There is just a little over a month left before the 2025 college football season begins.

Coming off an exciting 9-4 season, South Carolina Gamecocks head coach Shane Beamer and players previewed the team's upcoming year. 

“There’s a lot of expectations for 2025, and there should be,” head coach Shane Beamer said. “We're built for years to come and are going to continue to be good at South Carolina. We are not going anywhere. There is a lot of young talent, and there is more coming.” 

Last season was the best for the team since 2017. South Carolina finished the regular season on a six-game win streak and contended for a spot in the college football playoff. 

With plenty of returning talent, the team is facing its highest expectations since the Steve Spurrier era. 

SEC media predicted the team to finish fifth in the conference, behind Texas, Georgia, Alabama and LSU. Before the 2024 season, the team was ranked 13th. 

The team is optimistic it can reach its expectations. There is a slew of returning talent, including the reigning SEC Freshman of the Year, quarterback LaNorris Sellers.

Sellers is prepared to take on a larger leadership role this season. The team has an extremely young wide receiver room and lost multiple starters on the offensive line from last season. 

“I've seen a lot of growth from January to now,” Sellers said. “Everybody has to play. There's not a lot of time for them to grow and adjust, so we’ve got to do it and do it fast.”

Like the team, Sellers is facing sky-high expectations. He was voted Preseason First Team All-SEC and is a projected first-round pick in the 2026 NFL Draft. 

On the defensive side of the ball, the team will have to replace even more starters. Defense has been one of the team’s strong suits since Beamer took over as coach. 

Under the guidance of defensive coordinator Clayton White, the Gamecocks have led the SEC in takeaways since 2021. The team has developed its own prospects, hit in the transfer portal and produced multiple NFL draft picks. 

“Defensively, it's year five with Clayton White as our defensive coordinator. He's done a remarkable job in the four seasons leading our defense,” Beamer said. “We played great defense last season, but we've lost a lot of production, particularly right up the middle of our defense at defensive tackle, linebacker, and safety. But the group we returned is very athletic and really excited about the potential of the next group of guys to make their impact on our defense.” 

While there will be plenty of new faces, the team will still play with the same goals in mind. Their identity will not change. 

“We've got new faces that come in and step into roles from guys that left last year,” Senior defensive back D.Q. Smith said. “The identity stays the same. We want to be that tough team, that tough defense that's really gritty and ready to get down and dirty, whatever. Just being dominant. Dominant, that's the main thing, just dominant.”

South Carolina has a few weeks before it opens its season against Virginia Tech in Atlanta. The team is working on fine-tuning things and getting in a position to succeed in game one. 

The team will face one of the toughest schedules in the nation, featuring conference games against Alabama, LSU, Ole Miss, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Missouri, Vanderbilt, and Kentucky. The Gamecocks also have non-conference games against Virginia Tech, S.C. State, Coastal Carolina, and of course, Clemson. 

While the team did well against many of those same teams last season, Beamer is making sure the team works hard and emphasized that 2025 is a whole new year, and anything can happen. 

“You look back at last season, and there is a lot of momentum going into this season because of what we did last year. There is no question about it,” he said. “But just because it happened last season doesn't mean it just automatically happens this year.”