It’s been a while since the South Carolina Gamecocks have made noise on a national football scale, but head coach Shane Beamer has steered them in the right direction.
In a newly released list of the Top 100 players in College Football heading into the 2025 season, two Gamecocks were ranked within the Top 10. One of those players could compete to be the top college football player in the nation.
Clark Brooks of On3 considers South Carolina EDGE Dylan Stewart the No. 2 player in the country behind only Ohio State’s Jeremiah Smith. USC quarterback LaNorris Sellers is ranked No. 8.
That bodes incredibly well for the Gamecocks after last season’s 9-4 campaign, because having two of the best players in the country — one on each side of the ball — will help South Carolina make noise in the always stacked SEC.
The Gamecocks last won over 10 games in 2013 when Steve Spurrier was head coach. That stretch saw Spurrier lead the Gamecocks to three 11-2 seasons from 2011 to 2013. Spurrier retired after a 2-4 start midway through the 2015 season. Will Muschamp was brought in as the “guy after the guy” for the Gamecocks, but he went 28-30 (17-22 SEC) in four and a half seasons before being fired after a 2-5 start in 2020.
Beamer has shown great promise at South Carolina and seems to be building something legitimate. Even so, his best record came last season, and he’s 1-2 in bowl games. He is 29-22 in four seasons, though, and he’s done a great job bringing in stars on the recruiting trail like Stewart and Sellers.
Stewart is coming off a freshman campaign that saw him notch 23 tackles (17 solo), 6.5 sacks and three forced fumbles. He’s expected to be even better as a sophomore with another offseason of development under his belt.
Brooks called Stewart “an impact player in every sense of the word,” and added, “Freakish vibes. And, the rising sophomore is just getting started.”
Sellers is coming off a stellar redshirt freshman season, during which he threw for 2,534 yards and 18 touchdowns and rushed for 674 yards and seven touchdowns.
He’s a true dual-threat quarterback who will help USC win big games. Few QBs are blessed with physical tools like his.
“Unlike some of these other aliens of that ilk, he has to date shown to be a prudent, accurate passer that avoids biffs and tossing the ball into harm’s way,” Brooks said of South Carolina‘s young quarterback.
It takes all 11 on both sides of the ball to win games in the SEC, but the Gamecocks have two Top 10 players at high-impact positions that could make them contenders in 2025.
