A look back, a look ahead

2024 was a year to remember for Gamecock Nation

A new year is always an opportunity to reflect back, to celebrate the good, to flush the bad, and to begin anew. 365 days lay before us like a blank page, waiting for our own unique stories to be written. Write well, friends!

What follows is a brief look back at the year that was for Gamecock Nation, and look ahead at some projects in the works here at South By Southeast.

2024… what a year! Despite the disappointment of a hard-fought 21-17 Citrus Bowl loss to Illinois on New Year’s Eve, the Gamecocks delivered unexpected thrills during a season that will be long remembered. Carolina’s 9-4 record represented a four-game improvement over 2023. Moreover, the Gamecocks earned the respect of pundits across the country, and were a legitimate contender for inclusion in the newly-expanded College Football Playoff. After a stirring six-game win streak to finish the regular season, the Gamecocks landed at #14, just on the outside looking in when the final 12-team playoff bracket was released.

Despite that disappointment, who could have possibly predicted a nine-win season and being in the conversation for the CFP back in August? Or in October, after a 3-3 start? Nobody, with the exception, perhaps, of Shane Beamer and his team.

The Gamecocks found themselves at a crossroads in mid-October, after soul-crushing home losses to LSU (33-36) and Ole Miss (3-27), and a two-point setback at Alabama. A lesser team, no doubt past Gamecock teams, would have muddled through, struggling to reach six wins and a bowl if all went well. Instead, the 2024 Gamecocks rallied to a dominant six-game stretch during which they outscored opponents by an average of 35-15, and defeated four top-25 teams. Highlighting that streak was a 44-20 throttling of #10 Texas A&M in Columbia, and a stirring 17-14 win at #12 Clemson in the annual season-ending grudge match.

Along the way, head coach Shane Beamer achieved the most wins of any head coach in program history during his first four seasons (29), surpassing prior record-holder Steve Spurrier with the Clemson win. Beamer earned SEC Coach of the Year honors from USA Today, and solidified the standing of his program after some concern over a 5-7 finish in 2023.¹

South Carolina earned additional honors with the SEC Defensive Player of the Year, Kyle Kennard, and the Freshman of the Year, Gamecock quarterback LaNorris Sellers. As a redshirt freshman Sellers has already earned legend status among Gamecock fans for his heroics generally, and particularly in the Clemson game, where he scored the go-ahead touchdown in spectacular fashion.

The future looks bright for Gamecock football, with Sellers already earning mention as a 2025 Heisman candidate, and Beamer’s program seemingly on the rise as a top-tier program in the always-rugged SEC.

Heroics on the hardwood, and a baseball renaissance in the making

2024 started in thrilling fashion, with both the men’s and women’s basketball programs making the NCAA tournament, and the women’s team claiming its third national championship in eight years under legendary coach Dawn Staley.

While the success of Staley’s program was no surprise - they have been the most dominant team in women’s basketball for a decade - their undefeated 38-0 run was a spectacular result, particularly in light of losing their entire starting five to graduation from the 2022-23 squad. There are simply no superlatives adequate to describe what Staley has achieved in Columbia during her 16 seasons. She won her third-straight SEC Coach of the Year award (seventh overall), and her program collected its eighth SEC regular-season, and eighth SEC tournament championships in the process.

On the men’s side, second-year Head Coach Lamont Paris’ team was a surprise, delivering a 15-game improvement over Paris’ first season, and achieving the program’s first NCAA tournament bid since Frank Martin’s Final Four squad of 2017. Paris earned SEC Coach of the Year honors for his efforts. Much like Beamer’s football program, the future looks bright for men’s basketball.

In June, Athletics Director Ray Tanner announced the surprise hire of Paul Mainieri to lead the Gamecock baseball program. The 67-year-old Mainieri comes to South Carolina as the active leader in Division I career wins (1,505), with a national championship (LSU, 2009) to his credit, along with five College World Series appearances.

The hire was a surprise of sorts, with Mainieri returning to coaching after three years away from the game. But with the health issues which forced his retirement now resolved, Mainieri is refreshed and eager to revive the program which Tanner himself took to unprecedented heights between 1997 and 2011.

Speaking of Ray Tanner…

I will write more about Ray Tanner’s time at the University of South Carolina in a future column. His impact has been immense, both as head baseball coach, where he won two national championships (2010 & 2011), and for the past 13 years, as athletics director. Tanner’s final day as USC athletics director is today, with newly announced AD Jeremiah Donati taking over duties effective January 2. Tanner, meanwhile, will move to an advisory role within the University.

Ray Tanner leaves a monumental legacy at the University of South Carolina. When the baseball team takes to the diamond in February, they will do so on the newly-christened Ray Tanner Field, an appropriate and long-overdue honor for a man who has had an unprecedented impact on the University for nearly three decades. First pitch is February 14 versus Sacred Heart University at Founders Park.

Looking ahead to some writing projects for 2025

I am eager to continue work on a new book project, designed to be a prequel of sorts to A Gamecock Odyssey. The working title, A Southern Colossus, is the story of Frank McGuire and South Carolina basketball during the ACC years (1964-71), a period that included the building of Carolina Coliseum.

Beyond McGuire and his Gamecocks, the project will delve into the Ward One community, which formerly occupied the land on which the Coliseum now sits. Derisively described as “slums” by The State newspaper and local politicians eager to promote urban renewal projects, Ward One was a bustling African American community of several hundred people who lived and worked and shopped and worshiped on that land. Theirs is an under-told, but no-less-important part of the Civil Rights-era history of Columbia and the University.

I am also excited about an additional book project - a collaborative effort in the earliest stages of conversation covering a memorable era of Gamecock football. More to come on that as it unfolds.

As for South By Southeast, I plan to bring additional stories from all eras of Gamecock athletics with the same predictable irregularity (or irregular predictability?) as always. While my day job and side projects prevent me from committing to a more consistent publishing schedule, I hope you have found value in the stories published here at SxSE.

Unlike most sites on the Substack platform, SxSE will continue to be a free publication until such time that I can commit to a more regular publishing schedule. My ask in return is if you enjoy the site, please share with others who might enjoy it as well.

With that, Happy New Year, friends, Forever to Thee, and Go Cocks!

Wishing you all the very best in 2025.

1. The SEC named Clark Lea of Vanderbilt (7-6) its Coach of the Year, despite Beamer and South Carolina’s dominant 28-7 win in Nashville over the then #24 Commodores