South Carolina looked firmly in charge early at Williams-Brice Stadium. The Gamecocks raced out to a 17-0 lead against No. 24 Kentucky. What followed was a painful loss that turned a home advantage into another overtime heartbreak. That collapse has now led to a question about Shane Beamer and how much longer the close calls can be explained away.
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“Is there any fan in South Carolina that still believes in Shane Beamer? And the problem for Shane Beamer, he’s got a little bit of Dabo Swinney in him. He’ll show up Monday, and he’ll be banging the table and talking about how close they were,” Paul Finebaum said on ESPN’s The Matt Barrie Show on October 4.
“But when you get beat by a first-year coach who’s never been a head coach, who dials up just a dagger through your heart, you’re out of blood, and you’re out of time.”
Kentucky answered with 14 unanswered points in the third quarter and took a 24-20 lead. Kentucky then drove 66 yards and kicked a 29-yard field goal with just over four minutes left to force overtime. The Gamecocks had chances to finish the job before it ever reached that point. In overtime, South Carolina scored first with a 5-yard touchdown, and Kentucky answered with a 6-yard touchdown. First-year head coach Will Stein chose to go for two instead of kicking the extra point.
Finebaum has long criticized Swinney for leaning on fight, culture, and how near the games felt while results slipped. He expects Beamer to take a similar path after losses. It is about the messaging that follows painful defeats. Beamer’s own words after the Kentucky game made that point hard to miss.
“Really, really hurt for our fans. Really, really hurt for our players. They played their absolute frea-ing guts out tonight. Just told them in the locker room, I’m so freaking proud of them,” Beamer said.
“Just the way they responded all week. The way they answered the call after last week. The way they came out tonight and competed. Tonight, we lost the momentum in the third quarter. I’m sure there was a sense, ‘uh, oh. Here we go again.’ These guys never flinched. They continued to battle,” he added.
With the loss, South Carolina fell to 2-3 and 0-3 in conference play, extending an eight-game SEC losing streak that dates to 2025. Stein, in his first season, had already upset then-No. 9 Texas A&M on the road two weeks earlier. This loss looked more like a missed chance than a simple loss to a ranked team.
On September 19, South Carolina led Mississippi State 16-0 and still lost 41-34. In 2025, the Gamecocks held a 30-3 halftime lead against Texas A&M and fell 31-30. Finebaum’s point makes sense when the same script keeps repeating.
Game management added to the frustration. South Carolina failed on both fourth-down tries. Beamer later said he preferred not to kick a field goal that would have made it a six-point game because a touchdown would still beat them. In SEC play this season, the Gamecocks have committed six turnovers and forced only one.
The result in 2026 explains why the criticism is this high. Beamer entered the season after a 4-8 year in 2025 that included a 1-7 SEC mark. While his $8 million/year contract runs through 2030, he hasn’t shown anything this season to prove that he’s the right person for the job. Three conference games in, the SEC wins are still missing.
The schedule does not offer an easy reset. South Carolina travels to Florida next, then gets a bye. After that come Tennessee, a trip to Oklahoma, Texas A&M, a road game at Arkansas, Georgia, and Clemson.