Few teams, if any, in the Southeastern Conference had a more disappointing 2025 season than South Carolina. The Gamecocks entered the season ranked in the nation’s top 15 before sputtering to a 4-8 season with their lone SEC win coming against Kentucky.
After not playing South Carolina either of the last two years, the Vols travel to Columbia next season. The Gamecocks have been extremely volatile under Shane Beamer making the difficulty level of the road trip hard to project.
Beamer enters his sixth season as South Carolina’s head coach on the hot seat but started his offseason off strong. A look at three things that happened this week and makes the South Carolina game look more difficult for Tennessee than it did seven days ago.
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South Carolina Hired Kendal Briles And Retained Lanorris Sellers
South Carolina’s offense was dreadful a season ago. Despite having some talent, the Gamecocks ranked 104th nationally with 22.7 points per game while ranking 108th nationally with 336 yards per game. Shane Beamer predictably fired offensive coordinator Mike Shula after just one season in Columbia, and this week he found his replacement.
Beamer hired TCU offensive coordinator Kendal Briles this week. Briles runs a system with the same roots as Josh Heupel’s offense. He is not a genius offensive coordinator but his offense’s have ranked in the top 50 nationally of scoring each of the last five years at TCU and Arkansas.
Briles may not make South Carolina an offensive powerhouse, but at the very least, he should bring competency to the offensive side of the ball.
The more important news came Saturday when ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported that South Carolina is nearing a deal with quarterback Lanorris Sellers for him to return for his redshirt junior season.
Sellers did not put up big stats last season— 2,437 passing yards, 270 rushing yards, 13 passing touchdowns, five rushing touchdowns and eight interceptions. However, Sellers is extremely talented and regressed last season.
Back in 2024, in his first season as a starter, Sellers totaled 2,534 passing yards, 674 rushing yards, 18 passing touchdowns, seven rushing touchdowns and seven interceptions.
Despite the disappointing 2025 season, Sellers still projected as a borderline first round pick in the 2026 NFL Draft. It seemed like Sellers would go pro or maybe search for a better situation elsewhere. Instead, he bolsters South Carolina’s offense by returning.
A Bad Scheduling Break
The SEC released the full schedules for the 2026 season on Thursday. No where did Tennessee get a worse break than the South Carolina game.
Tennessee plays the Gamecocks on Oct. 24 in Columbia. It’s the Vols’ eighth straight game before their week nine open date. It also comes a week after Tennessee hosts Alabama at Neyland Stadium. The Vols will travel to Columbia either coming off an emotional rivalry win or beaten up.
On the other side, South Carolina will host Tennessee coming off its bye week. The Gamecocks should be rested and revved up for a critical October SEC game. South Carolina’s schedule is also back loaded. The Gamecocks have matchups with Mississippi State, Alabama, Florida and Kentucky beforehand but could feasibly be 5-1 entering the game.
