To say the 2025 college football season went the way South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer expected would be a massive mischaracterization.

Entering the season with a hyped up team, momentum from a 9-4 2024 season, and one of the best duel-threat quarterbacks in the nation in LaNorris Sellers, Beamer's team went out to an early 2-0 start but after losing their QB for a chunk of the season due to injury, the wheels fell off in a major way, losing to five-straight ranked opponents on the way to a 4-8 season record.

And yet, in the opinion of Beamer, the best is yet to come, as even if 2025 was rough, it should set the team up well for a major comeback in 2026.

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“Through this, and I hate it for the seniors that don't come back, but I can 1 billion percent promise you this when we have a h*ll of a season in 2026,”  “And what I'm doing this press conference after the Clemson game next year, and we finished the regular season that because of the success that we're gonna have next season. I know we will we're gonna look back at this season and say it sucked when we were going through it, but because of what we went through in ‘25, it led us to what we just did in ‘26. I'm a million percent confident in that.”

While Beamer's suggestion is admirable, as what is a coach to do but inspire those around him, South Carolina has some real questions heading into 2026, most notably regarding Sellers' status, with every premier program in the nation seemingly looking to add the passer in the transfer portal before he goes in the first round of the NFL Draft. If the Gamecocks can keep Sellers, then yeah, maybe they have a chance to shock the SEC in 2026, but if they can't, it's hard to see a world where Beamer is taking a victory lap next November.