"It starts with all of us."
That was the short but simple message from backup Quarterback Robbie Ashford after the 36-33 loss for the Gamecocks. South Carolina fell to the LSU Tigers on Saturday in front of almost 80,000 fans in Williams Brice Stadium and have to now figure out where to go from here."
South Carolina could not have asked for a better start on Saturday as the offense put together a seven play, seventy five yard drive that resulted in six points. It was very evident that the offense wanted to run the football from the very get go as the first drive consisted of four rushing plays and ended with a four yard touchdown run from LaNorris Sellers. The Gamecocks forced two punts defensively before adding three more points from a Alex Herrera twenty-eight yard field goal. On the ensuing LSU drive, Maurice Brown blocked a punt that was picked up by Byrnes High product Buddy Mack and gave the Gamecocks offense great field position at the ten yard line. It only took one play for the Gamecocks to find pay dirt as Rocket Sanders found the end zone to put South Carolina up 17-0. While it looked as if the Gamecocks were untouchable in the first fifteen minutes, LSU responded.
Caden Durham had a breakout game for LSU on Saturday as he finished with ninety-eight yards on eleven carries. His first touchdown was one for twenty six yards that put LSU on the board for the first time in the contest. The Tigers were later able to get a field goal of their own and cut the lead to ten points. It did not take the Gamecocks long to respond.
South Carolina's LaNorris Sellers only needed one play to find the end zone as he ran for a seventy-five yard score to put the Gamecocks up 24-10 with 4:15 to go in the first half. The Tigers responded with a six play drive that ended with Garrett Nussmeier finding Kyren Lacy for a twelve yard touchdown. The two point conversion was no good and the half ended with the Gamecocks leading the Tigers by a score of 24-16.
The third quarter of play only saw one touchdown between the two teams as LSU's Caden Durham found the end zone for the second time and brought LSU within two points. South Carolina only ran six plays in the third quarter compared to LSU's twenty three. In addition, the Gamecocks could only find one yard of total offense in that same quarter while LSU accounted for one hundred and seventy five yards of total offense.
The Tigers of LSU would go on to find the end zone two more times in the fourth quarter putting South Carolina in a position where backup quarterback Robbie Ashford had to make a play. The Gamecocks were only able to muster together nine points in the final quarter. In a half of penalties and mistakes for the Gamecocks, quarterback Robbie Ashford had one big pass called back due to offensive pass interference. The defense for South Carolina also had fourteen points taken off of the scoreboard in the second half. To make matters worse, add in the fact that QB1 LaNorris Sellers also went down with an injury earlier in the game. By the end of the game, all tables had turned that were once in favor of the Gamecocks.
The Tigers put together a nine play drive in the fourth quarter that was the eventual game winning score in Columbia on Saturday. The drive ended with a two yard touchdown run by Josh Williams that put LSU on top by a score of 36-33. The Gamecocks, with a backup quarterback, were left with the football and 1:12 to play.
Robbie Ashford started the drive with a nine yard run to move the ball up to the South Carolina thirty-four yard line. Ashford was then sacked by LSU's Bradyn Swinson for a seven yard loss. With time running low, the quarterback found Vandrevius Jacobs for a thirty-one yard gain to get down to the LSU forty-two yard line. The Gamecocks were able to gain sixteen more yards on the ground to setup a potential game tying field goal for Alex Herrera. With all eyes on the senior kicker, the forty-nine yard field goal missed wide left by all of two feet.
The Gamecocks were unable to deliver the win on their biggest stage in quite some time. Despite the sour finish, Head Coach Shane Beamer was proud of his team competing on a big stage against a quality opponent. "I am proud as heck of our team," Beamer said postgame, "At the end of the day, they made one more play than we did." Beamer also believes that this LSU team will be in the expanded college football playoff when it's all said and done. "Every goal that we have is still in front of us. We went toe to toe with LSU who is a playoff team and fell a little short."
While Shane Beamer knows they came up short, he also acknowledges that there is plenty to work on. "I want to apologize to our fans," said Beamer, "thirteen penalties is too many. We have to be better there and it starts with me. It is disappointing."
South Carolina starts the 2024 season 2-1 and is back in action one more time before their bye week as they host Akron on September 21st at 7:30pm.