It took more than two extra hours, but the South Carolina football team improved to 2-0 this season following a 38-10 win over the South Carolina State Bulldogs last weekend. 

Lightning and harsh rainfall pushed the 7 p.m. start time to 9:21 p.m. Thousands of Gamecock faithful weathered the storm and stuck around to watch their team play the FCS team from Orangeburg. 

The result was a victory. But like the weather, it was a sloppy, turbulent-filled win with mistakes and penalties galore. 

South Carolina has little time to correct these errors and prepare for their conference opener against Vanderbilt at home this weekend. 

Vicari Swain and the punt return unit can be elite

South Carolina has scored eight touchdowns so far this season. Three of those came from punt returns. All three of those were scored by Vicari Swain. 

The sophomore defensive back followed up his punt return touchdown against Virginia Tech last game with two punt return touchdowns against South Carolina State. 

“He’s just playing with a lot of confidence,” Beamer said. 

Swain’s first return went for 65 yards. He caught the ball on the South Carolina 25, spun out of one tackle, avoided another and sprinted toward the endzone with a wall of garnet jerseys in between him and the defense. 

The second return was even more chaotic. 

The Gamecocks got a hand on a South Carolina State punt and the ball bounced in front of Swain. He scooped it off the ground, shook off one tackler and took off with the same wall of garnet that he saw on the punt before. 

“There’s a rule called no consequence, so if it hits off the opponent and they don’t pick it up. I can do whatever. If I fumble, whatever, it’s still going to be our ball,” Swain said. “Used my situational awareness to pick it up and score.”

While Swain will rightfully get most of the attention and praise for his touchdowns, it’s important to note the excellent downfield blocking by the Gamecocks’ return unit. 

Beamer and his staff are confident this group can be special and issued them a challenge that would make them historic. 

“ There's only been one team, I think, in the history of college football that's returned a punt for a touchdown in three straight games,” Beamer said. “That's a weapon. You saw that from my dad for so many years. When you're a threat to block punts and are also a threat to return punts, that puts the punt team in a bind.”

The Gamecocks have a lot of work on offense 

South Carolina’s offense looked near-perfect during its first drive of the season. Since then, it’s looked rough. 

The team was sluggish on offense for the second game in a row and struggled against their inferior FCS opponent. South Carolina State outgained the Gamecocks for the game, 270 yards to 253. 

If you take away the two punt return and defensive touchdowns, the Gamecocks only win 17-10. 

It was a quiet outing for LaNorris Sellers. He finished the game 11-for-19 with 128 yards and one touchdown on a deep ball to Vandrevius Jacobs. 

“I’m not sure if it’s just the competition or just the different looks from seeing our defense to different looks from other teams,” Sellers said. “We just got to communicate better and execute better.” 

The run game again had a problem getting going early. The Gamecocks finished with 125 yards on the ground with Jawarn Howell, Rashul Faison, Oscar Adaway III, Matt Fuller and Sellers splitting 32 of the 36 carries fairly evenly. 

No one has emerged as the team’s true top running back yet. South Carolina will need a balanced offensive attack to succeed in the SEC. 

“There’s a lot to clean up,” Beamer said. “ We can't rely on our defense and special teams to score three touchdowns a game like they did tonight.”

Irmo grad Donovan Murph will have a sizeable role this season

Entering the season, it was unclear how much playing time former Irmo wide receiver Donavan Murph would see in his true freshman season. 

If the first two games are any indication, he will be on the field quite a bit this year. 

Murph did not start week one’s game against Virginia Tech, but he did see the field and even made his first career catch off a 21-yard pass from Sellers. 

He did get the starting nod in game two against South Carolina State, catching two balls for 39 yards. He’s now up to three catches for 60 yards this year. 

Only time will tell how much action Murph sees this season, but so far, he has the trust of his coaching staff and appears to be the most ready of the true freshmen. 

“We’re excited about all of those guys and proud of Donovan,” Beamer said. “He’s wise and mature beyond his years and came in there and did some good things.”