The South Carolina football team started its 2024 campaign with a win over Old Dominion on Saturday 23-19. 

It wasn’t pretty, but it was a win nonetheless. The Gamecocks had struggles in all three phases of the game and even trailed at one point in the fourth before retaking the lead late. 

“We just had some self-inflicted things tonight in all three phases,” Gamecock head coach Shane Beamer said after the game. “We’ve got to be able to get lined up and execute and things like that. So that starts with me.” 

Despite the struggles, the Gamecocks came away with a win, which Beamer said the team is celebrating. 

“A lot of teams would have found a way to lose that game as ugly as it looked at times,” he said. “Some of the adversity we dealt with and some of the situations we put ourselves in, I thought we responded to.” 

The South Carolina defense put the team in a position to win. Offensively, South Carolina struggled to finish drives and instead had to settle for field goals. The team did score two crucial touchdowns though, both of which were sparked by the effort on defense. 

Old Dominion started with the ball on their own 17. Two plays in the Gamecocks forced a fumble and linebacker Debo Williams scooped the ball out of the air and returned it to the ODU three-yard line. 

“We don't want them to get any yards. We don't want them to get any further than what they might be already,” Williams said. “Just stop them. That's what we're here to do.” 

Three plays into the following Gamecock drive, incoming transfer Raheim “Rocket” Sanders pushed his way into the endzone from a yard out to put South Carolina up 7-0 early. 

The Gamecocks' second touchdown came in the fourth quarter and was the game’s last score. South Carolina trailed by three and the offense was cold, missing a field goal and punting twice on its last three possessions. 

Old Dominion had the ball at their own 10, looking to hold and expand on their slim lead. Instead, the Gamecock defense forced the Monarchs backward and eventually punched the ball out for a second time inside the 10-yard line, setting the offense up with great field position. 

South Carolina capitalized on the free possession, scoring the go-ahead touchdown on a three-yard rush from quarterback LaNorris Sellers. 

The Gamecocks also forced two interceptions in the game to win the turnover battle 4-1. The team sealed the game with an interception by Jalon Kilgore in the final two minutes. From there, the offense took a few knees and the Gamecocks survived a week one scare. 

“It's proven our record around here is stupid good when we win the turnover battle. It's like really good if we just tie the turnover battle,” Beamer said. “To me, the number one statistic in football is turnover margin, and we obviously won that tonight, and it was absolutely huge.” 

The defense wasn’t perfect though. The secondary had a few lapses and the line allowed some long Monarch runs on plays they wish they could have back. The Monarchs scored their only touchdown on a deep ball in the first quarter after their receiver burnt the Gamecock defensive back in coverage. 

"I want us to be better. I don't want them to score any points at all,” Williams said. “I don't want anything. I don't want them to get field goals, touchdowns, none of that. So, we'll continue to get better and we're going to keep improving.” 

True freshman Dylan Stewart and incoming transfer Kyle Kennard had impressive debut games for the team on the defensive line. The two combined for four sacks and seven tackles for loss, making it difficult for the ODU quarterback to sit comfortably in the pocket. Despite this being his first collegiate game, Stewart was not surprised by his performance. 

“I do it in practice,” he said. “Practice how you play.” 

On offense, Sellers got his first start at quarterback. While his passing effort left much to be desired, he showed his dual-threat ability by rushing 22 times for 68 yards and the go-ahead touchdown. 

“We had this game designed to go out there and run the ball,” Sellers said. “Just the way they played defense, it was going to be open. Then, I had a couple of scrambles in there, but. it was part of the game plan.”

Beamer and Sellers want to see improvement in the passing game next game after Sellers finished 10-23 for 114 yards. A few of his balls soared over the heads of his receivers and a few bounced off their hands into the ground. 

“We've got to be able to throw the ball better than what we did tonight, and we will,” Beamer said. “But we've also got to be able to execute when we call passes, and we had some drops, we had some routes that we didn't run quite correctly, we had some protection issues, we had some misreads by the quarterback, we've all got to coach better. There's no question about it.” 

The Gamecocks finished the game with 288 total yards, while the Monarchs finished with 305. South Carolina got the majority of their yardage on the ground, while Old Dominion relied more on passing. 

Sanders finished the game with 88 yards on 24 attempts to go with Sellers’ 68. Juju Mcdowell, Jared Brown and Oscar Adaway III also took handoffs, combining for 37 yards on seven attempts. 

South Carolina will need to improve in all phases of the game before next week’s matchup, which also serves as the conference opener. The Gamecocks will travel to Kentucky for a match against the Wildcats. Kentucky is coming off a 31-0 victory over Southern Mississippi in a game that was called in the third quarter due to weather. 

The Gamecocks and the Wildcats are set to play Saturday, Sept 7 at 3:30 p.m. The game will be broadcast on ABC.