While you were out and about living your best life during Clemson's bye week, Shane Beamer's South Carolina Gamecocks put forth their best effort in years. South Carolina ran roughshod all over No. 16 Florida in The Swamp, winning 38-19 to effectively take Beamer off the hot seat ... at least for now. South Carolina improving to 3-3 on the season may have built up enough equity to save Beamer's job.
With his buyout being arguably more complicated than Dabo Swinney's, the University of South Carolina must be certain Beamer is not the right guy to lead the Gamecocks going forward. Coming off a huge road win over rival Florida, that only creates more uncertainty. Thus, the chances of him coming back have essentially skyrocketed because of this game. Clemson fans should be worried.
This has everything to do with the competition South Carolina will be facing the rest of the way. The Gamecocks should have ranked games against Tennessee and Georgia, as well as three other SEC games at Oklahoma, home versus at Texas A&M, and at Arkansas before we even get to the Palmetto Bowl. In short, South Carolina will be more battle-tested under Beamer than Clemson had expected.
No more hot-seat talk.
— Brad Crawford (@BCrawford247) October 10, 2026
No more early target lists.
No more wondering about the buyout.
No more speculation on such a weird season.
Shane Beamer will return at South Carolina in 2027.
Soft schedule could come back to haunt Clemson versus South Carolina
There is no way around it. Clemson's soft second-half schedule is both a blessing and a curse for the Tigers. The best team Clemson might face between now and South Carolina would probably be Duke, possibly even Virginia Tech in two weeks if the Hokies get their stuff together after a tough home loss to Pitt. Keep in mind that the road game at Duke will be on a short week right before South Carolina.
While we do not have to worry about Florida State anymore, it is so important for Dabo Swinney's team to treat every game the rest of the way with a crashing sense of urgency. If the Tigers play lackadaisically versus South Carolina, they will lose. To be frank, South Carolina has even less margin for error than the Clemson does the rest of the way. Every game for the Gamecocks is now do-or-die.
The last thing Clemson needs entering the Palmetto Bowl is LaNorris Sellers running around in the backfield and creating havoc with nothing left to lose. Even in Clemson's three wins up to this point this season, there have been varying levels of tightness the Tigers have played with. It was readily apparent against Georgia Southern and North Carolina, but maybe not to the same degree at Cal.
Right now, Clemson would be foolish to treat its arch rival as an afterthought. South Carolina is far from a great team, but it just beat a good team at their place. Florida may be a rival team of theirs, but Beamer is not going down without a fight at South Carolina. His team has enough high-end players to at least make it interesting during the second half of its season. Clemson cannot overlook this team.
While it was not an ACC game, South Carolina clobbering Florida is not what Clemson fans wanted.
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