Gamecocks find answers all over the field in win at Oklahoma

Nov. 1—NORMAN, Okla. — That’s three in a row and there’s gonna be a three-loss team in the playoff and this could end up just like 2024 and …

Pump the brakes, as much as you don’t want to. It is exciting and encouraging and thrilling to see South Carolina play this well after playing so poorly in September but …

Know what? The Gamecocks are playing well. They just need to keep playing well, and then we can all see how close they are when the playoff rankings arrive … or how much those three early losses hurt.

Shane Beamer said it all when he paraphrased Meek Mill:

“Hold up, wait a minute … Y’all thought we were finished?”

Takeaways from a throttling of Oklahoma at the Palace on the Prairie, which Beamer is fast becoming the prince of.

High knees

Beamer wasn’t optimistic about Matt Fuller’s chances to return this year, not hiding behind the “we’ll release the injury report on Wednesday” but flat-out saying it doesn’t look good. Surgery on Sunday morning didn’t lend a bright forecast.

The Gamecocks got a crash course in replacing him during the game and did extremely well, Jabree Coleman and Isaiah Augustave picking up some tough and acrobatic yards (they supply more of the spinning grace and avoidance of the pile much more than the bullish Fuller did), while Christian Clark scored. The absence won’t be seamlessly covered — Fuller started for a reason — but USC is deep at that spot, and that’s not even including Jawarn Howell, who missed the game.

It will be a challenge to meld that rotation into the game plan, but after what offensive coordinator Kendal Briles has already done this season, is there anyone doubting he can?

Prospect

Nyck Harbor’s “breakout year” has been a breakdown. All of the potential just aching to burst loose, and he can’t put it all together.

He didn’t start on Saturday. Beamer said afterward that he was dog-sick on Friday, upchucking stuff he ate last week and the team getting him an emergency solo hotel room and telling him he better not dare show up for team meetings.

Then he was at the game and caught a pass that hit his thigh pads, bounced into his chest and was cradled as he hit the ground and rolled over, Trystan Haynes fighting him all the way. And he ran a perfect route to catch a perfect touchdown throw right before halftime.

“I think he’s like our team, just responded the right way. And he works his butt off, and he may not always show up in the stat sheet,” Beamer said. “Don’t get me wrong. There were some things we were disappointed with last week with him in the Tennessee game, some plays that we’d like to have or he’d like to have back. But he went right back to work, never flinched, didn’t start, but showed up and made plays.”

Perhaps this is the start of really turning all of that potential into constant, steady production.

Starring … LaNorris Sellers

OU was the full episode. Beamer said he didn’t blame Sellers for the first interception, the pick-six. I certainly did, Sellers trying to Gumby that pass sidearm and over the defense to D.J. Black before Kip Lewis, minding his own business, saw the ball floating toward him. Then the second one, Sellers just overthrew Mazeo Bennett.

But … my.

The hose he showed off bombing downfield to Black in stride for an 84-yard touchdown, maybe the finest deep shot I’ve seen at USC since Jake Bentley threw the best pass of his career, that touchdown to Shi Smith in the 2018 Outback Bowl. The scrambling ability to get out of pressure, run a few steps, actually jump to turn around his body and still throw off one foot to hit Bennett in stride for another touchdown.

You can see why NFL scouts drool over this guy and also wonder if he can consistently put that all together. Not to mention, as he said last week, to always figure the odds when he takes off and runs.

It’s 240 pounds, his, against many that don’t have that, nor his height. To contradict Public Enemy, you can truss it.

Little help?

The Sooners got 241 of their 359 yards, and 15 of their points, in the fourth quarter. The Gamecocks led 35-10 after three, and while no USC lead is ever safe, that one pretty much was.

Sooners coach Brent Venables needed that to be able to show to his superiors, that his kids never quit trying, even as that effort dragged the game to below a crawl. USC’s defense was tired.

Call it a handy back-scratch, even though Beamer had to say what he said … that that wasn’t USC’s standard and there would be plenty to work on this week.

If it looks like an odd duck …

Vicari Swain committed another boneheaded penalty, cut-blocking a man he didn’t have to for an OU first down when it was third-and-long. It became a field goal.

After a week of hearing how he needed to quit suffering from cranial rectitus, Swain didn’t dislodge. But he also dropped into nickel coverage on Isaiah Sategna on third downs, holding him to four catches for 13 yards.

“But yes, the whole reason for that was, certainly (Damarcus) Leach has performed well the last two weeks coming in the game for Judge (Collier) and Vicari, so we got confidence in Damarucs, and a lot of it was, ‘Let’s get Vicari on No. 1,’ and we liked that matchup,” Beamer said.

Been here before

It’s a minor point, and it’s only because it happened so notably last year.

We all remember. The Gamecocks are kicking Texas A&M all around Kyle Field and Beamer does his halftime interview, after which he’s waving his arms, exhorting screams and cheers from the USC faithful.

That became one of many sore spots after that choke job. That it wasn’t that that lost the game was hardly the point. It was just another on the pyre of, “This guy still can’t figure out how to control his emotions on the sideline.”

On Saturday, he calmly jogged off the field and into the tunnel with his 28-10 lead. Then won the game.

The chickens hatched, and nobody counted them beforehand.

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