-out booster-club events over the summer. And he’s using it within his team as preseason approaches.
But there is the other, and he had to mention that as well.
“Also we understand, we have got a lot of work to do, too. Yes, we had those two great wins but we are also — that’s the same team that didn’t score an offensive touchdown the week before against Florida,” Beamer said. “We have got to be more consistent, starting with me, but certainly there’s a lot that you can take from those two games that will help us going forward.”
Beginning Friday, the work begins in preseason camp. No doubt the Gamecocks have embraced what Tennessee and Clemson did for them.
Yet the team has changed. Many of the players, and many of the heroes, of those two wins have departed.
Is it realistic to think the Gamecocks can keep that momentum with a new team and some new personnel who were not there in November?
All are waiting to discover.