South Carolina’s defense had a strong outing last week. They looked even better this week, thrashing the Kentucky Wildcats 31-6 to improve to 2-0 and 1-0 atop the SEC.

It was the largest win on the road for the Gamecocks in the Shane Beamer era and the third consecutive over Kentucky. The Wildcats got nothing going on offense, finishing with under 200 total yards, with most of those coming off the run. 

“You talk about gritty, you talk about tough, you talk about competitive, we showed it all today,” Gamecock head coach Shane Beamer said after the game. 

The win follows South Carolina’s scrappy victory over Old Dominion. Beamer called out the doubters who wrote his team off after an ugly win. 

“This week, there was this perception coming out of the old Dominion game, and I get it, it wasn't great. Nobody thought we were going to win four games,” Beamer said. “But I told our team on Tuesday that there was perception and there's reality. And the reality was we got a good football team. Reality is that we played really good defense against Old Dominion last week. Reality is we started three true freshmen on offense last week and a redshirt freshman quarterback and they would continue to get better.” 

South Carolina got better on just about every front, but the most dominant was its performance on defense. The front seven in particular was nightmare fuel for Kentucky, recording 11 tackles for loss and five sacks. 

Kentucky got nothing in the passing game, completing just six passes all game, including none in the second and third quarters. Their starter Brock Vandagriff spent the majority of the game running for his life and never got into a rhythm, finishing the game 3-10 for 30 yards and a pick-six before being benched. 

“I don't think it was nothing special,” defensive tackle T.J. Sanders said. “The way we practiced this week, felt like a lot of guys did pretty good in pass rush one-on-one this week. And a lot of that stuff you see translates to the game really well.” 

True freshman Dylan Stewart had another exceptional performance for the Gamecocks, bulldozing over offensive linemen to pressure the quarterback.

“The fact that teams are going to have to be concerned about Dylan and Kyle (Kennard) and the rest of our edges. Well, great,” Beamer said. “We can be even more disruptive and we don't always have to bring pressure in order to do it.” 

While the defense continued its high-caliber play, the offense made a significant leap from what it displayed in week one.

LaNorris Sellers looked more comfortable in his second career start. He finished 11-15 for 159 yards and two touchdowns, despite missing extended time in the second quarter due to a lower-body injury. 

“I felt a lot more comfortable than last week,” Sellers said. “I just needed to get that game in my system, and once we started rolling, started getting completions, started moving the ball, I feel like we were just going.” 

The Gamecocks are still searching for their No. 1 receiver after four players caught passes against the Wildcats. Jared Brown had four catches for 50 yards, and Mazeo Bennett Jr. and Joshua Simon each caught a touchdown pass.

Raheim “Rocket” Sanders had another strong performance as the team’s lead running back. He took 15 carries for 54 yards and scored a touchdown. His presence allows the Gamecocks to rely on a balanced attack, instead of playing one-dimensional. 

Even with the improved offensive performance, Beamer said the team can still get better. 

“Would I like to run the ball for more than 86 yards and throw it for more than 166? Absolutely,” Beamer said. “But one thing about us is we're going to continue to get better on offense and we're good on special teams. We're going to continue to get better on defense. We play a lot of young guys out there.” 

The win over Kentucky gives South Carolina its first conference win of the season. This marks the first time since 2017 that the Gamecocks have won their conference opener. Being the only SEC game played so far this season, South Carolina also sits atop of the new 16-team league. \

Next week will be a huge test for the team as No. 18 LSU comes to town. College GameDay is also making a return to Columbia for the first time in a decade. The Gamecocks and Tigers are set to kickoff at noon next Saturday. The game will be broadcast on ABC.