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Shane Beamer’s South Carolina squad has been one of the surprises of the college football season. After losing their starting quarterback and two top receivers, many pegged the Gamecocks as a cellar dweller in the SEC standings.
South Carolina was picked to finish 13th in the 16-team preseason standings. They’ve largely outperformed that projection to this point.
The Gamecocks have finished SEC play at 5-3, with two of those losses coming by a combined five points to Alabama and LSU. While College Football Playoff hopes are slim, the team should play in a notable bowl game, particularly if it can finish strong with a win over archrival Clemson.
Shane Beamer alluded to those preseason projections in his most recent press conference. In doing so, he shaded a former player who transferred for greener pastures.
Wideout Juice Wells left Columbia after two seasons with the Gamecocks. He ended up at Ole Miss, largely due to the offensive firepower returning in Oxford.
Back was Jaxson Dart while South Carolina’s Spencer Rattler was off to the NFL. An unproven LaNorris Sellers was set to take over under center. Wells didn’t want to tie his cart to the first-year starter as he pursued a professional future.
“We had a player that left our program after last season, and one of the reasons he told me that he was leaving, he said, ‘I don’t think we’re going to be very good, and we don’t have a quarterback.’ He told me that,” Beamer said on Tuesday.
“I said, ‘Well, I disagree…’ That player said, ‘I don’t know coach, it ain’t looking too good.'”
Shane Beamer keeps receipts. No one let Juice Wells see this. pic.twitter.com/GlE0uHl39R
— Brad Crawford (@BCrawford247) November 19, 2024
Shane Beamer wouldn’t call the player out by name, but the assumption is that it was, indeed, Juice Wells. Wells led the team in receiving in 2022, helping the Gamecocks win eight games. He balled out in wins over Top 10 rivals Tennessee and Clemson, but injury held him out the majority of the ’23 campaign.
NIL and returning offensive production eventually led him to Ole Miss. Many in Columbia have been critical of Wells since, with Beamer being the most recent.
Two things are true in this scenario. Wells was wrong about the quarterback position at South Carolina. LaNorris Sellers has grown into a star, being named the National Player of the Week following a 350-yard, 5-TD performance against Missouri.
Wells did what he believed was best for him, though, which may or may not pay off come draft time. He’s averaging a career-high 19.1 yards per catch and has nearly matched his touchdown total from those two seasons in Columbia. He also got the head-to-head victory in October.
South Carolina’s lone bad loss this year came to Ole Miss, who blasted the Gamecocks 27-3 in Williams-Brice Stadium. Wells led the team in receiving. That win has helped the Rebels get to 8-2 on the season and firmly into the College Football Playoff discussion.
At this point, it’s probably time for Shane Beamer and Co. to move on after an offseason’s worth of back-and-forth. Both sides seem to be doing just fine. There’s no need to dwell on the past.